Gulf and Red Sea Regions

The Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday (30 September) told seven senior UN officials to leave the country within the next 72 hours accusing them of 'meddling in internal affairs. The decision to expel came two days after the UN Humanitarian Chief, Martin Griffiths, warned of a government man-made blockade of aid that would likely lead to a famine.

US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, travelled to Saudi Arabia on Monday (27 September) to and later will travel to the UAE to discuss a range of “regional and global challenges”. With Yemen expected to be a key topic in the discussions, the Yemeni PM travelled back to Yemen.

A delegation visiting Qatar from the European Parliament praised the country for its progress in labour reforms and also for its humanitarian efforts to help Afghan refugees. The MEPs met Prime Minister and Minister of Interior HE Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa bin Abdulaziz Al Thani and a number of other officials and civil society representatives over the last few days. 

Senior diplomats from Iran, Saudi Arabia and the European Union met again this week in New York as efforts continue to defuse tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

"The EU is determined to explore further ways of cooperation with the GCC and its members, both on regional and global issues, including green and digital transition and post-Covid-19 recovery", said a statement issued by the European External Action Service after the meeting.

Kuwait will commence the first steps in a government restructuring plan in which some ministries will be merged while others will be abolished. The restructuring plan will stretch over the next four years and is aimed at changing the role of the government "from an operator to an organiser". 

After the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director admitted that the agency had “a major communication breakdown” with Iran, a meeting resulted in an interim agreement to store monitoring data. The Iranian nuclear talks are expected to resume but the determination of actors to reach a deal is not yet clear.

The Ministerial Council of the GCC countries held its 149th meeting yesterday (16 September) where it discussed progress in GCC relations since AlUla agreement was signed. The Iraqi and Yemeni foreign ministers were also present to meet separately with the Council to discuss economic recovery and relations with GCC.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has announced measures to help diversify its economy away from dependency on hydrocarbons, and to create jobs for Emiratis in new private-sector opportunities. The package includes an investment of AED24 billion to create 75,000 new private-sector jobs. The UAE government is looking to balance between creating incentives for expats to relocate to the UAE and creating employment opportunities for its own population.