Iran’s threat to cut ties with UAE ‘flimsy’, experts say
Source: Gulf News (Read full story)
Analysts have called Iran’s threats to sever diplomatic relations with the UAE “flimsy and lacking respect and value”.
They also warned Tehran not to test UAE’s resolve over the issue of its three occupied islands, as Iran’s foreign ministry reportedly warned it could look at cutting diplomatic ties with the UAE because of a festering dispute over the islands.
Dr Ebtisam Al Katbi, professor of political science at the UAE University, said on Tuesday that Iran will be “the biggest loser of such a move, especially at this time when Tehran severely suffers from sanctions and pressures from the whole world.
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…Iran has repeatedly threatened to block the narrow shipping lanes between Oman and Iran through which over a third of all sea-borne traded oil is shipped each day, as tensions with the West over Teheran’s nuclear plans have intensified.
Oman is now studying whether there is still enough interest from oil producers and traders to merit building a storage complex on the Arabian Sea coast of south-east Oman.
“We have appointed an advisor to carry out a marketing study for the project,” Nasser Al Jashmi, the chairman of the Oman Oil Company (OOC), told Reuters.
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Opposition: Kuwait sliding into ‘autocratic rule’
Source: Kuwait Times (Read full story)
Opposition groups yesterday issued a new stern warning against what they called a plan by the “political authority” to issue an emergency Amiri decree to change the electoral constituency law despite being affirmed by the constitutional court two weeks ago. In a strong-worded joint statement, almost all the opposition groups charged that Kuwait has entered “a new phase of autocratic rule which does not believe in democracy, popular participation and the state of institutions” after the Cabinet approved a number of draft laws to be issued by HH the Amir through emergency decrees.
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