DUBAI: The UAE and Syria have agreed on plans to enhance economic cooperation and explore new sectors.
The Emirates’ economy ministry announced the agreement on Sunday.
The ministry said value of non-oil trade between the two countries in the first half of 2021 was one billion dirhams ($272 million).
It added that the UAE is “Syria’s most prominent global trade partner.”
The announcement came after the UAE’s Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al-Marri met with his Syrian counterpart.
The UAE re-opened its mission to Damascus in late 2018 after closing it due to the Syria conflict.
![]()
UAE and Syria agree to ‘enhance economic cooperation’
Short Url
https://arab.news/bxdmu
UAE and Syria agree to ‘enhance economic cooperation’
- Ministry: UAE is “Syria’s most prominent global trade partner”
Jordanian and Welsh business delegations discuss trade and investment cooperation
- Discussions focus on ways to boost commercial exchanges, promote private-sector collaborations, and expand opportunities for joint ventures in key industries
- A Jordanian-Welsh Business Council was established in 2024 to facilitate cooperation between the nations’ business communities
AMMAN: Representatives of the Jordanian Businessmen Association met a senior government delegation from Wales on Monday to explore ways of strengthening trade and investment ties between the countries.
The delegates included the business association’s secretary-general, Abdul Rahim Baqaei, and officials from the Welsh government’s Middle East and North Africa office, including its deputy director, Phil Taylor, and Sarah Taylor, head of its regional office in Dubai.
The discussions focused on ways to boost commercial exchanges, promote private-sector collaborations, and expand opportunities for joint ventures across key industries, the Jordan News Agency reported, and delegates agreed to identify new areas for economic cooperation.
Baqaei said it was important to maintain regular discussions to help identify sectors with high potential and enhance business engagement. He highlighted in particular the role of the Jordanian-Welsh Business Council, established in 2024 in partnership with the Chamber of Commerce of Wales, in efforts to facilitate cooperation between the nations’ business communities.
He also called for greater collaboration with British universities and companies, stressing the role strategic partnerships can play in accelerating Jordan’s economic development and technological progress. He highlighted recent government incentives designed to attract foreign investment, particularly in the services sector, including tax breaks and streamlined business procedures.
Sarah Taylor reaffirmed the commitment of Welsh authorities to the development of strengthened ties with the private sector in Jordan and increased British investment in the country.
She noted the untapped potential of sectors in which Jordan holds a competitive edge, particularly in the services sector, and said the Welsh government’s regional office stands ready to support bilateral engagement.
Her office will assist the work of the Jordanian Businessmen Association, she added, through the facilitation of direct business-to-business meetings and the provision of market intelligence to help Jordanian companies access opportunities in Wales.
Lebanese and Egyptian presidents discuss regional challenges
- Abdel Fattah El-Sisi underlines Egypt’s support for Lebanon’s sovereignty and stability
- Joseph Aoun says Lebanon is dedicated to maintaining peaceful relations with Syria
LONDON: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun discussed regional challenges and the strengthening of ties with his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah El-Sisi at Al-Ittihadiya Palace in Cairo on Monday.
El-Sisi reaffirmed Egypt’s strong support for Lebanon's sovereignty and stability, condemning ongoing Israeli incursions into southern Lebanon, according to the official National News Agency.
Aoun confirmed Lebanon’s full commitment to UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah. He urged the international community to pressure Israel to withdraw entirely from Lebanese territory it has controlled since September 2024.
The Lebanese president said that Lebanon is dedicated to maintaining peaceful relations with Syria and supporting the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.
El-Sisi emphasized the urgent need for a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of hostages, and the delivery of humanitarian aid, while reaffirming Cairo’s opposition to the displacement of Palestinians.
He called for the recognition of a Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital and condemned ongoing Israeli breaches of Syrian sovereignty.
Both presidents agreed to enhance bilateral cooperation in various sectors. El-Sisi concluded by affirming Egypt’s commitment to assist Lebanon in its reconstruction and economic revitalization, the NNA added.
Five Palestinians killed in Israeli airstrike on school shelter in central Gaza
- 28 Palestinians have been killed due to Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn on Monday
- The school west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza has stopped offering full-time education
LONDON: Five Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike overnight in a school-turned-humanitarian shelter in the central Gaza Strip after Israel launched an extensive military operation to occupy the coastal enclave.
Medical sources reported that at least five people were killed and several others injured, mostly children, in an Israeli airstrike on Al-Hasayna School, which had been converted into a shelter for displaced families.
The school west of the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza has stopped offering full-time education, and it belongs to the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, which was spared from extensive destruction or damage from the war.
According to Wafa news agency, 28 Palestinians have been killed due to Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip since dawn on Monday, including 16 in Khan Yunis.
Since late 2023, the war in Gaza has displaced around 1.9 million Palestinians — about 90 percent of the population — with many facing multiple displacements. According to a UN report, schools have suffered severe damage due to Israeli actions, with 501 out of 564 schools requiring either full reconstruction or significant rehabilitation to be functional again.
In early May, an Israeli airstrike targeted a UN-run school in Al-Bureij, central Gaza, killing at least 30 people who were sheltering there. The facility had accommodated 2,000 displaced individuals.
Sudan’s army chief names former UN official Idris as new premier
- Idris, a career diplomat and past presidential candidate, was the director general of the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization
KHARTOUM: Sudan’s army chief Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan appointed on Monday former UN official Kamil Idris as the country’s new prime minister, more than two years into a brutal war.
Idris, a career diplomat and past presidential candidate, was the director general of the United Nations’ World Intellectual Property Organization and has also served in Sudan’s permanent mission to the UN.
“The chairman of the sovereignty council issued a constitutional decree appointing Kamil El-Tayeb Idris Abdelhafiz as prime minister,” a statement from Sudan’s ruling Transitional Sovereignty Council read.
In 2010, Idris ran in the presidential elections against longtime Islamist-military ruler Omar Al-Bashir.
Since April 2023, the war in Sudan has pitted Burhan’s army forces against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, commanded by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
The conflict has killed tens of thousands, displaced 13 million and created what the United Nations describes as the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.
Idris replaces veteran diplomat Dafallah Al-Hajj Ali, who was appointed by Burhan at the end of April and served less than three weeks as acting prime minister.
Burhan had earlier said that he would form a technocratic wartime government to help “complete what remains of our military objectives, which is liberating Sudan from these rebels.”
In April, the RSF announced it would form a rival government, a few weeks after signing a charter in Kenya with a coalition of military and political allies.
The move has raised international fears that Sudan would be permanently divided between the two sides, both of which have been accused of war atrocities.
The conflict has already carved up Sudan, with the army holding the north, east and center while the RSF dominates nearly all of Darfur and, with its allies, parts of the south.
Amnesty: US strike on Yemen migrant center may constitute humanitarian ‘violation’
- Amnesty International called on the U.S. to investigate a deadly airstrike on a migrant detention center in Yemen that killed 68 African migrants, citing potential violations of international humanitarian law
- The strike, part of the U.S. campaign against the Houthis, targeted a known detention site, prompting Amnesty to demand a transparent and independent inquiry into the civilian deaths
DUBAI: Rights group Amnesty International urged the United States on Monday to investigate possible violations of international law in a deadly strike on a migrant detention facility in Yemen.
Last month’s attack, which prompted international alarm and was part of the US bombardment campaign against the Houthis, killed 68 people held at a center for irregular migrants in Saada, the rebel authorities said at the time.
Agnes Callamard, Amnesty’s secretary-general, said that “the US attacked a well-known detention facility where the Houthis have been detaining migrants.”
The dead were all migrants from African countries, the Houthis had said.
To Callamard, “the major loss of civilian life in this attack raises serious concerns about whether the US complied with its obligations under international humanitarian law.”
“The US must conduct a prompt, independent and transparent investigation into this air strike,” she added.
A US defense official had told AFP in the aftermath of the strike that the military launched “battle-damage assessment and inquiry” into “claims of civilian casualties related to the US strikes in Yemen.”
Amnesty cited people who work with migrants and refugees in Yemen and visited two hospitals that treated the victims, saying that they had seen “more than two dozen Ethiopian migrants” with severe injuries including amputations.
The morgues at both hospitals had run out of space, the witnesses told Amnesty.
In mid-March, the United States began an intense, near-daily military campaign against the Houthis after they had renewed threats to attack vessels in the vital Red Sea and Gulf of Aden shipping lanes.
The campaign ended with a US-Houthi ceasefire agreement earlier this month.
The Houthis, who control large swathes of Yemen, began firing on Israel and Israeli-linked shipping in November 2023, weeks into the Gaza war triggered by an attack by the Yemeni rebels’ Palestinian ally Hamas.
Amnesty said it had analyzed satellite imagery and footage from the site of last month’s strike on Saada, in Yemen’s north.
The group said it was “unable to conclusively identify a legitimate military target” within the targeted prison compound, citing Houthi restrictions on independent investigations.
“Any attack that fails to distinguish between civilians and civilian objects on the one hand, and legitimate military targets on the other, even within the same compound, constitutes an indiscriminate attack and a violation of international humanitarian law,” Amnesty said.
Latest updates
Recommended
© 2025 SAUDI RESEARCH & PUBLISHING COMPANY, All Rights Reserved And subject to Terms of Use Agreement.