ABU DHABI:
An Emirati court sentenced on Monday three Lebanese, including a Canadian dual national, to six months in prison for forming a local affiliate of Iran-backed Hezbollah, local media said.
The supreme federal court convicted the trio of “forming a group for the terrorist Hezbollah (movement) in the country,” Ittihad daily reported, adding that they will be deported after serving their sentences.
They “were found guilty of setting up an office of the militant group in the UAE and carrying out commercial, economic and political activities without licences,” the daily Gulf News reported.
It named the men as Canadian-Lebanese Suhail Naif Gareeb, 62, and Lebanese nationals Asaad
Ameen Qansouh, 66, and Ahmed Ebrahim Qansouh, 30. Their trial opened in early February. (AFP)
DUBAI, UAE:
The builder of what promises to be Qatar’s largest mall says construction work has resumed two days after a fire broke out at the site.
Urbacon Trading and Contracting project director Mowafaq Kharbat said in a statement Monday that no casualties were reported in Saturday’s blaze, which forced the evacuation of 14,000 workers.
Investigators have not determined the cause of the fire. Urbacon did not provide details on the extent of the damage. Kharbat says the company’s priority is to continue construction and fitting out retail shops in the mall. (AP)
RIYADH:
Yemeni President Abad Rabbo Mansour Hadi appointed a new vice-president and prime minister on Sunday, pro-Hadi state media reported, sacking prime minister Khaled Bahah in a major shake-up ahead of peace talks later this month.
Yemen has been in a civil war for more than a year between Hadi’s supporters and the Iran- allied Houthi group that has sucked in a Saudi- led alliance and caused a major humanitarian crisis in one of the poorest countries in the Middle East.
Yemen’s state television reported that Hadi had appointed Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar, a politically powerful army general who split violently with former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh in 2011, as the new vice-president.
The president also appointed Ahmed Obeid bin Daghr, a former official in Saleh’s General People’s Congress party before joining Hadi’s camp, to become new prime minister. (RTRS)
DUBAI, UAE:
The US Navy says it has seized a weapons shipment in the Arabian Sea from Iran likely heading to war-torn Yemen. The Navy said in a statement Monday that the USS Sirocco on March 28 intercepted and seized the shipment of weapons hidden aboard a small dhow, a type of ship commonly used in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.
The Navy said the shipment included 1,500 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 200 rocket-propelled grenade launchers and 21 .50-caliber machine guns. It said those aboard the dhow were released after sailors confiscated the arms. (AP)
JERUSALEM:
Even after his death, the former head of Israel’s secretive Mossad spy agency is continuing his attack on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The Yediot Ahronot daily published excerpts Monday from a series of interviews Meir Dagan gave before his death last month. In them, Dagan called Netanyahu “the worst manager I know.” He lambasted the premier for prioritizing his personal interests over the national one. (AP)