Dubai
11 stories from Middle East Affairs.
Kuwait closes only Iranian school, uprooting families weeks before term
Kuwait's authorities shut down the country's only private Iranian school in early August, forcing Iranian families to find alternatives weeks before the new academic year begins in mid-September.

Dubai regulator and tokenization platform sign cooperation agreement
Dubai's virtual-assets regulator and the institutional tokenization platform Securitize have signed a memorandum of understanding to develop infrastructure for regulated digital-asset markets.

UAE restaurants reopen after summer closures
Restaurants across the UAE are reopening after summer closures for renovations, relocations and menu overhauls as the hospitality sector responds to shifting visitor numbers and dining habits.

Airlines stagger return to Middle East routes amid operational uncertainty
International airlines are resuming some Middle East services while maintaining suspensions on other routes, with cancellations on some lines extending into early 2027.

Fashion brands pursue partnerships to tap into scarcity and cultural cachet
Fashion's embrace of unlikely brand partnerships continues to accelerate in 2026, with designers from Elie Saab to Stella McCartney leveraging scarcity and borrowed prestige to drive sales.

Scientists and social media diverge sharply on seed oils
An online movement has grown skeptical of seed oils used in cooking and processed foods, but decades of controlled trials and cardiovascular guidelines show little evidence of harm.

Dubai Coins Museum traces currency through millennia in old quarter
The Dubai Coins Museum, a free institution in the Al Fahidi Historical Neighbourhood, displays thousands of years of currency history from across the Arab world, including rare early Islamic coins and Gulf regional coinage.

Dollar rallies as gold and Bitcoin retreat from August peaks
Gold and Bitcoin, which rose together in August on dollar concerns, have retreated as investor bets on higher U.S. interest rates strengthen the dollar.

Global hubs depend on each other to weather crises, analyst argues
Leading economic centers form an interdependent network rather than competing in isolation, according to analysis of how the UAE and Singapore absorbed recent shocks.

U.S. targets Iran financial operations in Gulf
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned individuals and entities it said were helping Iran access international financial systems, drawing a sharp rebuke from Tehran.

U.S. targets Iranian bank operations and intermediaries
The U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against Iranian banking operations and a Hong Kong-based intermediary, and proposed restrictions on a United Arab Emirates bank's access to American financial institutions.
