The US State Department sent Congress an informal notification of plans to sell $10 billion of defense equipment, including precision-guided munitions, non-precision bombs and missiles to the United Arab Emirates, a US congressional aide has said.

The United Arab Emirates has announced a major overhaul of the Islamic personal laws in the country -- allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate, loosening restrictions on alcohol, and criminalising “honour killings”.

Saudi Arabia announces new plans to ease foreign workers’ contractual restrictions, improving a controversial seven-decade-old sponsorship system known as kafala.

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan has expressed his condemnation of recent terrorist attacks in France during a phone call with the country’s President Emanuel Macron, Reuters reports citing UAE state news agency WAM.

In an historic first visit by a Gulf Arab nation, a United Arab Emirates delegation arrived in Israel on Tuesday to cement the normalisation deal signed last month.

An Israeli delegation accompanied by the US treasury secretary has arrived in Bahrain to formalise nascent relations and broaden Gulf cooperation that Washington has promoted as an anti-Iran bulwark and potential economic bonanza.

Iran said a longstanding UN embargo on arms sales to and from the Islamic republic expired Sunday in line with a 2015 landmark nuclear deal with world powers from which Washington has withdrawn.

Saudi Arabia allowed its citizens and residents inside the kingdom to perform prayers in one of the most holy religious sites in Islam, Al-Haram mosque in Mecca, for the first time in seven months, state television reported early today.

UAE has asked airlines and travel agents to implement new procedures for visit/tourist visa holders flying into Dubai from five countries including Bangladesh, after hundreds of passengers stranded at Dubai International Airport since October 13 were flown back to their countries, Gulf News said in a report.

Israel has stopped granting visas to UN human rights workers, forcing them to stop their work and leave the country, according to a report by Middle East Eye (MEE).

Civil Aviation Authority of Bangladesh has lifted coronavirus-induced restrictions for Biman Bangladesh Airlines and Saudi Arabian Airlines so that they are able to carry passengers on every seat when operating flights to different destinations in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia’s Chamber of Commerce head Ajlan Al Ajlan has called for a boycott of “everything Turkish”, including imports, investment, and tourism, reports Gulf News.

Lebanon has asked Interpol to issue arrest warrants for the Russian captain and owner of the ship that brought the explosive material that detonated at Beirut port in August, killing nearly 200 people, according to state media reports.

Jazeera Airways, a Kuwait-based airlines, has started operating flights from Dhaka.

The head of Israel’s foreign intelligence service Mossad met Bahrain’s heads of national intelligence and strategic security during a visit to Bahrain, Bahrain’s state news agency (BNA) has reported.

Lebanon and Israel have agreed to a framework for US-mediated talks aimed at ending a long-running dispute over a border that has been the frontline of several conflicts.

Kuwait’s new emir was sworn in at parliament yesterday as the country prepared to lay to rest late ruler Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who helped steer the US-allied Gulf state through some of the Middle East’s most turbulent decades.

Saudi Arabia plans to cut spending by 7.5% in next year’s budget to 990 billion riyals ($263.94 billion) but expects the economy to return to growth as its management of the coronavirus crisis improves.

Staffers of the sample collection centre at the Dhaka North City Corporation market delivered a Covid-19 test report within just nine hours of sample collection of a Saudi-bound expatriate Bangladeshi worker.

Bangladesh has requested the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) to increase flights between the two countries so that the expatriates stranded here can return to their workplaces smoothly.