ABU DHABI (Reuters) – The leader of Bahrain’s main opposition bloc said on Tuesday there was no guarantee that appointing a reformist crown prince to the cabinet would lead to change in the U.S.-allied Gulf Arab state where talks are under way to end two years of violence.

Sheikh Ali Salman, leader of the Shi’ite-led group al-Wefaq, told Reuters he welcomed Crown Prince Salman al-Khalifa’s appointment but that Bahrainis would have to wait to see if the move heralded any real improvements for them.

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – The trial of 94 people accused of plotting to seize power in the United Arab Emirates opened on Monday in the latest move by the Gulf Arab state to address what it says is a security threat from the banned Muslim Brotherhood.

More than 60 people have been detained in a crackdown on Islamists in the past year amid heightened worries among officials about a spillover from Arab unrest elsewhere.

ABU DHABI, Feb 19 (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates (UAE)
is at the forefront of a regional push to build up domestic
defence manufacturing capability to reduce reliance on imports
that come with too many strings attached, analysts say.

Wary of non-Arab adversary Iran in a competition for
regional predominance, and seeing an increased security threat
from Islamist militants, Gulf Arab monarchies have some of the
fastest growing military budgets in the world.

ABU DHABI, Feb 18 (Reuters) – Global demand for drone
aircraft is especially strong in Gulf Arab states worried about
regional instability, industry executives said on Monday, as a
big U.S. manufacturer unveiled the first sale of an unarmed
Predator to the Middle East.

Controversy over the legality of attacks by missile-firing
drones will not dampen the volatile region’s enthusiasm for the
technology, in part because export curbs mean most equipment
sold will be for use only in reconnaissance, experts say.

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Egypt’s armed forces, for decades at the center of power, will avoid involvement in politics but could have a role if things became “complicated”, the chief of staff said on Sunday.

It also expects rival political groups to solve disputes by dialogue, Major General Sedki Sobhi told Reuters

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Etihad Airways is close to taking a stake in Jet Airways, the Abu Dhabi airline said on Monday after reporting a tripling in profits for last year.

Such a deal would support the Indian carrier’s efforts to woo foreign investors to help cope with fierce competition and high costs in the Indian market.

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Etihad Airways is close to taking a stake in India’s Jet Airways the Abu Dhabi airline said on Monday after reporting a tripling in profits for last year.

Such a deal would support the Indian carrier’s efforts to woo foreign investors to help cope with fierce competition and high costs in the Indian market.

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – A Bahraini princess who works as a police officer is on trial for torturing two doctors while they were in detention during political unrest in the Gulf Arab kingdom in 2011, according to a senior official at Bahrain’s Public Prosecutor’s office.

Sheikha Noura bint Ibrahim al-Khalifa is also facing a separate trial for physically assaulting Aayat al-Qormozi, a young female Shi’ite opposition activist, while she was in detention during the same period, Nawaf Hamza, head of the Public Prosecution’s Special Investigation Unit, told Reuters.

ABU DHABI (Reuters) – The United Arab Emirates has shut down the Abu Dhabi office of the RAND Corporation, the American policy research institute, in the latest of several closures of foreign research institutions and think tanks in the Gulf Arab state this year.

The UAE, a major oil exporter and regional business hub, has not seen the unrest that has ousted autocratic Arab rulers elsewhere, but analysts and diplomats say the U.S. ally is anxious to prevent any instability spreading to its turf.

BUCHAREST/BRUSSELS/DUBAI (Reuters) – Two months into anti-government protests in Syria last year, as the military crackdown grew more vicious, the European Union and United States introduced sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad, his security chiefs and members of his family.

The sanctions were designed to freeze property and bank accounts, make it harder to access money and move assets around, and, ultimately, bring about an end to the violence. Eighteen months on, though, the fighting is worse and Brussels and Washington are struggling to make these sanctions bite.