At the end of January, a high level delegation from the United States travelled to the United Arab Emirates.

Led by Brian Nelson, the under secretary of the treasury for terrorism and financial intelligence, the trip was preceded by a private diplomatic note stipulating that the US officials wanted to meet with high-level members of Abu Dhabi’s ruling al-Nahyan family. 

The Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan have condemned as “racist” a firebrand Israeli minister’s remarks denying the existence of the Palestinian people, with Amman summoning Israel’s ambassador for a rebuke.

Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich is part of veteran leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s hard-right government that took office in December.

Saudi Arabia and Qatar are both set to suffer big losses on investments in Credit Suisse, after UBS struck a cut-price deal to buy the scandal-hit Swiss investment bank.

Less than six months ago, the Saudi National Bank paid $1.5bn for a 9.9 percent stake in Credit Suisse. 

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has violated the peace treaty between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and made “racist” remarks about the Palestinian people, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry charged on Monday.

“The Israeli government must take a clear and open position toward such extremism and the inflammatory and malicious statements by a serving minister,” Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Sinan Majali said, according to the Petra news service.

Yemen’s National Salvation Government and the Saudi-sponsored administration of the ousted President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi have agreed at UN-brokered talks in Switzerland to swap more than 880 prisoners.

"An agreement has been reached to implement a (prisoner) swap" that will see more than 880 people released in total, said Abdul Qader al-Murtada, the leading delegate of the popular Ansarullah resistance movement to the talks in Bern, according to Yemen's al-Masirah news channel on Monday. The exchange is set to take place within weeks.

Kuwait’s Constitutional Court has ruled that last September’s parliamentary election, in which the opposition made gains, was void and that the previous assembly must be reinstated.

The move on Sunday comes at a time of renewed friction between the elected parliament and government and follows the reappointment this month of the country’s prime minister, whose government had resigned in January in the standoff with parliament.

On March 19, Syrian President Bashar al Assad arrived in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on an official visit, accompanied by his wife Asma al Assad.

Assad was greeted by UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan on arrival in Abu Dhabi and received a canon salute as his convoy entered the royal palace, Qasr Al Watan. Assad’s plane was greeted by fighter jets from the Emirate air force.

Arab leaders are offering Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a deal that includes billions of dollars for reconstruction efforts and a pledge to lobby the west to lift sanctions in exchange for "[asking] Iran to stop expanding its footprint in the nation," according to Arab and European officials that spoke with the Wall Street Journal.

It was a momentous event, the importance of which is not perceived outside the Middle East: Saudi Arabia and Iran reconciled... in China. Three signatures at the bottom of a document reshuffle all the cards in this region.

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that Arab countries are offering a deal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that would restore ties between Damascus and most countries in the region.

The report, which cited unnamed Arab and European officials, said in talks initially led by Jordan, the Arab nations have proposed billions worth in aid to help the country rebuild after 12 years of war and to lobby the US and European governments to lift sanctions.