Country Risk Rating
Oman
Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said issued a royal pardon on March 22 for an estimated 50 dissidents jailed for defaming the ruler or taking part in protests. Some 20 of the sentenced prisoners...
2013-04-26Iraq
A militant group that includes al-Qaeda in Iraq claimed responsibility in April for a series of bombings in Baghdad on March 19. The co-ordinated wave of suicide, car and roadside bombings...
2013-04-26Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al Saud removed deputy defence minister Prince Khaled bin Sultan from his post on April 20, with state media giving no reason for the switch....
2013-04-26Iran
The so-called 5+1 powers (the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany) and Iran failed to reach a breakthrough in talks in April on Iran's alleged nuclear weapons...
2013-04-26Bahrain
The Bahraini government announced on April 24 that it had indefinitely postponed a visit by Juan Mendez, the UN special rapporteur on torture, days after the release of a US State Department...
2013-04-26United Arab Emirates
International criticism of the UAE government has intensified, following the start of a trial in Abu Dhabi of 94 individuals who are accused of plotting to overthrow the regime and...
2013-04-24Yemen
Gunmen shot dead three people in March 23, in a failed attempt to assassinate Abdo Abu Ras, the representative of the Houthi rebel group after he left Yemen's national reconciliation...
2013-03-27Qatar
Qatar's Emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, has called for the establishment of a US$1bn fund to help Palestinians in East Jerusalem and defend the city's "Arab character"....
2013-03-27
