UAE

DUBAI, Jul 29 (NNN-WAM) – Etihad Airways, the national airline of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), reported yesterday, a record-breaking core operating profit of 296 million U.S. dollars, for the first half of 2022.

This result was achieved despite a year-on-year increase of almost 60 percent in fuel costs, said a company press release.

Etihad Airways carried a total of 4.02 million passengers from Jan to Jun this year, significantly up from 980,000 in the same period last year, with an average seat load factor of 75 percent, according to the press release.

29 July 2022; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates' embassy in Israel said that it has not pledged to build a stadium in the Arab-Israeli town Kafr Qasem, where 49 Palestinians were massacred by Israeli military in 1956.

27 July 2022; MEMO: An Emirati academic and professor of political science has revealed the result of a recent opinion poll which suggests that a large majority of his fellow UAE citizens, 71 per cent of respondents, oppose normalising relations with Israel and consider it a negative step.

DUBAI, July 25 (Reuters) - Iran will keep the U.N. nuclear watchdog's cameras turned off until a 2015 nuclear deal is restored, the head of the country's Atomic Energy Organization said on Monday, state media reported.

Nuclear chief Mohammad Eslami also said Iran would not agree to address alleged unexplained uranium traces as demanded by the IAEA, adding that the 2015 nuclear deal had cleared Iran of so-called PMD (possible military dimensions) allegations.

DUBAI, July 23 (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday its security forces had arrested a network of agents working for Israel before they were able to carry out sabotage and "terrorist operations", state media reported.

The announcement by Iran's Intelligence Ministry came amid heightening tensions with arch-enemy Israel over Tehran's nuclear programme.

DUBAI, July 17 (Reuters) - Iran is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb but has not decided whether to build one, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told Qatar's al Jazeera TV on Sunday.

Kamal Kharrazi spoke a day after U.S. President Joe Biden ended his four-day trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, vowing to stop Iran from "acquiring a nuclear weapon." 

Kharrazi's comments were a rare suggestion that Iran might have an interest in nuclear weapons, which it has long denied seeking.

16 July 2022; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has detained a US citizen and civil rights attorney who served as the lawyer for the assassinated journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a human rights group has revealed.

July 16 (Reuters) - United Arab Emirates authorities have detained Asim Ghafoor, a U.S. citizen and civil rights attorney who previously served as a lawyer for slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, said U.S.-based rights group DAWN of whose board Ghafoor is a member.

A senior U.S. administration official, when asked on Saturday by reporters about the detention, said the United States was aware, but could not say whether President Joe Biden would raise the issue in planned bilateral talks with the UAE president on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Saudi Arabia.

DUBAI, July 16 (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday it had imposed sanctions on 61 more Americans, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, for backing an Iranian dissident group, as months of talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal are at an impasse.

Others blacklisted by Iran's Foreign Ministry for voicing support for the exiled dissident group Mujahideen-e-Khalq (MEK) included former President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani and former White House national security adviser John Bolton, Iranian state media reported.

14 July 2022; MEMO: Emirates Airline said, on Thursday, it had rejected demands by London's Heathrow Airport to cut capacity despite being threatened with legal action, and that it would continue to operate to schedule, Reuters reports.

Britain's busiest airport this week asked airlines to stop selling tickets for summer flights, capping the number of daily passengers flying from the hub to 100,000 to ease pressure on operations that have resulted in delayed and cancelled flights.