Dubai

DUBAI (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates has betrayed the Islamic world and the Palestinians by reaching a deal toward normalising ties with Israel, Iran’s top authority Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a speech on Tuesday.

“Of course, the UAE’s betrayal will not last long, but this stigma will always be remembered. They allowed the Zionist regime to have a foothold in the region and forgot Palestine,” Khamenei said.

“The Emiratis will be disgraced forever for this treachery against the Islamic world, Arab nations and Palestine.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — New labor rules in the energy-rich nation of Qatar “effectively dismantles” the country’s long-criticized “kafala” employment system, a U.N. labor body said Sunday.

The International Labor Organization said as of now, migrant workers can change jobs before the end of their contracts without obtaining the permission of their current employers.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The ruler of the United Arab Emirates issued a decree Saturday formally ending the country’s boycott of Israel amid a U.S.-brokered deal to normalize relations between the two countries.

The announcement now allows trade and commerce between the UAE, home to oil-rich Abu Dhabi and skyscraper-studded Dubai, and Israel, home to a thriving diamond trade, pharmaceutical companies and tech start-ups.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthis in Yemen said it intercepted and destroyed on Friday an explosives-laden drone launched by the Iran-aligned group in the direction of Saudi Arabia, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported.

DUBAI (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met the Sultan of Oman on Thursday as part of a Middle East tour following a U.S.-brokered deal on normalising relations between Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

In a meeting with Sultan Haitham bin Tariq al-Said, Pompeo said on Twitter he discussed “the importance of building regional peace, stability, and prosperity through a united Gulf Cooperation Council”.

Sultan Haitham took power in January after Sultan Qaboos bin Said died after a half century at the helm of the Gulf country.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Talks with the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s chief were constructive, Iran’s top nuclear official Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying on Tuesday, after meeting Rafael Grossi during a visit to seek access for inspectors to two suspected former atomic sites.

Grossi’s trip comes after Washington last week pressed the U.N. Security Council to reimpose sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, from which the United States has withdrawn.

DUBAI (Reuters) - Analysis from the black boxes of a downed Ukrainian passenger plane shows it was hit by two missiles 25 seconds apart and that passengers were still alive for some time after the impact of the first blast, Iran said on Sunday.

The announcement by the head of Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization marks the first official report on the contents of the cockpit voice and data recordings, which were sent to France for reading in July.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Secret talks and quiet ties: That’s what paved the way for last week’s deal between the United Arab Emirates and Israel to normalize relations.

Touted by President Donald Trump as a major Mideast breakthrough, the agreement was in fact the culmination of more than a decade of quiet links rooted in frenzied opposition to Iran that predated Trump and even Barack Obama, as well as Trump’s avowed goal to undo his predecessor’s Mideast legacy.

DUBAI, Aug 18 (NNN-WAM) – The United Arab Emirates’ (UAE’s) Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, said on Monday, the UAE’s peace accord with Israel was a sovereign decision that was not directed at Iran.

“We say this and repeat it,” Gargash wrote on Twitter. “We do not accept interference in our decisions.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Telephone service between the United Arab Emirates and Israel began working Sunday as the two countries open diplomatic ties, part of a deal brokered by the U.S. that required Israel to halt its contentious plan to annex West Bank land sought by the Palestinians for a future state.

Associated Press journalists in Jerusalem and Dubai were able to call each other from both landline and cellular phones registered to Israel’s country code +972 from around 1:15 p.m.