Dubai

DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates and Egypt have launched a $20 billion investment platform for economic and social projects, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan said on Twitter on Thursday.

Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi began a visit to the UAE on Wednesday.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday rejected as a “trap” reports that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, found traces of uranium at an Iranian site that Israel called a “secret atomic warehouse”.

Two months after Reuters first reported that samples taken at the site had shown traces of uranium, the IAEA on Wednesday told member states at a closed-door briefing that it had found uranium traces at a site in Iran it did not name, but diplomats at the meeting said it was clearly the same place.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran is acknowledging for the first time it has an open case before its Revolutionary Court over the 2007 disappearance of a former FBI agent on an unauthorized CIA mission to the country, renewing questions over what happened to him.

In a filing to the United Nations, Iran said the case over Robert Levinson was “on going,” without elaborating.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil giant Aramco revealed it will sell up to 0.5% of its shares to individual investors, but in a lengthy document published late Saturday it did not disclose how much of the company will be floated when it goes public on the country’s domestic exchange.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian media reported on Friday that Iran had shot down a drone over its southern port city of Mahshahr, without providing further details.

“Iran’s army has downed an unknown drone in the port city of Mahshahr,” the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

Other Iranian news outlets carried the same report, without elaborating on whether it was a military or civilian drone. Iranian officials were not immediately available for comment.

DUBAI/DHAHRAN, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - Saudi Aramco said it does not expect a recent attack on its oil plants to have a material impact on finances and operations as it launched an initial public offering (IPO) on Sunday by announcing its intent for a domestic flotation.

Aramco CEO Amin Nasser told a news conference after the IPO intent statement was published that the world’s largest oil firm was still the most reliable oil company globally.

Dubai (Reuters) - Iran will not lift its ban on talks with the United States, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Sunday, describing the two countries as implacable foes on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the seizure of the U.S. embassy in Tehran.

“One way to block America’s political infiltration is to ban any talks with America. It means Iran will not yield to America’s pressure,” Khamenei, who is Iran’s top authority, was quoted by state TV as saying.

“Those who believe that negotiations with the enemy will solve our problems are 100% wrong,”

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran’s supreme leader poured scorn on French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday for trying to promote talks between the United States and Iran.

“The French president, who says a meeting will end all the problems between Tehran and America, is either naive or complicit with America,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in remarks reported by state television.

Macron tried to arrange a failed meeting between Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in September.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia formally started its long-anticipated initial public offering of its state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco on Sunday, which will see a sliver of the firm offered on a local stock exchange in hopes of raising billions of dollars for the kingdom.

An announcement from the kingdom’s Capital Market Authority serves as a starting gun for an IPO promised by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman since 2016.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran signed a preliminary agreement with Syria on Saturday to help rebuild the Arab ally’s electricity grid, Iranian state media reported, as Tehran seeks a deepening economic role after years of the Syrian conflict.

A memorandum of understanding signed by the two countries’ electricity ministers in Tehran covered the construction of power plants, transmission lines, cutting losses in Syria’s electricity network, and the possibility of connecting the two countries’ grids through Iraq, the state news agency IRNA said.