The United States restricted trade with five companies on Wednesday that it said help produce and procure drones for use by Russia in Ukraine and by Iran-backed Houthis in Red Sea shipping attacks. The companies from Russia and China were among 11 additions to the Commerce Department’s Entity List, which means suppliers need licenses before...
MPs raise concerns over Alex Aiken’s move to role advising Abu Dhabi’s foreign ministry on communications. The Government’s executive director of communications, who has been involved in sensitive discussions on national security, is to take a job at the United Arab Emirates’s foreign ministry. Alex Aiken, who in recent years has sat in on security...
UAE-backed deal could be disastrous for UK government and freedom of press, opponents say. MPs have attacked the proposed UAE-backed takeover of the Telegraph newspapers, warning that it is impossible to “separate sheikh and state” and calling for further investigations to be launched before the deal “turns into a disaster for the government”. Julia Lopez,...
National security concerns focus on arm of Vodafone that provides sensitive tech to government departments and agencies. Vodafone should be forced to spin off its most sensitive activities in order to quash national security concerns raised by a United Arab Emirates-backed telecoms group swooping on its shares, government officials have told the Guardian. The deputy...
Its government seems eager to exacerbate problems, only then to present itself as a reasonable arbiter. It is a fireman-arsonist. Who in their right mind would support Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, the camel-trading Sudanese general who rose through the ranks during the genocide in Darfur? What kind of government would provide arms to his Rapid Support...
The UK government is leaning toward ordering a probe into RedBird IMI’s proposed Telegraph deal, after the prospect of an Abu Dhabi-backed fund taking control of the British newspaper raised national security concerns among some Conservative lawmakers. Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer said she’s “minded to” issue a so-called Public Interest Intervention Notice. “This relates to concerns I...
US national security officials are scrutinising an Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund’s planned $3bn takeover of New York-based Fortress Investment Group amid concerns in Washington over the United Arab Emirates’ ties to China, people close to the situation told the Financial Times. The review by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, an...
A senior Democratic lawmaker who backed legislation last year asking intelligence agencies to examine and report on the ties between the United Arab Emirates and China says he is alarmed at what he has learned since then. Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Ill., is one of several lawmakers with intelligence access sounding alarms about China’s activity in the...
The fabric of America’s strategic ties to the Gulf region is fraying. The leader of its most consequential nation, Saudi Arabia, has essentially told the Biden administration with regard to oil supply, arms sales or nuclear power, “If you want to work with me fine, but if not, there are others who will.” Less visible but hardly...