UAE

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation opened an emergency meeting Sunday over the heavy fighting between Israel and the Gaza Strip’s militant Hamas rulers, the first major move among Mideast nations still grappling with how to address the conflict.

(Reuters) --- United Arab Emirates carriers Etihad Airways and flydubai have cancelled flights to Tel Aviv, joining American and European airlines in avoiding Israel due to escalating hostilities there.

Airlines in the UAE, which established diplomatic relations with Israel last year, have only in the past few months launched regular services to Israel.

Abu Dhabi's Etihad has suspended all passenger and cargo services to Tel Aviv from Sunday, it said on its website, citing the conflict.

10 May 2021; MEMO: The United Arab Emirates will bar entry to non-UAE resident travellers from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka starting Wednesday to try to contain the spread of the coronavirus, Reuters reported it announcing today.

The UAE last month banned entry to travellers from India to guard against the spread of the highly contagious Indian variant.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Dubai’s long-haul carrier Emirates will begin shipping aid for free into India to help fight a crushing outbreak of the coronavirus, the airline said Sunday.

The offer by Emirates, which has some 95 flights weekly to nine cities, comes as air freight costs have skyrocketed. That’s as air cargo demand has risen to its highest recorded level ever amid the pandemic, which has seen carriers including Emirates fly cargo in otherwise-empty passenger seats.

06 May 2021; MEMO: The UAE has taken steps to provide relief to expats facing an uncertain future in the Gulf state but only for a select number of wealthy individuals.

(Reuters) --- A British academic, who was detained in the United Arab Emirates two years ago on spying charges, has launched legal action against a number of senior officials from the Gulf state, accusing them of assault, torture and false imprisonment.

Matthew Hedges returned to Britain in November 2018 after more than six months in detention after he was pardoned from a life sentence for espionage. His release came after the UAE had released a video of him purporting to confess to being a member of Britain's MI6 intelligence agency.

29 Apr 2021; MEMO: Dubai International Airport received 5.75 million passengers in the first quarter of 2021, down 67.8 per cent compared to the same period last year due to the spread of the coronavirus, the facility operator, Dubai Airports, announced yesterday.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An American warship fired warning shots when vessels of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard came too close to a patrol in the Persian Gulf, the U.S. Navy said Wednesday.

The Navy released black-and-white footage of the encounter Monday night in international waters of the northern reaches of the Persian Gulf. In it, lights can be seen in the distance and what appears to be a single gunshot can be heard, with a tracer round racing across the top of the water.

Iran did not immediately acknowledge the incident.

27 Apr 2021; MEMO: United Arab Emirates has begun its logistical flights to support the France-led international alliance's efforts in "combating terrorism along the African Sahel region," the Emirates' Ministry of Defence announced yesterday.

"The first flight departed Abu Dhabi in the presence of the ministry's Commander of Joint Operations at Saleh Mohammad Saleh Al-Ameri, and French Ambassador to the UAE, Xavier Chatel," the ministry said in a statement.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A remotely piloted boat packed with explosives targeted the Saudi port of Yanbu in the Red Sea on Tuesday, the kingdom said, with the blast sending black smoke into the sky off the coast.

Saudi Arabia claimed to have intercepted and destroyed the attack boat. However, private security firms suggested commercial traffic near the port may have been hit in the assault.