The kingdom has long been obsessed with football, but interest in playing -- not just watching -- has surged in recent years amid a government push to promote physical activity.

The Gulf ministers review projects aimed at strengthening joint Gulf action in tourism as well as strategic partnerships between the GCC and other countries and stakeholders.

The UAE is a key player in the 13-nation OPEC oil cartel which, with its 10 allies headed by Russia, angered Washington by cutting production by two million barrels a day from November, adding renewed upward pressure on crude prices.

The countdown to the World Cup in Qatar has begun as the first such tournament held on the Arab soil will kick off on Sunday when the host country face Ecuador. The event marks the culmination of Qatar's campaign first to host the tournament and then to build infrastructure worth...

GCC, which has been investing heavily in Asia with an eye on protecting its petrochemicals and oil exports, is engaging in growth industries like fintech and logistics.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates said the world needs to keep investing in oil production, just days before the COP27 climate summit aimed at curbing global warming. Sultan Al Jaber, the head of UAE oil giant ADNOC, warned that under-investment could cause a shock to the world economy.

Despite soaring inflation and murky economic prospects worldwide, the IMF maintained its projection of 5.0 percent growth for the region in 2022, dropping to 3.6 percent in 2023. But the figures, although higher than elsewhere in the world, don't reflect the region's "challenges", Middle East and Central Asia director Jihad...

"Negotiations with the European league began eight months ago, and its goal is to involve a club from Dubai in the prestigious tournament, in addition to hosting some matches in the city," said Al Naboodah, the former president of Dubai's Al-Shabab Al-Ahli football club.

The 2022 Mercer CFA Institute Global Pension Index compares 44 retirement income systems against more than 50 indicators and benchmarks.

BAGHDAD, IRAQ - In drought-hit Iraq, six out of 10 households have had their access to drinking water disrupted and a quarter of farmers have seen crop yields drastically fall this year, said a survey published Monday. Iraq has been battered by three years of drought, low rainfall and reduced...

Beyond oil and gas, Gulf companies have made some strategic investments in sectors with strong potential for growth, including fintech, e-commerce and logistics. For example, in 2020, Saudi fintech startup Tamara established operations in Vietnam, and the UAE's B2B e-commerce provider Distichain set up a base in Singapore.

Nearly 32 percent of respondents to a TRENDS poll saw metaverse as a good investment for GCC businesses, as two biggest economies in the region invest heavily in this sector.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan "will discuss with President Putin the friendly relations between the UAE and Russia along with a number of regional and international issues and developments of common interest," sate news agency WAM said.

At the end of her two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, she hailed the kingdom's strong “economic performance and impressive progress in implementing their Vision 2030 reform agenda, notably the doubling of the share of women in the labor force in just four years”.

In 2017, an international team of researchers set off on an epic voyage across the eastern Mediterranean, through the Suez Canal and around the Gulf. They found that the vast majority of small particles -- which can penetrate deep into the lungs -- came mainly from the production and use...

Scholz, whose two-day trip next weekend will also take him to Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, becomes the latest Western leader to meet with the Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In July, French President Emmanuel Macron held talks with the crown prince in Paris, and US President Joe Biden...

With little investment the UAE, and in particular Dubai, stands to gain if, as expected, supporters opt to stay in the tourism hotspot instead of tiny Gulf neighbor Qatar during the November-December tournament. High accommodation prices in the Qatari capital Doha and Dubai's more permissive environment including a wider availability...

A strong performance is expected this winter when neighboring Qatar hosts football's World Cup. Hotel occupancy was up more than 40 percent in Covid-hit 2021, UAE prime minister and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said after a cabinet meeting.

The year-old program operates numerous unmanned surface vessels, or USVs, in the waters around the Arabian peninsula, gathering data and images to be beamed back to collection centers in the Gulf. The program operated without incident until Iranian forces tried to grab three seven-meter Saildrone Explorer USVs in two incidents,...

Egypt is to establish a licensing framework for digital entertainment platforms like Netflix that will require them to conform to the majority-Muslim country's "social values," the regulatory body said. The announcement late Wednesday comes just days after Saudi Arabia and its Gulf neighbours asked Netflix to drop content that conflicted...

Riyadh--Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Gulf countries on Tuesday accused streaming giant Netflix of broadcasting content that "contradicts Islamic and societal values" and threatened legal action if it was not removed. A statement issued jointly by the Saudi media regulator and the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, headquartered in Riyadh, did not...

The $2.7m loan was financed by "Rasmala" for a vessel.

The US Central Command's 5th Fleet said a support ship from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, the Shahid Baziar, was spotted towing the seven-meter (23-foot) Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel (USV) late Monday.

Despite ease in the measures set to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, electronic payments in the Gulf countries surged more than cash transactions in several other Arab countries.

The move comes as Qatar, which has a population of 2.8 million, tries to accommodate an expected 1.2 million visitors during the November 20-December 18 World Cup, and as Saudi Arabia ramps up efforts to attract tourists.

Qatar on Tuesday announced two major solar projects that will more than double its energy output from the renewable source within two years. Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi hailed the new development as a major step in efforts to "increase the reliance on high-efficiency renewal energy" in the Gulf state,...

GCC countries are accelerating economic integration by activating the financial links between companies, banks, and stores to make life smoother for citizens and residents.

Getting the football hordes around the city and between the eight stadiums promises to be one of the biggest challenges. In the first scrutiny of their years of preparations, organisers mimmicked the schedule for the busiest days of the tournament when about 300,000 fans could be in Doha at the...

GCC countries have witnessed financial surpluses in their budgets for the first time in a long time on the back of increase in oil prices, strengthening their credit ratings.

The opening match is scheduled to be held at the 60,000-capacity Al Bayt stadium, one of seven new venues purpose-built for the tournament since Qatar was awarded the World Cup in 2010.

Diminished leverage in the Gulf region makes Washington a less compelling partner than it once was, says Chas W Freeman, Former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

A futuristic Saudi megacity is to feature two skyscrapers extending across a swathe of desert and mountain terrain, according to the latest disclosures on the project by the kingdom's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The parallel structures of mirror-encased skyscrapers extending over 170 kilometres (more than 100 miles), known collectively...

Saudi oil giant Aramco has built new refineries in Jazan to boost its production capacity to 400,000 barrels a day to compensate for the fuel shortage triggered by curbs against Russia.

75 percent of respondents in Kuwait and 60 percent in Qatar said their country has a shortage of people with specialised skills.

The Gulf region seems to have a better fiscal positions thanks to high oil prices and the recovery of the economies from the Covid-19 related woes.

Google's yearly report of top trending searches reveals the most popular keywords and topics across different categories, such as 'How to' or 'the most searched recipes'.

Although the number of female STEM graduates is high in GCC, this couldn't translate into proportionate increase in workforce, says Christine Harb from Global Brand Council at VISA.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards said Friday they seized another vessel smuggling fuel in the Gulf and arrested its seven crew members, the second such incident in as many weeks. "Naval forces have seized a vessel carrying smuggled fuel in the Persian Gulf," said Gholamhossein Hosseini, a public relations official of the...

The 200 volunteers at work in Baghdad remove garbage from a stretch of one of the mighty rivers that gave birth to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards have seized a foreign boat smuggling fuel in the Gulf and arrested its 11 crew members, a senior justice official said Saturday.

The Dubai Electricity and Water Authority said Wednesday it had raised $6.1 billion for the Gulf's second-largest IPO since 2019. Some nine billion shares will be listed from April 12 on the Dubai stock exchange, with the price set at $0.68.

US Special Envoy for Yemen Tim Lenderking will travel to the Gulf starting March 28 to continue leading U.S. diplomatic efforts to advance a durable resolution to the conflict in Yemen and bring immediate relief to the people of Yemen, US State Department said in a statement. Yemenis deserve a...

The AlUla Festival for Recreation and Relaxation, which is considered the largest festival of relaxation and wellness in the Gulf region and the first of its kind, began on Saturday in the Saudi tourist destination of AlUla. The festival kicked off with the opening of the “Five Senses Sanctuary”, which...

Gulf Arab countries are seeking to host rare talks between Yemen's warring parties, including the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, in Riyadh at the end of the month, officials said on Tuesday. Yemen, the Arab world's poorest country, has been wracked by a devastating war since 2014, pitting the Houthis against the...

However, Gulf countries have an interest in acting in coordination — both within OPEC, and with Russia-led allies in the OPEC+ group — to avoid a price war and keep control over the market.

Central bank action and risks to financial stability must be carefully monitored and managed as loose monetary policy is unwound. A sudden rise could cause a shock to the Gulf economies leading to a recession.

Bahrain has a $90 per barrel breakeven oil price, so the country is moving forward with serious economic diversification plans among which is to become the Fintech hub.

E-commerce in the F&B industry is booming with recent research forecasting it to reach USD71.62 billion by 2028, registering a compound annual growth rate of 17.8 percent. The steep upward trajectory is driven by several key factors, including sweeping consumer shifts towards online shopping for groceries, ready-to-eat food deliveries and...

The Gulf Cooperation Council region witnessed a 40 percent rise in job creation in the last quarter of 2021 compared to the corresponding period of 2020, and hiring activity will continue to strengthen in 2022, said recruitment specialist Cooper Fitch. Job creation across the region was driven primarily by a...

Since connecting with neighbors is of utmost importance in Iran’s foreign policy, the current administration has set a transparent framework for this policy.