While December 2023 saw the global spotlight on Dubai for the COP28, Abu Dhabi discreetly conducted the second-largest political mass trial in the UAE’s history, known as the “UAE87” in a complete absence of media coverage. On December 7, 2023, the Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal held its first hearing of a new mass trial involving...
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...
The two countries look like allies—but are increasingly regional competitors. The Israel-Hamas war unfolded amid an apparent regional trend of peaceful coexistence. The Middle East’s transformation along these lines has been represented by the seemingly ever-closer alliance between Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, as symbolized by the apparent friendship between their respective de...
January 21, 2024 (OMDURMAN) – Sudanese Sovereign Council member and Army Assistant Commander-in-Chief Yasir Al-Atta announced on Sunday that the government would file a complaint with regional organizations and escalate it to the UN Security Council against the UAE for its involvement in exacerbating the armed conflict in Sudan. A recent report by a UN...
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has funded politically-motivated assassinations in Yemen, a BBC investigation has found, exacerbating a conflict involving the Yemeni government and warring factions which has recently returned to the international spotlight following attacks on ships in the Red Sea. Counter-terrorism training provided by American mercenaries to Emirati officers in Yemen has been...
Two men from London have become the fifteenth and sixteenth members of a £100m+ money laundering network to be convicted, following a major National Crime Agency investigation into cash smuggling from the UK to the UAE. Guilty verdicts were returned yesterday (11 January) on Ali Al-Nawab, 40, from Golders Green, London, and Mehdi Amrollahbibiyouki, 41,...
United Arab Emirates: UN experts alarmed by new charges brought against civil society in UAE87 trial. UN experts* today expressed grave concern that the trial in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) of 84 members of civil society on spurious terrorism charges could result in the death penalty or lengthy prison sentences for acts allegedly committed...
Dubai’s property boom in the years following the Covid-19 pandemic has been one of the fastest in the world, fueled by investor-friendly reforms and a surge in expat demand, particularly from Russia in the wake of the start of Moscow’s full-scale war with Ukraine. Some of Dubai’s luxury developments cater specifically to Russian buyers, with...
Since Nov. 2023, tensions between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF)—commanded by Gen. Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan—and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have risen. On Nov. 27, Lt. Gen. Yasser Al-Atta, the assistant commander-in-chief of the SAF, criticized the UAE for behaving like a “mafia state” in a speech at a military headquarters. Less than two weeks later, authorities in...
Just weeks after COP28, ADNOC’s oil and gas expansion plans “gain momentum”. Just weeks after the COP28 climate talks finished, it is business as usual for the host country, the United Arab Emirates, in expanding its oil and gas production. The climate talks were widely criticised when it was announced that Sultan Al Jaber, the...