UAE

DUBAI, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates on Saturday said a new criminal code would come into force in January as part of what it called the most sweeping legal reform in the Gulf state's history.

State news agency WAM reported the government is changing 40 laws this year. It did not make clear, however, which of the changes - which concern commercial companies, online security, trade, copyright, residency, narcotics and social issues - were new and which had been previously reported.

25 Nov 2021; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates has offered to operate Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Reuters reported yesterday.

This, the news agency said, was a means through which the UAE was trying to outdo its Gulf rival Qatar in a diplomatic tussle for influence in Afghanistan.

Reuters cited foreign diplomats based in the Gulf saying that the UAE officials have held a series of talks with the Taliban in recent weeks to discuss operating the airport.

25 Nov 2021; MEMO: The UAE's Ahmed Nasser Al Raisi has been appointed president of the international policing agency Interpol for the next four years.

The organisation announced the news in a post on Twitter earlier today.

A major general by rank, Al Raisi currently serves as inspector general of the UAE's Ministry of Interior. He was elected by representatives of the 140 nations that are members of Interpol. He is the first person from the Middle East to assume the position.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian state media on Monday published photographs of the trial investigating the shootdown of a Ukrainian passenger jet in 2020 by the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, trying to tamp down criticism of the largely closed-door proceeding.

21 Nov 2021; MEMO: Human Rights Watch (HRW) has accused the UAE of clamping down on activism and freedom of expression under the guise of counterterrorism.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Israel is set to sign a declaration of intent with neighboring Jordan on building a major solar power plant in the kingdom that will be used to generate electricity for Israel, as well as power a desalination plant there to send water onto Jordan, an Israeli official said Sunday.

DUBAI, Nov 20 (Reuters) - Bahrain's foreign minister, Abdullatif Al Zayani, said on Saturday that Lebanon needs to demonstrate that its powerful Iran-allied Hezbollah movement can change its behaviour to mend a rift with Gulf Arab states.

Lebanon is facing a diplomatic crisis with Gulf states, triggered by a minister's critical comments about the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen that prompted Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Kuwait to expel Lebanon's top diplomats and recall their own envoys. 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — America’s top defense official vowed Saturday to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to counter its “dangerous use” of suicide drones in the wider Mideast, a pledge coming as negotiations remain stalled over Tehran’s tattered atomic deal with world powers.

20 Nov 2021; MEMO: On the final day of the Dubai Air Show, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israeli firms on Thursday signed a deal to cooperate on developing unmanned surface vessels (USVs).

According to The Jerusalem Post, the parties to the deal are Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and EDGE, an Emirati advanced tech company.

DUBAI, Nov 19 (Reuters) - Thousands of farmers and their supporters gathered in the central Iranian city of Isfahan on Friday, state TV reported, in a major protest over water shortages in the drought-stricken region.

"Let Isfahan breathe again, revive Zayandeh Rud," chanted some of the demonstrators in a video posted on social media as crowds gathered in the dry bed of the river where protesting farmers have set up a tent city. "Our children want water to provide food for your children," read a sign carried by a woman.