UNITED NATIONS: Delegations from Yemen’s warring parties are due to meet in Switzerland this week for talks on a UN-backed prisoner exchange deal, which UN Yemen envoy Martin Griffiths said on Tuesday he hopes will result in the release of some detainees.
Griffiths told the UN Security Council that “logistical arrangements permitting” the talks would resume in Switzerland this week between the two delegations. A UN source said the talks were due to start on Thursday.
“The parties committed to release conflict-related prisoners and detainees back in 2018 in Stockholm, and furthered their discussions to fulfill that commitment in Amman earlier this year,” Griffiths told the council. “What I hope is that this meeting will actually result in the release of some prisoners.”
Mohammed Abdulsalam, chief negotiator of the Houthi movement, told Reuters his group’s committee is set to leave Sanaa on a UN plane.
The Iran-allied Houthis and Yemen’s Saudi-backed government are trying to reach an agreement to end a years-long war and ease a humanitarian crisis in the Arabian Peninsula’s poorest country.
Griffiths told the 15-member UN Security Council he sent an “advanced draft” of a cease-fire deal to Yemen’s warring parties last week and “now is the time for the parties to swiftly conclude the negotiations.”
He also said the political importance of gas-rich Marib — the last government stronghold where fighting has raged over the past year — should not be underestimated and that “military shifts and consequences and events in Marib have ripple effects on dynamics of the conflict across Yemen.”

DUBAI: An Emirati man has been arrested in Dubai for dancing in public at a local cafe after footage of his performance was widely circulated online. 
In the clip, the man dressed in the traditional white thobe and headwear is seen dancing to local music next to the table he was sat at in a cafe in Deira. The audience around him can be seen clapping, with some taking videos of the performance.
Dubai Police said they arrested the young Emirati man for dancing “indecently” at the cafe on the charge of committing a “Public Indecent Act”, their Twitter account said. 
The statement said the man dancing in the video has been identified, as well as the person who took the video, and both have been arrested. 

Dubai Police arrest a man for committing an indecent act publicly. pic.twitter.com/BrvvIop9oe

— Dubai Policeشرطة دبي (@DubaiPoliceHQ) September 13, 2020

Police said the person who shot and posted the video on social media “violated public morality” by doing so, and this is a crime punishable by anti-cybercrime laws in the emirate. Brigadier Jamal Salem Al Jallaf, Director of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Dubai Police, said Article (358) of the UAE Penal code states that whoever openly commits an indecent and disgraceful act shall be punished by detention for a period of at least six months.

DUBAI: The United Arab Emirates wants to modernize its military and a request for US F-35 warplanes has been on the table since before a normalization deal with Israel, the minister of state for foreign affairs, Anwar Gargash, said on Tuesday.
The agreement, known as the Abraham Accord, should dispel “any grain of doubt” on why the Gulf state should get stealth F-35 fighter jets from the United States, Gargash told reporters.
“The UAE seeks like any country that takes its military seriously, to modernize its military, always, so our request for the F35 and other systems pre-dates this agreement,” he said.
The UAE’s existing F-16 jets are now almost two decades old and it is time to renew them, he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said his government would oppose any US F-35 warplane sales to the UAE, despite forging relations with the Gulf power. US President Donald Trump on Tuesday told Fox News he would have no problem selling the planes to the UAE.
The UAE and Gulf neighbor Bahrain are set to sign normalization accords with Israel at a White House ceremony on Tuesday.
Gargash said the country’s decision to normalize ties broke a “psychological barrier” and is the way forward for the region, giving it more leverage.
He said Israel suspending its planned annexation of Palestinian land would stop the two-state solution being undermined and that the United States’ mediator role was assurance that further annexation would be suspended.
The Emirati minister said it was not the time to revise the Arab Peace Initiative, and that it remains the cornerstone of the UAE’s commitment to the Palestinian cause.
A strategic breakthrough is needed, he said, but “it will not happen overnight.”

WASHINGTON: The UAE and Bahrain signed historic agreements with Israel today in a ceremony overseen by Donald Trump in Washington.

The Abraham Accord means the two Gulf countries joined Egypt and Jordan as the only Arab nations to have full relations with Israel.

The ceremony was attended by the UAE’s foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, the foreign minister of Bahrain and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Natanyahu.

The signing took place on the South Lawn of the White House – the same place where Israeli and Palestinian leaders signed the Oslo Accords in 1993.

“I stand here today to extend a hand of peace and receive a hand of peace,” Sheikh Abdullah said.

Addressing Netanyahu, he said: “Thank you for choosing peace and halting the annexation of Palestinian territories.”

Al-Zayani described the accord as a historic step on the road to a “genuine and lasting peace.”

He said he hoped the agreement would lead to a “comprehensive and enduring two-state solution for the Palestinian people.”

During the signing ceremony, the parties inked the Abraham Accord document along with a treaty of “peace, diplomatic relations and full normalization.”

Bahrain, which only announced on Friday that an agreement had been reached, also signed a “declaration of peace” with Israel.

The UAE announced last month it had reached a deal with Israel to normalize relations in return for a promise not to annex large areas of the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

The two countries have already held talks across a range of areas of cooperation and an Israeli and American delegation visited Abu Dhabi for on Aug. 31. The group, which included Trump advisor Jared Kushner, arrived on the first commercial flight from Israel to the UAE.

Donald Trump opened Tuesday’s ceremony praising the leaders of Israel, the UAE and Bahrain for reaching agreements that he said would “serve as the foundation for a comprehensive peace across the entire region.”

“After decades of division and conflict we mark the dawn of a new Middle East,” Trump said. “We’re here this afternoon to change the course of history.”

Earlier he said five or six more countries were ready to also open up relations with Israel.

Netanyahu called the day a “pivot of history that heralds a new dawn of peace.”

“Ultimately it can end the Arab-Israeli conflict once and for all,” he said.

The event was attended by 700 people including former US ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and former British premier Tony Blair.

Earlier, the UAE’s Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Anwar Gargash, said the deal had “broken the psychological barrier” and was “the way forward” for the region.

BAGHDAD: A roadside bombing targeted British diplomatic vehicles in Baghdad on Tuesday, the British Embassy and Iraqi officials said. There were no injuries but the attack is fueling concerns of armed groups outside of the state’s control.
The attack targeted an embassy convoy on a Baghdad highway close to the Umm Al-Tabool Mosque, the British Embassy and Iraqi security officials said. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the bombing.
The roads and the area of the attack, between the airport and the heavily fortified Green Zone, are often used by diplomatic missions, the Iraqi official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
The Green Zone is home to the seat of Iraq’s government and also many foreign embassies, including the British and the US
“The safety and security of our staff is of paramount importance and we are in close touch with the Iraqi authorities,” said a statement from teh British Embassy.
The attack is the first in months to target a diplomatic convoy and comes amid near daily rocket attacks aimed at the Green Zone and Iraqi army bases hosting US troops. Rocket attacks have rarely lead to significant losses.
Tuesday’s bombing is the third attack in the last 24 hours against foreign missions.
Two rockets were fired at the Green Zone late on Monday but caused to casualties; one was intercepted by the US embassy’s C-RAM defense system, two Iraqi security officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity under regulations.
Earlier on Monday, a roadside bomb targeted an convoy of vehicles carrying equipment for Americans on the main highway in Babylon province, south of Baghdad.
The rocket attacks surged at an alarming pace when Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi traveled to the US last month to conclude strategic talks. They have put pressure on his administration, which has promised to reign in armed groups acting outside of state authority.
The recent attacks come as Al-Kadhimi introduced sweeping administrative changes, including naming a new governor of Iraq’s Central Bank, which provoked criticism from some political blocs.