United Arab Emirates

By Dan Nolan in Business on October 19th, 2010
Photo by Reuters

The United Arab Emirates' new crackdown on business with Iran will no doubt draw applause in Washington but alarm in Dubai.

New regulations preventing transactions with Iranian banks means trade between the two nations has all but come to a standstill in recent weeks, according to those affected.

In 2009 total trade was worth an estimated $12bn, making the oil-rich Arab nation Iran's top trading partner.

But the reality is that only one of the seven emirates that make up the UAE federation has been responsible for the bulk of Iranian trade and is thus regarded as Tehran's backdoor to the West – Dubai.

For years, Dubai has been seen by the West as dragging its feet on rigorous enforcement of UN sanctions - an accusation it always denies.

By Nick Clark in Asia, Middle East on March 16th, 2010

 

On the streets of Hong Kong, skinned and dried shark fins are lined up on endless shop shelves. They are still discernibly fin-shaped; that alarming triangle made famous by Steven Spielberg's 1975 horror film Jaws.

 

For the past three decades and more, that image of a shark's fin quickly homing in on its prey has been embedded into the collective psyche. It is something swimmers around the world avoid at all costs.

 

But the threat that sharks may have once posed to the oceans' fish shoals, seal populations and the odd errant human surfer is long gone.

By Clayton Swisher in Middle East on January 30th, 2010
Photo from AFP

Israeli Mossad is already a strong suspect in the recent killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in the United Arab Emirates. The charter member of the al-Qassam Brigades was electrocuted and strangled in his Dubai hotel room, and God knows what happened to him in between. 

Al-Mabhouh's murder evokes a certain sense of deja vu.  Anyone who has read the brilliant work "Kill Khalid:  The Failed Mossad Assassination of Khalid Mishal and the Rise of Hamas" would know exactly what I'm talking about. 

It chronicles how a Mossad hit team posing as Canadian tourists set out on the streets of Amman, Jordan in 1997 to eliminate the Hamas political leader. 

By Abid Ali in Middle East, Business on May 21st, 2009

The United Arab Emirates dropped a bomb shell saying it would no longer participate in the Gulf Cooperation Council’s single currency. It was miffed because it was overlooked as the site for the union’s central bank.

It may have good concerns, GCC institutions are supposed to be spread across the six nations that make up the block. Saudi Arabia, the biggest economy in the region, seems to be the destination of most.

The other nations – Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait – plan to go ahead with the plan. Oman has already dropped out and Kuwait broke ranks to drop its peg to the dollar.

The UAE, the second-largest economy in the region with the world’s fifth-largest oil reserves, is flexing its muscle. Like Qatar these countries no longer see themselves in awe of their bigger neighbour.

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