Dubai

DUBAI, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Iran's hardline President Ebrahim Raisi presented his cabinet to parliament for a vote of confidence on Wednesday, appointing a hardline diplomat as foreign minister to oversee negotiations with six powers to try to restore a 2015 nuclear deal.

The cabinet list, published on state media, shows Raisi has chosen Hossein Amirabdolahian as foreign minister and Javad Owji - a former deputy oil minister and managing director of the state-run National Iranian Gas Company - as oil minister.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Some of the foreign contractors who powered the logistics of America’s “forever war” in Afghanistan now find themselves stranded on an unending layover in Dubai without a way to get home.

After nearly two decades, the rapid U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has upended the lives of thousands of private security contractors from some of the world’s poorest countries — not the hired guns but the hired hands who serviced the American war effort.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s oil-producing company, Aramco, announced Sunday a net income of around $47 billion for the first half of the year, double what it earned over the same period last year when the coronavirus grounded travel and pummeled global demand for oil.

This puts Aramco back squarely where it was before the pandemic struck and sunk earnings to $23.3 billion in the first six months of 2020.

Aramco CEO Amin Nasser said the company’s second quarter results “reflect a strong rebound in worldwide energy demand.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Qatar Airways said Thursday it grounded 13 Airbus A350s over what it described as fuselages “degrading at an accelerated rate” in the long-range aircraft, further escalating a monthslong dispute with the European airplane maker over the issue.

DUBAI, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Hardline cleric Ebrahim Raisi will be sworn in as Iran's president on Thursday, with the Islamic Republic's clerical rulers face growing crises at home and abroad.

Iranian television said Raisi, 60, would be inaugurated later on Thursday, two days after winning the formal endorsement of the country's supreme leader to take office following his victory in an election in June.

DUBAI, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Iran is dropping plans for prisoner swaps with the United States due to "breaches" by Washington in efforts to free the detainees, an unnamed Iranian official told the semi-official Nour News agency on Tuesday.

Tehran and President Joe Biden's administration have been communicating on prisoner exchanges aimed at securing the release of Iranians held in U.S. jails and other countries over violations of U.S. sanctions, and of Americans jailed in Iran.

DUBAI, Aug 3 (Reuters) - Iran's hardline incoming president Ebrahim Raisi said on Tuesday he would take steps to lift "tyrannical" sanctions imposed by the United States, after winning the formal endorsement of the country's supreme leader to take office later this week.

Raisi, who is under personal U.S. sanctions over allegations of human rights abuses in his past as a judge, promised to improve the living conditions of Iranians, which have worsened since 2018 when Washington reimposed sanctions on Iran after abandoning a nuclear deal.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Once a protégé of Iran’s supreme leader is sworn in as president this week, hard-liners will control all parts of the Islamic Republic’s civilian government.

Given the brinkmanship over its accelerating nuclear program and the West alleging that Tehran launched a fatal drone attack targeting an oil tanker linked to an Israeli billionaire last week, one might think that had already happened.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel’s prime minister Sunday directly blamed Iran for a drone attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman that killed two people, making a veiled threat to retaliate as Tehran denied being involved in the assault.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. Navy explosive experts believe a “drone strike” targeted an oil tanker that came under attack off the coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea, killing two on board, the American military said Saturday.

The strike Thursday night on the oil tanker Mercer Street marks the first-known fatal attack after years of assaults on commercial shipping in the region linked to tensions with Iran over its tattered nuclear deal. While no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, Israeli officials alleged Tehran launched the drone strike.