Arab Summit offers view of new order in regional and global affairs

KUWAIT CITY // Between meetings to discuss turmoil across the region, statesmen and dignitaries attending an Arab League summit at the Bayan Palace have dined on freshly served dishes of chicken biryani and Arab salad.

Fountains and rows of palm trees greet them as they enter this sprawling complex, located on the outskirts of Kuwait City and outfitted with a helicopter landing pad and conference halls with high-speed internet.

In many ways, Bayan Palace, a plush bastion of stability and luxury, highlights the different realities of Arab countries.

In Egypt, just a two-hour flight east, the role of Islam in politics has paralysed society. An even shorter fight away, in Syria, sectarian divisions fuel a civil war in which more than 140,000 people have been killed while millions more have been displaced. Similar tensions also threaten to tear apart Iraq, just an hour’s drive north for the BMW and Mercedes-Benz luxury vehicles that pass through the gates of the palace.

Tellingly, though, it was a diplomatic spat here on Tuesday between GCC states that took centre stage.

Scrambling for interviews at Bayan's hallways, journalists were keen to ask whether the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain would patch up their differences with Qatar after withdrawing their ambassadors from Doha this month over its support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Political observers say the row is noteworthy for the GCC, which consists of the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman. Few here recall tensions between the six-member union ever being so high. But compared with the rest of the region’s ferment, it could be worse for the Gulf Arabs.

That may explain why an impassioned appeal during the summit’s opening ceremony here by Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarba seemed to highlight the chasm that separates the Arabian Gulf from the rest of the region. The head of Syrian National Council came to Kuwait all but begging for more aid — including more powerful weapons — for rebels seeking to topple the regime of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad.

That appeal, intentionally or not, demonstrated where Arab power has shifted. GCC states, buoyed by vast oil and gas revenues and fast-developing economies, are the front-runners in aiding the Syrian opposition. Indeed, they are backing and in some case bankrolling the insurgents and militaries and opposition groups that span from the Nile to the Euphrates and beyond.

Gone are the days when outside powers looked to sway regional events through such capitals of Cairo. Now, it is here in the Gulf where Washington and Brussels look to first in the Arab world for common cause regarding regional events.

On Friday, the US president, Barack Obama, travels to Riyadh on a special visit aimed at mending the GCC rift and allaying concerns over a US-Iran rapprochement deal that has alarmed the Saudi monarchy.

Whether the US leader succeeds in cobbling together a more coherent GCC regional policy, let alone mollify concerns over Iran, remains to be seen. But what has become evident is to which corridors of power in the region Mr Obama and fellow world leaders have set their sights on.

They are in such palaces as Bayan, where in its gilded conference rooms and lush courtyards the fate of a tumultuous region will be steered.

hnaylor@thenational.ae

In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe

Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010

Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille

Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm

Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year

Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”

Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners

TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013

Test

Director: S Sashikanth

Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan

Star rating: 2/5

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

Key facilities

Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
Premier League-standard football pitch
400m Olympic running track
NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
600-seat auditorium
Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
Specialist robotics and science laboratories
AR and VR-enabled learning centres
Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills

Results

6.30pm: Maiden Dh165,000 (Dirt) 1,600m

Winner: Celtic Prince, David Liska (jockey), Rashed Bouresly (trainer).

7.05pm: Conditions Dh240,000 (D) 1,600m

Winner: Commanding, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar.

7.40pm: Handicap Dh190,000 (D) 2,000m

Winner: Grand Argentier, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.

8.15pm: Handicap Dh170,000 (D) 2,200m

Winner: Arch Gold, Sam Hitchcott, Doug Watson.

8.50pm: The Entisar Listed Dh265,000 (D) 2,000m

Winner: Military Law, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi.

9.25pm: The Garhoud Sprint Listed Dh265,000 (D) 1,200m

Winner: Ibn Malik, Dane O’Neill, Musabah Al Muhairi.

10pm: Handicap Dh185,000 (D) 1,400m

Winner: Midnight Sands, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson.

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

Sri Lanka World Cup squad

Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Mendis, Isuru Udana, Milinda Siriwardana, Avishka Fernando, Jeevan Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal.

COMPANY%20PROFILE

%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EName%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EQureos%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EUAE%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ELaunch%20year%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E2021%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ENumber%20of%20employees%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E33%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESoftware%20and%20technology%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFunding%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E%243%20million%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A

TO A LAND UNKNOWN

Director: Mahdi Fleifel

Starring: Mahmoud Bakri, Aram Sabbah, Mohammad Alsurafa

Rating: 4.5/5

Indoor cricket in a nutshell

Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai

16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership

Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.

Zones

A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full

How to wear a kandura

Dos

Wear the right fabric for the right season and occasion
Always ask for the dress code if you don’t know
Wear a white kandura, white ghutra / shemagh (headwear) and black shoes for work
Wear 100 per cent cotton under the kandura as most fabrics are polyester

Don’ts

Wear hamdania for work, always wear a ghutra and agal
Buy a kandura only based on how it feels; ask questions about the fabric and understand what you are buying