Dan Nolan

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Dan Nolan
Roving Correspondent | Qatar
Biography

Dan Nolan is a roving correspondent based out of Doha, Qatar. He regularly reports from countries around the Gulf region. Dan has also reported extensively from across the Asia-Pacific for Al Jazeera English.

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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 Dan Nolan in Middle East on July 28th, 2010
Photo from Al Jazeera

I've read a lot about the labour camps where the construction workers building Dubai’s dazzling skyline call home but until now, I'd never visited one.

It's virtually impossible to get permission to film inside these camps as they provide images you'll never see on any Dubai tourism brochure.

The only reason we could film the Jose Camp is because the company owner has fled the country leaving 38 workers in a hopeless situation.

You can see their story here:

Still no news as to when they might be given permission to leave or their 10 months of unpaid wages.

The defacto spokesperson for the group is 28-year-old Mohammed Ahktar, a quietly spoken labourer from the Punjab region of Pakistan.

By Dan Nolan in Business on June 17th, 2010
Al Jazeera photo

When property prices rise sharply in a short period of time they call it a bubble. And bubbles eventually burst.

So few could be surprised when the speculation-driven bubble that consumed Dubai’s property industry spectacularly popped in late 2008.

The global financial crisis had forced nervous banks quickly to shut off the free-flowing tap of easy credit that had played such a key role in the bubble's creation.

Many investors had been hooked via the internet with slick online videos - this one was called The Amazing Dubai and was made by a US-based property company flogging real estate.

If it looks too good to be true that’s because it is. At least half the projects shown on there don’t exist and quite a few won’t ever.

Stuff of fantasy

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By Dan Nolan in Middle East on April 12th, 2010
AFP photo
Today is Holocaust Remembrance day. At 10am Israel came to a virtual standstill, sirens wailed across cities, traffic stopped as Jews here and abroad pause to reflect on the worst genocide in history.
 
Adolf Hitler's evil plans started with discrimination against Jews based solely on their religion before moving them through mass deportations to concentration camps before finally seeking to exterminate them.
A total of 6 million Jewish men, women and children died in mankind’s darkest hour.
 
The world, and in particular Israel, rightly continues to remember these horrific events of 60years ago to ensure it never happens again. But there is increasing concern about whether the tragic lessons of the Holocaust were fully learned by Israel itself?
 
By Dan Nolan in Middle East on March 3rd, 2010
[GALLO/GETTY]

Dubai, with its glamour and glitz, is often described as Las Vegas without the gambling.

But the Middle East's answer to "sin city" has a sinister side rarely found in Nevada.

By Dan Nolan in Middle East on February 25th, 2010
Photo from Reuters

Anyone who still thinks Mossad WASN'T responsible for the murky murder mystery playing out in Dubai must be feeling decidedly lonely right now.

Sure the Israeli media still find it hard to believe that Mossad could be "so irresponsible as to dispatch nearly 30 agents and to expose an entire select operational unit on one assassination operation".

But the latest revelations from Dubai Police are pretty hard to ignore. They've now found 22 fraudulent passport-holders loitering around the Al-Bustan Rotana Hotel on the day Hamas commander Mahmoud al-Mabouh was murdered. (They claim the other 4 suspects were only involved in the planning and preparation.)

By Dan Nolan in Business on December 16th, 2009

Oqyana sounds almost like a fantasy land. Check out the movie on its website and you’ll know what I mean. These are the islands of Australia, New Zealand and part of the Pacific in the “The World” development – perhaps the most ambitious of all Dubai’s grand plans.

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Biography

Dan Nolan's picture
Dan Nolan
Roving Correspondent
Dan Nolan is a roving correspondent based out of Doha, Qatar.

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