News related to
Ardi

Afghanistan at the cross roads

Port Fund challenges Kuwait official’s claim

|By Arabian Post Staff|The Port Fund called on the general manager of the Kuwait Port Authority (KPA), Sheik Yousef Al-Abdullah, to correct misstatements he made in a CNBC Arabia interview aired on Tuesday, January 8, 2019 regarding The Port Fund and its efforts to distribute $496 million to its investors and stakeholders.The general manager made inaccurate statements that conflict with the official position of the Kuwait Government […]

Saudi Arabia and the West’s right wing: A dubious alliance

By James M. DorseyTraditionally focussed on ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim Islam, Saudi funding in the era of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has been streamlined and finetuned to ensure that it serves his geopolitical ambitions, primarily stymying the expansion of Iranian influence in the Middle East and North Africa and enhancing the kingdom’s global impact.The effort, however, has so far produced a mixed bag. Spending is down but […]

Dubai real estate sees high year-end transaction volume

|By Arabian Post Staff|Dubai Land Department (DLD) recorded an unprecedented growth in the last ten days of 2018, Sultan Butti bin Mejren, Director General of DLD, announced. The-transaction volume during the last ten days of 2018 was worth over AED 19 billion through 2,081 transactions..Bin Mejren added: “This activity affirms the attractiveness of Dubai’s real estate sector, specifically the demand from buyers and investors who are benefitting from […]

UBF recommends Blockchain for bank KYC

|By Arabian Post Staff|The CEOs Advisory Council of the UAE Banks Federation (UBF) reviewed the adoption of Blockchain to enhance know your customer (KYC) processes at banks. Other key topics on the agenda included Emiratization, and digital transformation.AbdulAziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of UAE Banks Federation, said: “As part of our efforts aimed at creating and sustaining a thriving banking ecosystem, we have undertaken a number of initiatives […]

Shifting Middle East sands spotlight diverging US-Saudi interests

|By James M. Dorsey| A series of Gulf and Middle East-related developments suggest that resolving some of the Middle East’s most debilitating and devastating crises while ensuring that efforts to pressure Iran do not perpetuate the mayhem may be easier said than done. They also suggest that the same is true for keeping US and Saudi interests aligned.Optimists garner hope from the fact that the US Senate may censor […]

McAfee Labs 2019 Threats Predictions Report

Khashoggi crisis: Putting Humpty Dumpty back together

 James M. DorseyThe killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and potential Western sanctions against Saudi Arabia has sparked renewed debate about the value of the longstanding alliance between the United States and the kingdom.The debate is not limited to the US or the kingdom, both of which are assessing the reliability of the other even if that is a debate that is waged in Saudi Arabia behind close doors. […]

Qatar banks agree on merger

|By Arabian Post Staff| Barwa Bank and International Bank of Qatar (ibq) have announced that they have signed a final agreement regarding the merger of the two banks to create a leading Sharia compliant financial institution with a solid financial position and robust liquidity to support Qatar’s economic growth and finance development initiatives in line with Qatar National Vision 2030. According to this merger agreement, the two […]

The truth about AI impact on jobs in UAE

Multiple diplomatic spats raise questions about Saudi concept of sovereignty

By James M. DorseyThe failure of Western allies to rally around Canada in its dispute with Saudi Arabia risks luring the kingdom into a false belief that economic sanctions will shield it from, if not reverse mounting criticism of its human rights record and conduct of the war in Yemen. It also risks convincing Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that acting with impunity will not impinge on his […]

China adds security component to Belt and Road Initiative

By James M. DorseyChina appears to be shifting gears in its multi-billion dollar Belt and Road initiative. Long projected as driven by economics and the benefit of infrastructure linkages, China appears to be increasingly adding a security component to the initiative against the backdrop of President Xi Jinping positioning of his country as a superpower rather than a developing nation.The emergence of a security component is not […]

DP World completes acquisition of Indian warehousing company

|By Arabian Post Staff|Hindustan Infralog Private Limited (HIPL), a joint venture between DP World and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), announced closure of the transaction to acquire 90% stake in Continental Warehousing Corporation (Nhava Seva) Ltd.CWCNSL’s founders, the Reddy family, will retain the remaining 10% shareholding and will remain involved in the business operations. It is the first investment of HIPL, the recently created investment […]

Whither Wahabism?

By James M. DorseySaudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman could well dash expectations that he is gunning for a break with Sunni Muslim ultra-conservatism rather than a shaving off of the rough edges of Wahhabi ideology that has been woven into the kingdom’s fabric since its founding more than eighty years ago.Prince Mohammed has fuelled expectations by fostering Islamic scholars who advocate a revision of Wahhabism as […]

Middle Eastern culture wars: The battle of the palates

By James M. DorseyNothing in a swath of land stretching from the Atlantic coast of Africa to China is undisputed.Food is often emblematic of disputes over identity, history and political claims that underlie an arc of crisis wracked by ethnic and religious conflict; clamour for political, economic, social, national and minority rights; efforts by states and ethnic groups to garner soft power or assert hegemony, international branding; […]

Landmark IMF decision to recognise Islamic Banking

|By Saifur Rahman, Executive Editor| The International Monetary Fund (IMF) finally recognised the Islamic banking principles by endorsing a proposal on the use of the Core Principles for Islamic Finance Regulation (CPIFR), according to a statement. This effectively means that the IMF now accepts Islamic financial principles to become a globally accepted system in parallel to the conventional interest-based economy. “The CPIFR will complement the international architecture for financial stability, while […]

What’s next after Trump’s walking out of the Iran deal?

| M A Hossain |United States has walked- out of the Iran deal that had been touted mainly by Barack Obama. Washington’s argument in this latest development is pretty clear. In their opinion, Iran though had stopped its nuclear development program, still was pursuing the ballistic missile development project. Meaning, Tehran did not abandon its nuclear ambition. Most importantly, Iran is seen as a potential threat to […]

Saudi Moroccan soccer spat symbolises Arab world’s new politics

By James M. DorseyA Saudi Moroccan soccer spat speaks volumes about the depth of change in the Arab world.The spat over Saudi Arabia’s refusal to support a Moroccan bid for the hosting rights of the 2026 World Cup tells the tale of the rise of individual country nationalism at the expense of Arab solidarity, Saudi determination to safeguard its alliance with the United States at whatever cost, and creeping […]

Gulf crisis escalates as major corporations are forced to take sides

By James M. DorseyThe Gulf crisis that pits a United Arab Emirates-Saudi-led alliance against Qatar is escalating in discreet but no less worrisome ways that effect major third-party commercial interests and could increase international pressure for a resolution of the dispute.In a major shift away from Saudi and UAE restraint in attempting to force the international community and multi-nationals from taking sides in the 11-month dispute, prominent […]

Islamic militancy: Bangladesh looks to Saudi in twist of irony

By James M. DorseyBangladesh, in a twist of irony, is looking to Saudi Arabia to fund a $ 1 billion plan to build hundreds of mosques and religious centres to counter militant Islam that for much of the past decade traced its roots to ultra-conservative strands of the faith promoted by a multi-billion dollar Saudi campaign.The Bangladeshi plan constitutes the first effort by a Muslim country to enlist the kingdom […]

Saudi canal cuts off Qatar’s nose to spite its face

By James M. DorseyThere’s a cutting-off-the-nose-to-spite-the face aspect to a Saudi plan to turn Qatar into an island by digging a 60-kilometre ocean channel through the two countries’ land border that would accommodate a nuclear waste heap as well as a military base.If implemented, the channel would signal the kingdom’s belief that relations between the world’s only two Wahhabi states will not any time soon return to the projection […]

Iran struggles with environmental crisis

By James M. DorseyIranian leaders are struggling, three months after anti-government protests swept the Islamic republic, to ensure that environmental issues that helped sparked a popular uprising in Syria in 2011 leading to a brutal civil war don’t threaten the clergy’s grip on power.Like Syria, Iran has been confronting a drought that has affected much of the country for more than a decade with precipitation dropping to its lowest level in […]

Saudi moderation: How far will the Crown Prince go?

By James M. DorseyIn his effort to improve Saudi Arabia’s badly tarnished image and project the kingdom as embracing an unidentified form of moderate Islam, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has hinted that he envisions a conservative rather than an ultra-conservative society, but not one in which citizens are fully free to make personal, let alone political choices of their own.Prince Mohammed’s vision, although not spelled […]

DP World’s India JV to acquire Leading Logistics Player

|By Arabian Post Staff|Hindustan Infralog Private Limited (HIPL), a joint venture between DP World and the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), announces the acquisition of a 90% stake in Continental Warehousing Corporation (Nhava Seva) Ltd (CWCNSL), an integrated multimodal logistics player in India. CWCNSL’s founders, the Reddy family, will retain the remaining 10% shareholding and will remain involved in the business operations. The purchase consideration is […]