Middle East

Riyadh, Oct 19: Saudi Arabia announced a series of royal decrees on Sunday to restructure the Council of Senior Scholars, Shoura Council and Supreme Court. The decrees appointed 20 people to the Council of Senior Scholars, the Kingdom’s highest religious body, which is headed by the Grand Mufti Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Abdullah Al-Sheikh. Another royal decree ordered the restructuring of the Shoura

Cairo, Oct 18: Saudi Arabia allowed its citizens and residents inside the kingdom to perform prayers in one of the most holy religious sites, Al Haram Mosque (Grand Mosque) in Makkah, for the first time in seven months, state television reported early on Sunday. Earlier this month Saudi Arabia allowed citizens and residents to perform the Umrah pilgrimage at holiest sites, Makkah and Madinah

Manama, Oct 18: Israel and Bahrain will officially establish diplomatic relations on Sunday at a ceremony in Manama, an Israeli official said, after the two states reached a US-brokered normalisation deal last month. A visiting delegation from Israel and officials in Bahrain will sign a "joint communique (that) is the establishment of full diplomatic relations," an Israel official in Manama told

Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, met members of the BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha, the organization working on constructing the first Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi, earlier this week. Pavan Kapoor, the Ambassador of India, was also present at the meeting held in Al Alin. During the meet, discussions were held on on global harmony, universal

Dubai, Oct 16: Airlines and travel agents on Thursday said they have been asked to implement new procedures for visit/ tourist visa holders flying into Dubai from five countries, after hundreds of passengers stranded at Dubai International Airport since Tuesday were flown back to their countries. They said as per the latest instructions from the authorities, visit and tourist visa holders from

Dubai, Oct 14: A Dubai-based business group with interests spanning private aviation, jewellery and diamonds announced that it would be making a bid to purchase Israir, Israel's third-largest airline. NY Koen Group, founded by Ukrainian businessman Naum Koen, said in a statement that his group is "excited about the potential purchase of Israir and the opportunities this presents" at the upcoming

Doha, Oct 14: Qatar has extended strict quarantine rules requiring travellers to isolate for up to 14 days upon their arrival in the country, local media reported on Tuesday. “For all arrivals – including nationals, residents and visa holders – quarantine requirements are now extended for all arrival dates up to 31 December 2020,” The Peninsula newspaper reported, quoting the Discover Qatar

Riyadh, Oct 13: The Saudi Ministry of Haj and Umrah announced on Tuesday that it will be permitting some 250,000 domestic pilgrims to perform Umrah in the second phase of the gradual resumption of the pilgrimage at Makkah. The second phase of Umrah will begin on October 18, while the third phase, which allows pilgrims from outside the Kingdom, will begin on November 1, Gulf News reported. It

Jerusalem, Oct 13: Israel’s Cabinet approved a normalization deal with the UAE on Monday and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he and Abu Dhabi’s crown prince had spoken and agreed to meet soon. The US-brokered “treaty of peace” establishing full relations with the Gulf country broke new diplomatic ground in the region, where concern over Iran is high, even as Palestinians condemned the pact

Palestinian prisoner Maher al-Akhras has entered the 78th consecutive day of his open-ended hunger strike against Israel’s so-called policy of administrative detention amid deterioration of his health condition. Qadri Abu Bakr, head of the Commission of Palestinian Detainees and Ex-Detainees, told the Arabic-language Voice of Palestine radio station on Sunday that Akhras’ health condition has