Dubai

DUBAI, May 9 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia aims to exceed 70 million tourist visits this year after drawing 62 million last year, a tourism official said on Monday, underlining the conservative kingdom concerted push to boost its travel industry.

Saudi Arabia is a major religious destination with millions visiting Islam's two holy cities of Mecca and Medina annually to perform the hajj and umrah pilgrimages.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia’s octogenarian monarch underwent a colonoscopy on Sunday, state-run media reported, just weeks after he had the battery of his pacemaker changed.

The report in the official Saudi Press Agency first said only that King Salman, 86, was admitted to King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Saudi port city of Jiddah for medical tests, without elaborating.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates has purchased a seat on a SpaceX rocket for an Emirati astronaut to journey to the International Space Station for a six-month stay, officials said Friday, the oil-rich federation’s first long-term mission as it advances its ambitions in space.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The world’s economy is forecast to grow around 3.6% this year, but Arab oil exporters are seeing a windfall from high energy prices that will buoy their economies and replenish their financial reserves this year and next, according to a report released Wednesday by the International Monetary Fund.

DUBAI, April 13 (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy said on Wednesday it was establishing a new multinational task force that would target arms smuggling in the waters around Yemen, the latest American military response to Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

The effort follows a series of Houthi missile and drone attacks this year on the two Gulf countries, which have since received additional American military assistance but see the United States as weakening its commitment to the region.

DUBAI, April 10 (Reuters) - Iranian lawmakers have set conditions for the revival of a 2015 nuclear pact, including legal guarantees approved by the U.S. Congress that Washington would not quit it, Iranian state media reported on Sunday.

Iran and the United States have engaged in indirect talks in Vienna over the past year to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and world powers which then-U.S. President Donald Trump left in 2018 and Iran subsequently violated by ramping up its nuclear programme.

DUBAI, April 9 (Reuters) - Iran said on Saturday it had imposed sanctions on 24 more Americans, including former Army Chief of Staff George Casey and former President Donald Trump's attorney Rudy Giuliani, as months of talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal have stalled.

Almost all the people named were officials who served during Trump's administration, which imposed sanctions on Iranian officials, politicians and companies and withdrew the United States from Iran's nuclear agreement with world powers.

DUBAI, April 9 (Reuters) - Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Saturday Tehran would not give up its right to develop its nuclear industry for peaceful purposes, and all parties involved in talks to revive the 2015 nuclear accord should respect this.

Eleven months of indirect talks between Iran and the United States in Vienna have stalled as both sides say political decisions are required by Tehran and Washington to settle the remaining issues. 

DUBAI, April 4 (Reuters) - The United States is responsible for the pause in talks between Tehran and world powers in Vienna aimed at reviving their 2015 nuclear deal, an Iranian foreign ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

"America is responsible for the halt of these talks ... a deal is very much within reach," Saeed Khatibzadeh told a weekly news conference.

"Washington should make political decision for the deal's revival," he said, adding that Tehran would "not wait forever".

DUBAI, Apr 1 (NNN-WAM) – The Expo 2020 Dubai, the first world expo held in the Middle East, closed yesterday, with tens of thousands of visitors attending its official closing ceremony.

The ceremony was held at the iconic dome-structured Al Wasl Plaza, the central stage of the Expo’s site, with the attendance of Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, deputy ruler of Dubai and deputy prime minister and minister of finance of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as well as, other UAE and Expo officials.