Middle East Experience

The Likud and other opposition factions have purposely held out in assigning MKs to committees in order to protest the coalition dividing up the committees in a manner the Likud perceives as unfair.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Likud could ban itself from Knesset committees

All the top stories in Qatar today: 🇦🇫 Runaway Ashraf Ghani breaks silence 🆘 Qatar rescuers block suicide attempt 🍃 Qatar 2022 to leave a green legacy ⚽ Sweden cancel Qatar training camp trip..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: The Round Up | 9 September 2021 – Doha News | Qatar

Health Ministry DG says call center will be set up to help those jabbed abroad be released from quarantine • NGO head says ministry’s official asked him to announce new policy, ministry denied policy
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Coronavirus in Israel – Vaccinated tourists and quarantine: The confusion continues

The disease appears to be receding, but it is crucial to avoid complacency, Health Ministry D-G says.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Morbidity rate drops following Rosh Hashanah

Dubai-based make-up artist Arwa Beig says she wanted to help the teachers feel empowered and celebrated..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: UAE: Educators pampered with makeovers, free tickets ahead of Teachers’ Day

Saudi Arabia has administered more than 39 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines as part of efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic, the Ministry of Health said on Friday.For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.Over 587 inoculation centers have been set up across the Kingdom that provide all citizens and residents with coronavirus vaccines, according to the ministry.About 56.5 percent of the population in Saudi Arabia have been vaccinated, data from Reuters showed on Friday.The health ministry on Thursday urged people to take their second dose of a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.“Ministry of Health (MoH) stressed the importance of taking the second dose, pointing out that it is the only way to confront variants, activate the vaccine after the first dose, and raise and achieve the level of immunity of the community,” SPA reported.Flights to UAE resume Dubai carrier Emirates Airline said it will be resuming flights to Saudi Arabia starting from September 11, following the Kingdom’s announcement that it would lift COVID-19 travel restrictions on the United Arab Emirates.“From Saturday, 11 September, Emirates will begin operating 24 weekly flights to Saudi Arabia, including daily flights to the capital Riyadh, daily A380 flights to Jeddah, daily flights to Dammam and three weekly flights to Medina,” Emirates said.“Flights to Riyadh will increase to double daily from 16 September, and plans are underway to boost frequencies across the other gateways by the end of September,” the airline added on its website.Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced it will begin allowing the resumption of flights between the Kingdom and the UAE, Argentine, and South Africa from September 8 after a ban was imposed to curb the coronavirus outbreak.Based on continuous monitoring of the epidemiological situation locally and globally, the Ministry of Interior decided to lift the travel restrictions on land and sea borders, as well as airports.Saudi Arabia had suspended travel to and from the UAE on July 3 for Saudi citizens after the neighboring Gulf country recorded hundreds of cases of the contagious delta variant.Read more:Dubai’s Emirates to resume flights to Saudi Arabia after COVID-19 ban liftedSaudi Arabia to build world’s largest Lego of a Formal One car ahead of F1 eventOrganizing Saudi Arabia Dakar Rally 2022: ‘The toughest challenge in motorsport’
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Saudi Arabia administered over 39 mln COVID-19 vaccine doses so far: Health ministry

British government’s traffic light system for international travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic could be replaced under a shake-up, UK media have reported, citing sources.The BBC has reported that the green and amber categories could be removed and replaced with a new system.For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.A new system would allow vaccinated travelers to go to countries with similarly high levels of vaccination as the UK without the need for quarantine.Sources told BBC the red category, which is for countries which the government says are the highest risk should not be visited, will remain in place.Under current restrictions, red countries should not be visited “except in the most extreme of circumstances” and travelers returning from them must self-isolate for 10 days in a government-approved hotel.The government declined to comment on the plans but said: “Our international travel policy is guided by one overwhelming priority - protecting public health."It is understood that the government has asked senior travel industry leaders to make proposals for international travel to replace the current traffic light system.The government devised the travel traffic light system to limit the transmission of COVID-19 from overseas and protect against new variants - such as the highly-infectious delta strain - coming into the country.The Daily Telegraph first reported that the government was planning to scrap the traffic light system.The third government review of international travel is due by 1 October, but sources say changes could come as soon as next week.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Travel industry leaders want changes to happen as soon as possible. A relaxation in travel rules, they believe, would lead to a bookings surge, which may protect the jobs of those currently on furlough.Read more:UK may ease rules for vaccinated travelers to placate airlines from going to courtEmirates airline welcomes UK’s decision to add UAE to its ‘amber list’ for travel‘A game-changer:’ Expats react to UK putting UAE on COVID-19 amber list
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: UK’s green and amber lists could be replaced in travel rules shake-up: Reports

The United Arab Emirates will allow vaccinated residents with valid visas coming from countries who were on the travel ban list to return starting from September 12, the National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority (NCEMA) announced on Friday.For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.The decision includes passengers coming from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Namibia, Zambia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Liberia, South Africa, Nigeria, and Afghanistan.It also includes residents who stayed abroad for over six months, according to NCEMA.“Those who are fully vaccinated with any WHO-approved vaccines and who have been staying in one of the countries in the suspended list for more than six months since the suspension decision was issued for each country, can come to the country under a new entry permit and rectify their status after entry,” NCEMA said in a statement.The passengers will be required to follow certain procedures to enter the UAE again:1. Apply via the website of the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship (ICA) and complete the vaccination application in order to get the necessary approval. They must present the approved vaccination certificate before their departure to the UAE.2. Provide a negative PCR test result, taken within 48 hours before their departure at an approved lab that has a QR code.3. Take a Rapid PCR test before boarding and another PCR test on the fourth and eight day of arrival while complying with all precautionary measures in place.NCEMA said that children under 16 years old are exempt from these procedures.All other previously announced precautionary measures for unvaccinated people coming from the above-mentioned countries remain in place, NCEMA added.Read more:Dubai’s Emirates to resume flights to Saudi Arabia after COVID-19 ban liftedExpo 2020 Dubai launches passport for visitors to collect global stampsUAE eases COVID-19 restrictions in mosques, places of worship, funerals
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: UAE to lift travel ban on vaccinated residents from India, Pakistan, others

Lebanon’s Prime Minister Najib Mikati and President Michel Aoun signed a decree forming a new government in the presence of parliament speaker Nabih Berri on Friday, the presidency said in a statement.Lebanon had been without a government for over a year as it descended further into economic meltdown.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.The presidency said on Twitter earlier that Mikati would meet Aoun, but without saying if they had reached an agreement on a government.One official source told Reuters a cabinet line-up Mikati would present to Aoun was promising. Political sources said there had been intensive contacts through the night to try to reach an agreement.The failure to agree a cabinet has left Lebanon without any effective government as the country has sunk deeper into a crisis which the World Bank has described as one of the sharpest implosions of modern times.Mikati, a politician-businessman who was designated prime minister in July, has previously said he would seek to re-start negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) once his government was formed.The cabinet formation has been derailed repeatedly by disagreements among political factions over the distribution of cabinet seats.Mikati is the third prime minister-designate to attempt to form the government since the government resigned over a year ago in the aftermath of the Beirut port blast amidst the worsening economic meltdown.Mikati was designated after Saad al-Hariri, a former prime minister, abandoned his efforts.Aoun’s political adversaries have accused him and his political party, the Free Patriotic Movement, of seeking effective veto power in the new government by demanding a third of the seats. Aoun has denied this repeatedly.Read more:Lebanon working to secure World Bank financing for power planUS delegation to Lebanon pushes for government formation, transparent electionLebanon launches cash subsidy cards for 500,000 families
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Lebanon’s PM, President sign decree to form new govt after over a year

It was evident in the meeting in Moscow between Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov that the two countries do not see eye to eye on the Iranian nuclear agreement and Syria.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: In Moscow, Israel’s Lapid warns against Iran nuke, presence in Syria