On 5 January 2021, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and the rest of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states, along with Egypt, signed the “Al-Ula Declaration” at the 41st GCC Summit held in the city of Al-Ula, paving the way for the re-establishment of political and economic ties with the State of Qatar. This marks the end of a three-year dispute which began on 5 June 2017, and reinforces…
In brief On 29 August 2020, the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) Government’s Emirates New Agency (Wakalat Anba’a al Emarat, or ‘WAM’) publicly announced that H.H. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, issued Federal Decree Law No. 4 of 2020, abolishing Federal Decree Law No. 15 of 1972 Concerning the Arab League Boycott of Israel (the “UAE Israeli Boycott Law”) (the “UAE Israeli Boycott Repeal Law”). The UAE Israeli Boycott Repeal Law…
On 15 July 2020, the U.S. and Gulf Cooperation Council (“GCC”)-led Terrorist Financing Targeting Center (“TFTC”) designated six targets affiliated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (“ISIS”), including an entity allegedly posing as a charity (and its director) based in Afghanistan that allegedly provided support to ISIS’ branch in that country, ISIS-Khorasan (“ISIS-K”). The entities that were designated are: Al Haram ExchangeTawasul CompanyAl-Khalidi ExchangeNejaat Social Welfare Organization Five of these targets (which includes…
On 19 March 2020, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) sanctioned five companies based in the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”), pursuant to Executive Order 13846 (“EO 13846”), for their alleged involvement in purchasing hundreds of thousands of metric tons of petroleum products from the National Iranian Oil Company (“NIOC”) for delivery to the UAE. The following UAE-based companies were added to the US Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List (“SDN List”):…