Middle East Experience

Over the next 12 months, a plethora of futuristic mega projects are coming online across the Middle East.From billion-dollar entertainment complexes, stadiums, mega-hotels, dining destinations, a mega-museum and the region’s largest aquarium, here’s a look at some of the biggest projects expected to open their doors in 2021.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.UAE: The National AquariumThe region’s largest aquarium will feature 10 aquatic zones spread over 5,000sqm. Part of the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi's (EAD) ground-breaking rehabilitation center, it will feature local marine life and more than 250 species of fish, birds, amphibians, arachnids and reptiles, live underwater shows and a huge walk-through tunnel.The National Aquarium is part of the soon-to-opene mega project Al Qana. Located on Khor Al Maqta, Al Qana will offer tourists visiting Abu Dhabi and local residents, a new dining, entertainment and waterfront destination.Al Qana will also be home to a cinema, VR zone, E-Sports arena and a lifestyle wellness hub. The 8,000 square meter space, known as ‘The Bridge’, will have seven zones dedicated to different forms of health and wellness. Al Qana aims to bring to Abu Dhabi a new community with activities, including running, cycling, group yoga, HIIT, Pilates and more.Saudi Arabia: Diriya GateHeralded as the ‘pearl of Saudi Arabia’, Diriya Gate will help put Saudi Arabia's tourism attractions on the map. Located on the outskirts of Riyadh, Diriya Gate is a $17 billion development built on the site of the UNESCO-listed site of At-Turaif; the sprawling mud-brick capital city founded in the 15th century. It will form several luxury resorts, managed by leading international hotel brands, and include more than 100 dining and entertainment attractions. The first hotel's due to open in late 2021.Egypt: Grand Egyptian MuseumThis summer, the Grand Egyptian Museum will become the largest archaeological venue in the world, hosting more than 100,000 artifacts. King Tut’s entire treasure collection will be on display for the first time. This will sit alongside exhibits covering the thousands of years of Egypt's history, from the pharaonic civilization through to the ancient Greek and Roman periods of Egyptian history, and beyond.The project has been underway for almost 20 years. In 2002, the Egyptian government announced an international competition for the design of the museum complex. In 2003, the winner of the architectural competition announced that the Irish firm, Heneghan Peng Architects secured the contract to turn their ultra-modern concept into the new Grand Egyptian Museum.Construction on the new museum began in 2005, but environmental, financial and political setbacks caused delays. With the project back on track, and is set to open in the middle of this year. When completed, the Grand Egyptian Museum located on the Giza Plateau, next door to the Pyramids, will become another Egyptian crown jewel, become one of the largest, modern, and renowned museums in the world.UAE: Yas BayA $3.2 billion mega project to the south of Abu Dhabi’s Yas Island, Yas Bay will house 15,000 people. Nineteen parks, retail space, leisure and entertainment zones, a waterfront and pier with 37 food and beverage outlets will appeal to residents and visitors.It will also include the new indoor Etihad Arena, and two hotels, including The Hilton Yas Bay.The Yas Creative Hub is a 270,000 square-meter megaproject (about the size of 10 football pitches) will have around 16,000 professionals working there. Set to transform the capital into a global media and entertainment powerhouse the project will feature five towers with more than 600 businesses.UAE: Expo 2020This year, Dubai will showcase the World’s Greatest Show when it becomes the first Arab nation to host the World Expo, and countries from across the globe are signing up to present themselves in specially designed pavilions.Spanning 4.38 square kilometers and in the Dubai South district, close to Al Maktoum International Airport, and within easy reach of Dubai International Airport, the mega-construction project is near completion.Featuring its own metro line, it’s capable of transporting 36,000 passengers per hour.This week, Dubai unveiled the signature pavilion for the Expo: The Terra Pavilion, comprising a towering 130 meter-wide (426 feet) canopy blanketed with thousands of solar panels, is part of the sheikhdom’s push to rally enthusiasm for the high-stakes expo amid the pandemic that has pummeled its economy.The global pandemic forced the Expo’s postponement, but expects to attract 25 million visitors and a flurry of business deals. The event represents a $7 billion gamble by the city to boost international tourism and investment.Bahrain: Bahrain International Airport Set to open this month Bahrain International Airport’s new $1.1 billion terminal, it boosts capacity to 14 million passengers per year. According to the Bahrain News Agency, the Airport Expansion Project is one of the Kingdom’s largest national developments in the sector in the last 20 years.Featuring 104 check-in counters, 36 passport control booths and 24 security screening points the terminal – includes a new passenger terminal building which is reportedly four times the size of the exisiting passenger terminal.Oman: The Beachfront, Jebel Sifah Oman’s major real estate and tourism developer Muriya has said work is ahead of schedule on The Beachfront, the latest development at Jebel Sifah, due for completion by the end of 2021.A 40-minute drive from Muscat, Jebel Sifah is located between the towering peaks of the Al Hajjar Mountains, and features a Harradine-designed golf course. With a modern marina that includes superyacht berthing, a boutique hotel, restaurants and a choice of freehold residential properties, around 90 per cent of the project’s 118 units have already been sold, said the Omani developer.And for the next ten years?GCC countries are planning $1 trillion of megaproject investments, to transform economically and socially, according to a 2020 report by Strategy& Middle East. These include many in Saudi Arabia, including the NEOM project, a city positioned to become a high-tech, next generation global center for innovation, trade and creativity in the Kingdom.THE LINE is part of NEOM, and the latter describes it as a “never-before-seen approach to urbanization.” It is a 170-kilometer (kilometer) belt of re-imagined urban development with multiple, hyper-connected communities, with natural and walkable spaces. A central tenant of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 plan aims to transform the country’s economy for a post-hydrocarbon age.Other Saudi mega developments include the Red Sea Development Project, and Qiddiya, with all aimed to boost the Kingdom’s tourism sector.Read more:Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince reveals project ‘THE LINE’ in futuristic city of NEOMExpo 2020 unveils key pavilion in Dubai as pandemic surgesInside Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea project
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Building from the ground up: Middle East mega projects set to open their doors

The United Arab Emirates reported 3,471 new coronavirus cases on Monday, the highest daily number of infections recorded since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.Read more: UAE lowers age requirement for COVID-19 vaccines to 16The country’s health ministry also recorded 2,990 recoveries and six COVID-19 related deaths on Monday.While coronavirus cases in the country have steadily climbed since the beginning of January, the government has also implemented an aggressive rollout of COVID-19 vaccines.The UAE has the second highest COVID-19 vaccine administration rate in the world, following Israel.Over 1.88 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been distributed in the country of 9.9 million people, including both the Chinese-made Sinopharm vaccine and the American-made Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.The health ministry reported 84,852 COVID-19 vaccine doses distributed on Sunday alone, marking 19.04 doses per 100 people.Taking the vaccine is “every individual’s responsibility to protect their health, families and wider society,” UAE Prime Minister and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum said in a tweet on Tuesday.Vaccination centers have been set up in all of the country’s seven emirates.Dubai announced its seventh Pfizer-BioNTech designated vaccination center last week.UAE residents can register and book vaccination appointments through the Dubai Health Authority (DHA) app or the DHA toll-free number 800 342.Read more:Coronavirus: Doctor in Saudi Arabia leaves hospital after battling virus for 139 daysCoronavirus: Israel exchanges medical data for Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine dosesBusinessman recently arrested by Iran gov’t while ‘fleeing’ is US citizen: Report
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: UAE reports 3,471 coronavirus cases, highest number since start of pandemic

The first Qatar-Egypt flight since the two Arab countries severed relations in 2017 took off from Doha on Monday, making life easier for the thousands of Egyptian residents of the Gulf nation.Egypt in June 2017 joined Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain in cutting ties with Qatar, accusing it of being too close to Iran and of backing extremists, charges Doha denies.The quartet agreed to heal the rift at a Gulf summit on January 5 in Saudi Arabia, after a flurry of diplomatic activity by outgoing US President Donald Trump’s administration.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the app.As many as 300,000 Egyptians call Qatar home, according to statistics, but many were unable to travel home during the crisis.In May 2020, frustrated Egyptians protested outside the compound housing Egypt’s then-empty embassy.Following the demonstration, 18 repatriation flights operated via neutral Oman to comply with Cairo’s ban on direct air traffic.The first commercial flight between Qatar and Egypt in three and a half years, an EgyptAir service to Cairo, took off from windswept Doha airport.A Qatar Airways plane was due to also make the trip to Cairo later Monday.Mustafa Ahmed, 38, an Egyptian technical engineer, said: “We are very happy...”“With direct flights, life will be easier, especially for families and children, avoiding the torment of changing airports and planes and waiting for hours for transit flights,” he told AFP.Read more:GCC Summit in Saudi Arabia: Leaders sign final communique, AlUla declarationSaudi Arabia reopens airspace, borders to Qatar: Kuwait ministerUAE announces reopening of all land, sea, air borders with QatarEgyptians in Qatar work in a number of sectors including education, healthcare and engineering.Thousands of Qatar’s majority-expatriate workforce, however, have lost their jobs as a result of a downturn caused by the coronavirus epidemic.A first flight between the UAE and Qatar since the inter-Arab row that severed transportation links was also due Monday to land in Doha from the emirate of Sharjah.
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: First Qatar-Egypt flight since 2017 takes off from Doha

The Gaza Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, the Gaza municipality and the Iwan Center for Cultural Heritage in Gaza launched an initiative with activists to restore an old school in the old city of Gaza City, with the aim to preserve the enclave’s heritage and raise awareness about the importance of culture among Palestinians.
Source: Al Monitor
Full Article: 800-year-old school in Gaza gets face-lift

The United Arab Emirates has postponed the implementation of a visa-exemption agreement with Israel after Israel required anyone entering from the Gulf state to be quarantined as a COVID-19 precaution, Israeli officials said on Monday.For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.Visa waivers were a centerpiece of a Sept 15 deal formalizing Israeli-UAE relations. According to Israel’s Foreign Ministry, they were meant to have gone into effect by February 13, having been ratified by Abu Dhabi last Wednesday.For all the latest headlines follow our Google News channel online or via the appBut the Israeli ministry said in a statement that its UAE counterpart had “suspended” the waiver agreement until July 1 “given efforts to arrest the spread of the coronavirus”.Citizens of the two countries can obtain visas through their airlines, as tens of thousands have done since the normalization pact.Read more:UAE-Israel relations take off with aviation deal, includes 28 weekly Tel Aviv flightsFirst plane with Israeli tourists lands in UAE after normalization deal‘Welcome to Israel’: First UAE delegation received by Israeli PM Netanyahu at airportMonday’s announcement followed a decision by Israel’s Health Ministry to require that anyone coming from the UAE be taken to a military-run “coronavirus motel” for a quarantine lasting between 10 and 12 days.Israel had previously exempted the UAE from its watchlist of so-called “red” countries. The UAE, with a population of 9 million, has seen a surge in cases this month, with new infections surpassing 3,000 per day for the first time.Israel, whose population is of a similar size, has also been struggling with the pandemic even as it implements the world’s fastest-paced vaccination program. Israel’s Health Ministry has logged more than 5,000 new cases per day this week.
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: UAE-Israel visa exemption deal postponed over coronavirus worries

Lebanon will witness strong wind and heavy rainfall on the coast and snow on mountains, as Beirut airport’s Meteorology Department warned of floods and hazardous roads..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Strong winds and rainfall to persist in Lebanon this week

Tunisian security forces must immediately refrain from using unnecessary and excessive force to disperse protesters who have taken to the streets in the capital and several governorates, against marginalization, police violence, poverty and lack of job opportunities..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Tunisia: Authorities must refrain from using unnecessary and excessive force against protesters

Germany has been trying to help ease tensions between fellow NATO allies Turkey and Greece after the two countries neared the brink of war last summer due to a maritime boundary and energy rights dispute..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Germany, Turkey seek better EU-Turkish ties as tensions ease

Lebanon reported its highest daily number of new coronavirus deaths since the outbreak began in December 2019, with the health ministry reporting 53 new COVID-19 related deaths in a 24-hour period on Monday.The total number of confirmed deaths in the country reached 1,959. Authorities also reported 3,144 new coronavirus cases, bringing the cases toll in the small Mediterranean country to 255,956.For more coronavirus news, visit our dedicated page.COVID-19 patients wait on pavements outside hospitals in Beirut, where emergency rooms are packed and intensive care beds full.Inside, exhausted healthcare workers are succumbing themselves - doctors at one hospital, asking not to be named, said around 40 percent of staff were sick or in isolation.Countries worldwide are feeling the strain, but few have had to deal with anything like Lebanon’s crisis, where the pandemic piled in on top of a financial collapse and a huge port blast in August that had already brought the health system to its knees.“It is basically from one catastrophe to another,” said Charaf Abou Charaf, the head of Lebanon’s doctors syndicate.The country has seen daily infection rates soar in the last week to the highest levels in the region - past the 6,000 mark for the first time on Friday.The caretaker government has said it is doing all it can. It has ordered the strictest lockdown yet - a 24-hour curfew until Jan. 25, a move which came too late according to medics who have criticized the response. “NO ONE COULD HELP”Beirut resident Jenny Chami said she spent hours calling up every hospital in the country last week searching for a bed when her 86-year-old grandfather’s oxygen levels plummeted dangerously low.“We called all the civic groups, politicians, even the health minister, no one could help,” she told Reuters.In the end, she took matters into her own hands, got her own oxygen tank and hooked it up to her grandfather lying on a stretcher outside the hospital. One doctor helped out by snaking an extension power cable out into the street.A few days later, Lebanon’s caretaker health minister, Hamad Hassan, tested positive and was rushed straight into a bed at another different medical center.His admission, as dozens of Lebanese struggled to find room in hospitals, fuelled widespread criticism.In response to a question about why he did not isolate at home, a ministry adviser only shared a picture of Hassan signing papers in hospital with a thin tube hooked to his nose, without elaboration.Much of the frustration has focused on the lag in Lebanon’s vaccination drive, on top of the lack of restrictions over the recent holiday season, when nightclubs, Christmas markets and businesses were all allowed to open.As countries in the region roll out shots, Lebanon only signed its final deal for 2.1 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine on Sunday. They are due to start arriving in batches, starting February. VACCINE WAIT“The government did not have the foresight or the will to try to acquire vaccines from different sources early,” said Dr. Youssef Comair, who heads the neurosurgery department at Beirut’s Geitawi hospital.Lebanon has also signed up for 2.73 million doses through COVAX - the global scheme backed by the World Health Organization to provide vaccines to poorer countries - though it has not said yet when they will arrive.Health ministry officials have said they are working as fast as possible to get vaccine supplies to Lebanon.The cabinet serves in a caretaker role since it resigned after the devastating port explosion that killed 200 people and damaged major hospitals in Beirut, further hitting capacity.Hundreds of doctors and nurses have already left the country as the broader economic meltdown caused the currency to crash and fuelled migration.Lebanese Red Cross volunteers, who had spent the past year treating injuries from protests and the huge blast, now carried COVID-19 patients from one hospital to another struggling to find a bed, said 23-year-old first responder Nadim Kahwaji.Calls to the help center recently doubled, most from people having trouble breathing, others said.Charaf Abou Charaf of the doctors syndicate said the situation was bad - 11 doctors have died in the pandemic, 25 are in critical care and 300 are in isolation across Lebanon.But he was hopeful the latest shutdown would alleviate some of the pressure.“This is the only remedy we have at the moment until the vaccine comes.”- with ReutersRead more:Coronavirus: Probe finds China, World Health Org could have acted more quicklyGermany to make it compulsory to sequence coronavirus samplesCoronavirus: US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia receives COVID-19 vaccine in Riyadh
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Lebanon records highest single day COVID-19 deaths, health system about to collapse

The rally website listed the teams as Belgian and American - a possible indicator of official reluctance to publicize an Israeli presence.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Saudi Arabia hosts Israeli racers for Dakar Rally after new inroads