UAE President, Qatari Amir discuss ties
UAE President, Qatari Amir discuss ties
ABU DHABI: UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan and Qatari Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani discussed Sunday fraternal relations and ways to enhance cooperation and joint action in various fields to achieve the mutual interests of the two countries. Emirates News Agency (WAM) reported that the President of the UAE and the Amir of Qatar also touched on a number of regional and international developments.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump is due to meet the heads of state of six Gulf countries while on a visit to Riyadh later this month, a source close to the Saudi government told AFP on Sunday. Trump's visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from May 13 to 16 will be the first foreign trip of his second term — other than a brief visit to Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis.
'Trump will meet the leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Riyadh', the source said, referring to an alliance comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman. The goal of the meeting is to reinforce 'political and economic cooperation', the source said, requesting anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
Ahead of the visit, the United States on Friday approved a $3.5 billion sale of missiles to Saudi Arabia. Trump has boasted of securing major commercial deals from oil-rich Saudi Arabia, which has also been a key go-between for US diplomacy on Russia and Ukraine. The visit to Riyadh comes after the United States and Iran, located across the Gulf from the GCC countries, had begun indirect negotiations on Tehran's nuclear program.
Trump has warned Iran that he would enforce sanctions while calling for the global boycott of 'any amount' of Iranian oil or petrochemicals, after a round of talks scheduled for this weekend was delayed. The US president, who ripped up an earlier nuclear deal in 2018, has voiced hope at securing a fresh agreement to resolve concerns and stave off the possibility of a Zionist military strike on Iran.
Another policy objective that may be on the horizon for Trump is a long-sought-after deal between Saudi Arabia and the Zionist entity, similar to the Abraham Accords he sealed during his first mandate. Saudi Arabia has, however, insisted it would not consider any such normalization deal without an end to the war in Gaza. – Agencies
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Kuwait Times
19 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
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President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Wednesday banning the citizens of 12 countries from entering the United States, saying the move was needed to protect against "foreign terrorists" and other security threats. The directive is part of an immigration crackdown Trump launched this year at the start of his second term, which has included the deportation to El Salvador of hundreds of Venezuelans suspected of being gang members, as well as efforts to deny enrollments of some foreign students and deport others. The countries affected by the latest travel ban are Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Yemen. The entry of people from seven other countries - Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela - will be partially restricted. "We will not allow people to enter our country who wish to do us harm," Trump said in a video posted on X. He said the list could be revised and new countries could be added. The proclamation is effective on June 9, 2025 at 12:01 a.m. EDT (0401 GMT). Visas issued before that date will not be revoked, the order said. The African Union's Commission expressed concern on Thursday about the potential negative impact of the new travel ban on educational exchanges, commercial engagement and broader diplomatic relations. "The African Union Commission respectfully calls upon the U.S. administration to consider adopting a more consultative approach and to engage in constructive dialogue with the countries concerned," it said in a statement. During his first, 2017-21 term in office, Trump announced a ban on travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations, a policy that went through several iterations before it was upheld by the Supreme Court in 2018. Former President Joe Biden, a Democrat who succeeded Trump, repealed that ban on nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen in 2021, calling it "a stain on our national conscience". Trump said the countries subject to the most severe restrictions were determined to harbor a "large-scale presence of terrorists," fail to cooperate on visa security, have an inability to verify travelers' identities as well as inadequate record-keeping of criminal histories and high rates of visa overstays in the United States. "We cannot have open migration from any country where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen those who seek to enter the United States," Trump said. He cited Sunday's incident in Boulder, Colorado in which a man tossed a gasoline bomb into a crowd of pro-Israel demonstrators as an example of why the new curbs are needed. An Egyptian national, Mohamed Sabry Soliman, has been charged in the attack. 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Kuwait Times
a day ago
- Kuwait Times
Irish, Swiss univs cut Zionist links, Norway, Germany keep ties
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In a letter signed by about 50 non-governmental organizations, Norway's main union LO called on the Labour government to ensure that the fund's investments were in line with the country's legal obligations. The UN special rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories on May 20 urged Oslo to 'fully and unconditionally divest from all entities linked to (the Zionist entity's) unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory'. Francesca Albanese said Norway's fund held $121.5 billion — or 6.9 percent of its total value — in companies 'involved in supporting or enabling egregious violations of international law in the occupied Palestinian territories'. Norwegian Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg said the fund's investments 'do not violate Norway's obligations under international law'. The fund is regulated by a raft of ethical rules and has already divested from 11 companies because of their activities in the occupied West Bank. 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Arab Times
a day ago
- Arab Times
Trump-Musk Feud Threatens Tesla, SpaceX, and Starlink Growth
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Trump and the federal government also stand to lose from a long-running dispute, but not as much as robotaxis The dispute comes just a week before a planned test of Tesla's driverless taxis in Austin, Texas, a major event for the company because sales of its EVs are lagging in many markets, and Musk needs a win. Trump can mess things up for Tesla by encouraging federal safety regulators to step in at any sign of trouble for the robotaxis. Even before the war of words broke out on Thursday, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration requested data on how Musk's driverless, autonomous taxis will perform in low-visibility conditions. That request follows an investigation last year into 2.4 million Teslas equipped with full self-driving software after several accidents, including one that killed a pedestrian. A spokesman for NHTSA said the probe was ongoing and that the agency 'will take any necessary actions to protect road safety.' 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Tesla has a thriving side business selling 'regulatory credits' to other automakers to make up for their shortfalls. Musk has downplayed the importance of the credits business, but the changes would hurt Tesla as it reels from boycotts of its cars tied to Musk's time working for Trump. Credit sales jumped by a third to $595 million in the first three months of the year even as total revenue slumped. Reviving sales Musk's foray into right-wing politics cost Tesla sales among the environmentally minded consumers who embraced electric cars and led to boycotts of Tesla showrooms. If Musk has indeed ended his close association with Trump, those buyers could come back, but that's far from certain. Meanwhile, one analyst speculated earlier this year that Trump voters in so-called red counties could buy Teslas 'in a meaningful way.' But he's now less hopeful. 'There are more questions than answers following Thursday developments,' TD Cowen's Itay Michaeli wrote in his latest report, 'and it's still too early to determine any lasting impacts.' Michaeli's stock target for Tesla earlier this year was $388. He has since lowered it to $330. Tesla was trading Friday at $300. Tesla did not respond to requests for comment. Moonshot mess Trump said Thursday that he could cut government contracts to Musk's rocket company, SpaceX, a massive threat to a company that has received billions of federal dollars. The privately held company that is reportedly worth $350 billion provides launches, sends astronauts into space for NASA and has a contract to send a team from the space agency to the moon next year. But if Musk has a lot to lose, so does the U.S. SpaceX is the only U.S. company capable of transporting crews to and from the space station, using its four-person Dragon capsules. The other alternative is politically dicey: depending wholly on Russia's Soyuz capsules. Musk knew all this when he shot back at Trump that SpaceX would begin decommissioning its Dragon spacecraft. But it is unclear how serious his threat was. Several hours later — in a reply to another X user — he said he wouldn't do it. Starlink impact? A subsidiary of SpaceX, the satellite internet company Starlink, appears to also have benefited from Musk's once-close relationship with the president. Musk announced that Saudi Arabia had approved Starlink for some services during a trip with Trump in the Middle East last month. The company has also won a string of other recent deals in Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and elsewhere as Trump has threatened tariffs. It's not clear how much politics played a role, and how much is pure business. On Friday, The Associated Press confirmed that India had approved a key license to Starlink. At least 40% of India's more than 1.4 billion people have no access to the internet. Ad revival interrupted? Big advertisers that fled X after Musk welcomed all manner of conspiracy theories to the social media platform have started to trickle back in recent months, possibly out of fear of a conservative backlash. Musk has called their decision to leave an 'illegal boycott' and sued them, and the Trump administration recently weighed in with a Federal Trade Commission probe into possible coordination among them. Now advertisers may have to worry about a different danger. If Trump sours on X, 'there's a risk that it could again become politically radioactive for major brands,' said Sarah Kreps, a political scientist at Cornell University. She added, though, that an 'exodus isn't obvious, and it would depend heavily on how the conflict escalates, how long it lasts and how it ends.'
