UAE

21 June 2023; MEMO: Turkiye and China are stronger allies of the Arab world than the US and Russia, say 82 per cent of participants in the 15th annual Arab Youth Survey.

The US exerts the most influence in the Arab world, say 33 per cent of the people asked, but two thirds say they would like the US to be less involved in Middle Eastern affairs.

19 June 2023; MEMO: Qatar and the UAE have announced today that they have resumed full diplomatic relations, with the reopening of their respective embassies. Qatar's Embassy in Abu Dhabi and Consulate in Dubai, as well as the UAE Embassy in Doha have now resumed operations.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Kuwait reached an agreement worth $367 million with Turkish drone giant Baykar to purchase its increasingly sought-after TB2 combat drones, the Kuwaiti army said.

The drone, Bayraktar TB2, boasts unmanned aerial vehicles that can carry lightweight, laser-guided bombs, and fly for up to 27 hours at a time, which, according to the company, was “a record,” it had set while testing the drone in Kuwait in 2019.

The announcement, on Tuesday, would set Kuwait to become the 28th country to procure the TB2 drones.

DUBAI, June 11 (Reuters) - The West could not stop Iran from building nuclear weapons if Tehran wanted a pursue a nuclear arms programme, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday, amid mounting tensions over the country's advanced nuclear work.

"Talks about Tehran's nuclear weapons is a lie and they (the West) know it. We do not want nuclear arms based on our religious believes. Otherwise they would not have been able to stop it," Khamenei said, according to state media.

DUBAI, June 11 (Reuters) - Iran's supreme leader on Sunday said a deal with the West over Tehran's nuclear work was possible if the country's nuclear infrastructure remained intact, amid a stalemate between Tehran and Washington to revive a 2015 nuclear pact.

Months of indirect talks between Tehran and Washington to salvage the nuclear accord with six major powers have stalled since September, with both sides accusing each other of making unreasonable demands.

06 June 2023; MEMO: The number of women choosing to freeze their eggs in the UAE has "significantly" increased following changes to the law, reported Al-Arabiya News.

UAE fertility clinics and in-vitro fertility (IVF) specialists across the country have observed a sudden increase in demand for information about the service and opting to access the treatment.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Voters in Kuwait cast their ballots Tuesday for a third time in as many years, with little hope of ending a prolonged gridlock between the ruling family and assertive lawmakers after the judiciary dissolved the legislature earlier this year.

Kuwait is alone among Gulf Arab countries in having a democratically elected assembly that exerts some checks on the ruling family. But in recent years, the political system has been paralyzed by infighting and unable to enact even basic reforms.

DUBAI, June 1. /TASS/: Iran's accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization will be completed in July, the country’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said on Thursday.

"We will become a full-fledged member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in July, when the next summit of the association is to take place," he said as quoted by the Tasnim news agency saying.

31 May 2023; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates withdrew from a US-led Middle East maritime security coalition two months ago, the Gulf state said early on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

DUBAI, May 31 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday it was no longer taking part in operations by a U.S.-led task force protecting Gulf shipping, which has been subjected to renewed tanker seizures by Iranian naval forces in recent weeks.

The UAE was responding to a Wall Street Journal report on Tuesday which, citing U.S. and Gulf sources, said the Gulf state was frustrated by the lack of U.S. response to recent tanker seizures by Iran.

This was a "mischaracterisation" of conversations between the two countries, a UAE statement said.