Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, speaks to Donald Trump, US president at the time, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office in September 2020. Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, meets Mike Pompeo, US secretary of state at the time. Wam
Sheikh Abdullah and Mr Pompeo in Washington. Wam
Sheikh Abdullah visits Washington in September last year. Wam
Sheikh Abdullah, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, US President Donald Trump, centre, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sign the Abraham Accord at the White House South Lawn. MOFAIC
Sheikh Abdullah and, from left, Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump at the White House. MOFAIC
Sheikh Abdullah, Mr Al Zayani and Mr Netanyahu at the White House during the Abraham Accord signing ceremony. MOFAIC
Sheikh Abdullah and, from left, Mr Netanyahu, Mr Trump and Mr Al Zayani wave from the Truman Balcony at the White House. AFP
Sheikh Abdullah and, from left, Mr Al Zayani, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump sign the Abraham Accord. AFP
Sheikh Abdullah and, from left, Mr Al Zayani, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump after the signing ceremony. AFP
Sheikh Abdullah and, from left, Mr Al Zayani, Mr Netanyahu and Mr Trump after the signing ceremony. AFP
Sheikh Abdullah speaks from the Truman Balcony at the White House during the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accord. AFP
Sheikh Abdullah speaks as Mr Trump looks on before the signing of Abraham Accord on the South Lawn of the White House. AP
Sheikh Abdullah looks on from the White House as Mr Trump speaks at the Abraham Accord signing ceremony, also attended by Mr Al Zayani and Mr Netanyahu. AP
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, and Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani stand on the Blue Room Balcony during the signing ceremony. AP
Sheikh Abdullah and Mr Al Zayani shortly before participating in the signing of the Abraham Accord. AFP
Sheikh Abdullah, with Mr Netanyahu, left, and Mr Al Zayani at the signing of the Abraham Accord on the South Lawn of the White House. AFP
US President Donald Trump speaks from the Truman Balcony at the White House during the signing ceremony of the Abraham Accord. AFP
President Donald Trump walks to the Abraham Accord signing ceremony at the White House with Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani. AP
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo arrives at the White House to attend the Abraham Accord signing ceremony hosted by President Donald Trump. EPA
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, meets US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House before the signing of Abraham Accord. AFP
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, in the Oval Office. AFP
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, meets US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House. AFP
Sheikh Abdullah with Mr Trump in the Oval Office. AFP
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, with by President Donald Trump at the White House. Mustafa Alrawi / The National
The UAE delegation led by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, with US President Donald Trump at the White House. Mustafa Alrawi / The National
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, is welcomed to the White House by US President Donald Trump. EPA
Sheikh Abdullah and Mr Trump outside the White House. AFP
Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed speaks to Mr Trump after arriving at the White House. Reuters
White House Senior Adviser Jared Kushner walks away following a television interview on the North Lawn at the White House in Washington. Reuters
US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump welcome the arrival of Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara on the North Lawn of the White House in Washington DC. AFP
A delegation of senior UAE officials led by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, UAE Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, prepares to depart for the White House to sign the Abraham Accord. MOFAIC
US President Donald Trump welcomes Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani. AFP
Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani arrives at the White House in Washington DC. AFP
US President Donald Trump welcomes Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif Al Zayani on the North Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC. AFP
Preparations at the White House for the signing of the Abraham Accord.
Preparations under way at the White House for the signing of the Abraham Accord.
Preparations under way at the White House for the signing of the Abraham Accord.
Preparation at the White House for the signing of the Abraham Accord. The National
Nobel Peace Prize winners are, in truth, a mixed bag, but it is safe to say that few come with more flint than David Trimble. A law lecturer and politician who rose within the sectarian establishment in Northern Ireland, Mr Trimble made hard-hearted calculations to grasp the promise of peace in his homeland in the 1990s.
As a laureate he has now invoked his right to make a nomination for next year's peace prize. He has put forward the names of Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It is one facet of the growing engagement with the Abraham Accord, since the UAE and Bahrain's decision to normalise relations with Israel in September.
Mr Trimble privately cites how his own experience has shaped his thinking on the accord. He believes it can “break the logjam” that has accumulated from the decades-long, slow-burning collapse of the Middle East Peace Process.
Nobel laureate David Trimble has recommended Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed's name for next year's Nobel Peace Prize. EPA
This is unacceptable to Mr Trimble. As his citation for the prize stated, it is the factor of time that can weigh most heavily to prolong conflicts. “I know from my own experience how dangerous, damaging and corrosive are decades of violent ill will between two neighbours,” he said.
The Abraham Accord is the product of our time. It is doubtful it would have come so soon if it were not for the approach taken by US President Donald Trump vis-a-vis the Middle East. As one of Mr Trimble’s close associates said last week in a commentary on the Nobel prize nomination, peace does not come from virtue signalling but from hard-headed calculations around grasping practical solutions when they are available.
As the officials around US President-elect Joe Biden have repeatedly stressed, there is no opportunity to turn back the clock to four years ago and proceed as if nothing had happened. It was then that John Kerry, America's top diplomat during former president Barack Obama's second term, said that there was no road to peace that did not lie through the Middle East Peace Process. But pursuing alternatives cannot be written off as people fooling themselves. In any case, Mr Kerry has been named climate change envoy in the incoming Biden administration, leaving it to others in a new State Department team under Antony Blinken to take on the Peace Process portfolio. Think tanks in Washington and elsewhere have said there is going to be engagement with the Abraham Accord when the new administration gets its policies for the region into sync in 2021.
For a start, the opportunity for peace between the people of Abrahamic faiths is about a cold entente under treaty deals. But it also comes to the world as a broader opportunity.
Pending US Senate confirmation, Tony Blinken will head the US Department of State in the Biden administration. AP Photo
All sides agree that this is not an agreement that is defined in contradistinction with Iran. If the Abraham Accord goes on to set the political and strategic weather in the region, it should provide an incentive for Tehran
Another of Mr Trimble’s associates, the historian Lord Bew, convened a panel last week featuring the UAE, Bahraini and Israeli ambassadors to London to talk about the accord from their perspective. The audience got a first-hand briefing of all the strands of thought that the participants in the accord are bringing to the process. The idea that it would be a “warm peace” featured prominently.
Mansoor Abulhoul, the UAE ambassador to the UK, stressed that the opening for the strategic breakthrough stemmed, first of all, from the potential for annexation of the West Bank as the latest stage in the failure of existing initiatives. Furthermore, the shift in the paradigm has opened up space to work together on the pursuit of regional stability and fighting the spread of extremism and radicalisation.
At the point of impasse, it is reasonable to ask what the next 50 years will look like and how to build bridges to a future of prosperity and shared progress.
The UAE and Israel are two dynamic economies with plenty of shared interests. Co-operation in the fields of science and technology is already the focus of the joint exchanges. And it is fascinating to see this start to roll out.
In London, as the place of corporate deal origination, there is an uptick of interest on both sides to working together. The Israelis see the close ties between the UK and the Gulf countries as a key incentive of the normalisation promised under the Abraham Accord.
Mansoor Abulhoul, the UAE ambassador to the UK, has spoken about importance of the Abraham Accord.
For Bahrain, the cultural tolerance it has tried to engender with Israelis has been a process more than a decade in the making. Sheikh Fawaz bin Mohammed Al Khalifa, Bahrain's ambassador to the UK, underlined this by referencing the Peace to Prosperity Summit, which his country hosted last year and which provided the momentum for the accord.
The challenges stemming from Iran's bellicosity across the Arabian Gulf have been especially acute. But all sides agree that this is not an agreement that is defined in contradistinction with Iran. Indeed, in the fullest sense, if the Abraham Accord goes on to set the political and strategic weather in the region, it should provide an incentive for Tehran. The regime there could engage with regional change by seeing this as a platform for resolving differences.
Normalisation is, first and foremost, about the countries themselves – and it revolves around narratives of peace and prosperity. Dialogue and dynamism are the keys for it to succeed.
Damien McElroy is the London bureau chief of The National
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
November 2025
180 Petrofac employees laid off in the UAE
Dubai World Cup Carnival Thursday race card
6.30pm: Dubai Millennium Stakes Group Three US$200,000 (Turf) 2,000m 7.05pm: Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,600m 7.40pm: UAE Oaks Group Three $250,000 (Dirt) 1,900m 8.15pm: Zabeel Mile Group Two $250,000 (T) 1,600m 8.50pm: Meydan Sprint Group Two $250,000 (T) 1,000m 9.25pm: Handicap $135,000 (D) 1,400m 10pm: Handicap $135,000 (T) 1,600m
The bio
Favourite vegetable: Broccoli
Favourite food: Seafood
Favourite thing to cook: Duck l'orange
Favourite book: Give and Take by Adam Grant, one of his professors at University of Pennsylvania
Favourite place to travel: Home in Kuwait.
Favourite place in the UAE: Al Qudra lakes
UAE squad
Rohan Mustafa (captain), Ashfaq Ahmed, Ghulam Shabber, Rameez Shahzad, Mohammed Boota, Mohammed Usman, Adnan Mufti, Shaiman Anwar, Ahmed Raza, Imran Haider, Qadeer Ahmed, Mohammed Naveed, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan
Sharrie Williams
The American singer is hugely respected in blues circles due to her passionate vocals and songwriting. Born and raised in Michigan, Williams began recording and touring as a teenage gospel singer. Her career took off with the blues band The Wiseguys. Such was the acclaim of their live shows that they toured throughout Europe and in Africa. As a solo artist, Williams has also collaborated with the likes of the late Dizzy Gillespie, Van Morrison and Mavis Staples. Lin Rountree
An accomplished smooth jazz artist who blends his chilled approach with R‘n’B. Trained at the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC, Rountree formed his own band in 2004. He has also recorded with the likes of Kem, Dwele and Conya Doss. He comes to Dubai on the back of his new single Pass The Groove, from his forthcoming 2018 album Stronger Still, which may follow his five previous solo albums in cracking the top 10 of the US jazz charts. Anita Williams
Dubai-based singer Anita Williams will open the night with a set of covers and swing, jazz and blues standards that made her an in-demand singer across the emirate. The Irish singer has been performing in Dubai since 2008 at venues such as MusicHall and Voda Bar. Her Jazz Garden appearance is career highlight as she will use the event to perform the original song Big Blue Eyes, the single from her debut solo album, due for release soon.
Company Profile
Founders: Tamara Hachem and Yazid Erman
Based: Dubai
Launched: September 2019
Sector: health technology
Stage: seed
Investors: Oman Technology Fund, angel investor and grants from Sharjah's Sheraa and Ma'an Abu Dhabi
SERIES INFO
Afghanistan v Zimbabwe, Abu Dhabi Sunshine Series
All matches at the Zayed Cricket Stadium, Abu Dhabi
Test series
1st Test: Zimbabwe beat Afghanistan by 10 wickets
2nd Test: Wednesday, 10 March – Sunday, 14 March
Play starts at 9.30am
T20 series
1st T20I: Wednesday, 17 March
2nd T20I: Friday, 19 March
3rd T20I: Saturday, 20 March
TV
Supporters in the UAE can watch the matches on the Rabbithole channel on YouTube
What is dialysis?
Dialysis is a way of cleaning your blood when your kidneys fail and can no longer do the job.
It gets rid of your body's wastes, extra salt and water, and helps to control your blood pressure. The main cause of kidney failure is diabetes and hypertension.
There are two kinds of dialysis — haemodialysis and peritoneal.
In haemodialysis, blood is pumped out of your body to an artificial kidney machine that filter your blood and returns it to your body by tubes.
In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter. Wastes are taken out by means of a cleansing fluid which is washed in and out of your belly in cycles.
It isn’t an option for everyone but if eligible, can be done at home by the patient or caregiver. This, as opposed to home haemodialysis, is covered by insurance in the UAE.
Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Tim Southee (capt), Trent Boult (games 4 and 5), Colin de Grandhomme, Lockie Ferguson (games 1-3), Martin Guptill, Scott Kuggeleijn, Daryl Mitchell, Colin Munro, Jimmy Neesham, Mitchell Santner, Tim Seifert, Ish Sodhi, Ross Taylor, Blair Tickner
Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.
1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.
2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information.
3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.
