US curbs AI chip exports from Nvidia to some Middle East countries

The logo of NVIDIA as seen at its corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, California, in May of 2022. (Courtesy of NVIDIA/Handout via REUTERS)
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Updated 31 August 2023
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US curbs AI chip exports from Nvidia to some Middle East countries

  • The US had earlier restricted exports of Nvidia's AI chips to China, citing national security reasons
  • Nvidia did not specify which countries in the Middle East were affected

The US expanded the restriction of exports of sophisticated Nvidia artificial-intelligence chips beyond China to other regions including some countries in the Middle East, the company said in a regulatory filing this week.

US officials usually impose export controls for national security reasons. A similar move announced last year signaled an escalation of the US crackdown on China’s technological capabilities, but it was not immediately clear what risks were posed by exports to the Middle East.
The company said the curbs, which affect its A100 and H100 chips designed to speed up machine-learning tasks, would not have an “immediate material impact” on its results.
In a separate statement, Nvidia said the new licensing requirement “doesn’t affect a meaningful portion of our revenue. We are working with the US government to address this matter.”
The US Commerce Department, which normally administers new licensing requirements on exports, did not immediately return a request for comment.
Last September Nvidia rival Advanced Micro Devices also said it had received new license requirements that would halt exports of its MI250 artificial-intelligence chips to China.
Nvidia, AMD and Intel have since then all disclosed plans to create less powerful AI chips that can be exported to the Chinese market.
Nvidia, which gave no reason for the new restrictions in the filing dated Aug. 28, last year said US officials informed them the rule “will address the risk that products may be used in, or diverted to, a ‘military end use’ or ‘military end user’ in China.”
Nvidia this week did not specify which countries in the Middle East were affected. The company derived most of its $13.5 billion in sales in its fiscal quarter ended July 30 from the United States, China and Taiwan. About 13.9 percent of sales came from all other countries combined, and Nvidia does not provide a revenue breakout from the Middle East.
“During the second quarter of fiscal year 2024, the USG (US government) informed us of an additional licensing requirement for a subset of A100 and H100 products destined to certain customers and other regions, including some countries in the Middle East,” Nvidia said in the Aug. 28 filing.
Last year’s announcements came as tensions bubbled over the fate of Taiwan, where chips for Nvidia and almost every other major chip firm are manufactured.
In October 2022, the Biden administration went a step further when it published a sweeping set of export controls, including a measure to cut off China from certain semiconductor chips made anywhere in the world with US equipment. The move vastly expanded Washington’s reach in its bid to slow Beijing’s technological and military advances.
Japan and the Netherlands followed up with similar rules earlier this year.
Without American AI chips from companies like Nvidia and AMD, Chinese organizations will be unable to cost-effectively carry out the kind of advanced computing used for image and speech recognition, among many other tasks.
Image recognition and natural language processing are common in consumer applications like smartphones that can answer queries and tag photos. They also have military uses such as scouring satellite imagery for weapons or bases and filtering digital communications for intelligence-gathering purposes.


Amnesty: US strike on Yemen migrant center may constitute humanitarian ‘violation’

Updated 55 min 41 sec ago
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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.


Syria says foiled attempt to smuggle out 4 million captagon tablets

Updated 19 May 2025
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Syria says foiled attempt to smuggle out 4 million captagon tablets

  • The tablets were seized in the key port city of Latakia — the coastal heartland of deposed president Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority

DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities on Monday announced that they had thwarted an attempt to smuggle out four million tablets of captagon, an amphetamine-like narcotic that has flooded the region.
The interior ministry said in a statement that authorities seized “over four million captagon tablets that were tightly hidden inside industrial equipment designed for manufacturing flour used for human consumption.”
It said they had acted on “accurate information received from our sources about a shipment of drugs hidden inside industrial equipment prepared for smuggling outside the country.”
The tablets were seized in the key port city of Latakia — the coastal heartland of deposed president Bashar Assad’s Alawite minority.
Under Assad’s rule, captagon became Syria’s largest export during the civil war that erupted in 2011 and a key source of illicit funding for his government.
Since Assad’s ouster last December, the new Islamist authorities have discovered millions of captagon pills in warehouses and on military bases.
The interior ministry said those involved in the latest operation have been “arrested, the equipment containing the drugs has been seized, and the arrested individuals have been referred for investigation based on a decision issued by the public prosecution.”
Last week, Syrian authorities announced the seizure of around nine million captagon tablets that were headed for Turkiye, after a month-long operation.
Drug smuggling has persisted in Syria despite the new rulers’ efforts, with neighboring countries occasionally seizing large quantities of captagon.
Iraqi security forces seized more than a ton of captagon smuggled from Syria via Turkiye in March, and Jordan thwarted a smuggling attempt from Syria in April, confiscating “hundreds of thousands” of captagon tablets.


Netanyahu: Israel must avert Gaza famine ‘for diplomacy’ while pressing for full territorial control

Updated 19 May 2025
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Netanyahu: Israel must avert Gaza famine ‘for diplomacy’ while pressing for full territorial control

  • Israel's blockade of Gaza since March 2 came under increasing international pressure to restore aid
  • Netanyahu vows full military control of Gaza as humanitarian crisis deepens and international warnings mount
  • The Israeli military issued an evacuation order for residents of Khan Younis

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday that Israel must prevent famine in Gaza for “diplomatic reasons,” even as he vowed to press ahead with military operations to “take control of all” of the war-torn territory.

His comments came amid mounting international concern over a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza and as Israeli forces launched what they called extensive new ground operations against Hamas.

“The fighting is intense and we are making progress. We will take control of all the territory of the Strip,” Netanyahu said Monday in a video posted to his Telegram channel.

“We will not give up. But in order to succeed, we must act in a way that cannot be stopped.”

‘Prevent Famine for Diplomacy’

Netanyahu also said it was necessary for Israel to prevent a famine in Gaza for “diplomatic reasons,” after his government announced it would allow limited food aid into the territory.

The premier’s defense of the decision to at least partially lift a more than two-month aid blockade followed criticism from far-right members of his coalition who opposed the move.

“We must not let the population (of Gaza) sink into famine, both for practical and diplomatic reasons,” Netanyahu said the Telegram video, adding that even friends of Israel would not tolerate “images of mass starvation.”

Israel has said its blockade since March 2 was aimed at forcing concessions from the Palestinian militant group.

But it came under increasing international pressure to restore aid to Gaza, where UN agencies have warned of critical shortages of food, clean water, fuel and medicines.

The territory was at “critical risk of famine,” with 22 percent of the population facing an imminent humanitarian “catastrophe,” the UN- and NGO-backed Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) said this month.

Neytanyahu on Monday shrugged off criticism of the aid resumption as “natural,” calling the decision “difficult, but necessary.”

Evacuation Order

The Israeli military on Monday issued an evacuation order for residents of Gaza’s second-largest city, Khan Younis, and nearby towns.
Avichay Adraee, a military spokesperson, posted the order on his social medial accounts, saying the entire area “will be considered a dangerous combat zone.”
The evacuation order comes as Israel escalates its war in Gaza with new operations.


Iraqi FM arrives in Tehran to attend regional security forum

Updated 19 May 2025
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Iraqi FM arrives in Tehran to attend regional security forum

  • The Tehran Dialogue Forum aims to discuss ways to enhance joint cooperation

DUBAI: Iraq’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Fuad Hussein arrived in Tehran on Sunday to take part in a forum on regional security, Iraqi state news agency INA reported.

The Tehran Dialogue Forum aims to “discuss ways to enhance regional security and joint cooperation, and exchange views on the political and economic challenges facing the region,” according to the INA report.

Hussein is expected to take part in sessions at the forum, which will host ministers, senior officials, research center leaders, and international experts.

He was received by Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Middle Eastern and Gulf Affairs Mohammad Ali Beyk, alongside other Iranian Foreign Ministry officials and Nasir Abdul Mohsen Abdullah, Iraq’s ambassador to Iran, at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.

“During his visit, the minister will meet with a number of senior officials in the Islamic Republic of Iran to discuss bilateral relations between the two countries and regional and international issues of common interest,” the report added. 


Qatari PM meets Iranian president in Tehran

Updated 19 May 2025
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Qatari PM meets Iranian president in Tehran

  • The two officials discussed enhancing cooperation between their countries, particularly in economy

DUBAI: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian received Sheikh Mohammed Al-Thani, Qatar’s prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, in Tehran on Sunday for high-level talks, Qatar news agency reported. 

The two officials discussed enhancing cooperation between their countries, particularly in economy and trade.

They also reviewed the latest developments in the Gaza Strip and the occupied Palestinian territories, as well as other regional and international issues of mutual concern.