Speaking to newsmen from his office at Princess Gate in west London, on the occasion of the 33rd edition of the Dubai International Day in Newbury, Al Mutaiwee praised the strong support of the Al Maktoum family to what he said ‘Sports Diplomacy’ that made their job more easier in promoting the already strong ties existing between the UAE and UK. 

From the Israeli perspective, there’s some public diplomacy benefit here. The world is being somewhat distracted from what’s going on in Gaza, and now Israel is not the only country bombing Islamic extremists. But these are small comforts at best. Europe, in particular, seems to have gotten fed up with the IDF’s operations in Gaza, even as it declares its understanding for Israel’s right to defend itself. And despite the renewal of rocket fire, even the United States is expecting Israel to come to some long-term agreement with Hamas.

“Saudi Arabia has been a riddle wrapped in an enigma available to view only in the abyss of the world stage. To the rest of the world we are a very big question mark,” Hafez explains, meaning the world is eager to know this country beyond the stereotypes generated by 9/11 and as the “oil capital of the globe.” According to him, the first way to discover a country is by looking at its cultural elements – literature, poetry, cinema, TV, and paintings. 

President Barack Obama authorized targeted airstrikes and emergency assistance missions in northern Iraq, saying Thursday the U.S. must act to protect American personnel and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in the face of advances by violent Islamist militants. The U.S. military said it completed a delivery of meals and water to thousands of members of a religious minority who fled the town of Sinjar and are trapped in nearby mountains by the group calling itself the Islamic State.

The self-proclaimed Islamic State, formerly known by the acronym ISIS, is actively recruiting Western women and girls. And in the process this “caliphate” that now occupies large swathes of Syria and Iraq is showing, once again, that it’s almost as shrewd with social media as it is ruthless on the battlefield. The tweets and blogs apparently are written by Western women married to jihadi warriors.

Finding any encouraging news coming out of Syria is difficult. The Bashar Assad regime clearly will pay any price to retain power, inflicting misery upon those parts of the population it can reach. Parts of Syria, however, remain outside the control of the government and the similarly vile extremist groups that defile their religion through their bloody tactics.

PRWeek understands that the agency will be advising senior levels of the government, including the office of Prime Minister Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani. The retained work was won through a pitch and is understood to cover a broad remit ranging from government affairs through to nation branding. It comes as the country, which has the highest GDP per capita in the world, finds itself under increasing scrutiny internationally, and facing anger from its neighbors in the Middle East. 

As Israel seeks to end Hamas's latest war against it, the Obama administration flounders. In fact, the response of the president and his secretary of state has made the situation positively worse with regard to every relationship we have in the region. Opponents of terrorism and supporters of Israel struggle to understand the administration's approach.