Iranian president says supreme leader believes US investors can come to Iran
"In a conversation we had with the Supreme Leader, he believed that American investors can come to Iran and there are no obstacles to their activities... Unfortunately, it is Israel that does not allow peace in the region," Pezeshkian said in a post on X, several weeks after an air war between Israel and Iran.
(Reporting by Jaidaa Taha and Parisa Hafezi, Editing by William Maclean)
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Khaleej Times
21 minutes ago
- Khaleej Times
New advertiser permit in UAE: Who needs it, validity; all you need to know
The UAE Media Council on July 30 announced a new rule for anyone posting ads on social media platforms. A special permit, called the 'Advertiser Permit', will soon be required for individuals who share any promotional content online. This move is part of new efforts to make digital advertising more transparent, professional, and safe for consumers. It also aims to keep up with the fast changes in the media world by putting clear rules in place for how advertisements are posted. The permit will be free for the first three years and will become mandatory in three months, the authority said. While the large community of influencers in the UAE hailed the move, many had questions regarding the implementation of the rule. On Friday, the UAE Media Council took to X to clarify common concerns. Here are answers to some of the most popular queries: Who needs an Advertiser Permit? Anyone who shares advertisements, whether paid or not, on social media platforms, websites, or apps must get the permit. Do business owners need a permit to promote their own brand? No, if they're only promoting their own business or project, they will not require the permit. However, if they hire someone else to advertise for them, that person must have the permit. How long is the permit valid for? The permit is valid for one year and can be renewed each year. If you don't renew it within 30 days after it expires, it will be cancelled. You must already have a licence that allows you to do digital media or social media marketing. Click here for more on how to apply and the full list of rules.
Khaleej Times
21 minutes ago
- Khaleej Times
Dubai: No family nearby? Mothers' club helps new mums find support circle away from home
The Mum Club Dubai, a local franchise of the UK-based community, has experienced remarkable growth since launching in November 2022. What began as a single monthly coffee club has expanded to eight events per month, serving over 3,000 active subscribers. The club welcomes mothers of all nationalities aged 20-40, creating an inclusive space for Dubai's diverse expatriate community. The club's origin story reflects the challenges many expatriate mothers face. Founder Jo moved to Dubai several years ago without knowing anyone and wanted to connect with like-minded mothers. Having experienced the positive impact of The Mum Club community in her hometown, she approached The Mum Club UK about franchising when her family relocated to Dubai for her husband's work. 'Our mission is to create a safe, welcoming space where mums can take a moment for themselves,' explains the club. 'There are so many classes aimed at the babies, which is great, but sometimes the mum is forgotten about. Our club aims to bring mums together through our thoughtful events and supportive communities that are tailored for women's well-being.' Stay up to date with the latest news. Follow KT on WhatsApp Channels. Dubai's challenges Dubai presents specific obstacles for new mothers that differ from other cities. 'They say it takes a village to raise a child, but what happens when you've moved abroad and hopped on a plane to live in a whole new country, away from your family and lifelong friends?' the club asks. 'Increasingly, we see people moving to Dubai for a better life, but they are leaving behind their 'villages' and we need help.' The city's fast-paced environment compounds these challenges. 'Dubai is fast-paced, and maternity/paternity leave isn't always as long as what we may have in our home countries. Husbands go back to work quicker, leaving mothers at home and often isolated, not knowing anyone else to lean on.' Dubai's multicultural, transient nature creates additional networking complexities. 'Dubai is busy, Dubai is transient, and Dubai is multicultural. It's a hub for networking – but networking as a mother is different. Do we even speak the same language? Do you even want another friend? Where do we meet? And even when you feel like you know some friends, you can't get complacent as people's plans change all the time!' The club's inclusive approach addresses these concerns directly: 'We are here for mums full stop. That's any mums, any age and any nationality.' They provide qualified babysitting help at most events and ensure staff are present to welcome mothers so 'no one is ever left to feel by themselves.' Diverse activities The club offers diverse programming, including breakfast clubs, fitness classes, and cinema screenings. Their breakfast clubs have become particularly popular, providing 'a breath of fresh air for mums offering a relaxed, stylish space to connect with other women who get it while enjoying great food, real conversations, and a moment to focus on you (not just the kids).' Cinema clubs feature a unique format where mothers enjoy a breakfast buffet and networking opportunity before watching the latest releases in Roxy Platinum reclining seats. 'We have our own private screen and so we lift the lighting for mums to be able to tend to their babies throughout, and the sound is lowered so it's baby-friendly. It's a gorgeous morning.' One standout offering is Reformer Pilates classes, where 'you can have your baby next to you whilst you do your class. Our on-hand babysitters are there to help you so you can get the most out of your workout.' Venue selection reflects careful consideration of mothers' needs. The club seeks locations that accommodate 30 mothers with babies and prams, offer easy accessibility with nearby parking, provide comfortable baby changing facilities, maintain aesthetically pleasing atmospheres, and serve excellent food and coffee. 'There are numerous restaurants in Dubai, endless in fact, but we set ourselves the mission to search for the best and most convenient with the mum in mind. There are many baby-friendly venues, but our goal is to make it the most 'mum' friendly.' Weather considerations are crucial in Dubai's extreme climate. 'We have specific events which we can run outside, but we only do these in the cooler winter months, and then we move them to alternate venues inside when it's too hot again!' 'The unicorn I needed' Nazli de Gee's experience illustrates the club's impact. The 32-year-old South African mother of four children - Mikhail (11), Aiden (8), Alana (3), and Mila (2) - moved to the UAE in 2022 when her husband Wesley received a job offer. The family completed their relocation within two months. 'When we moved to the UAE, everything felt like a whirlwind. Within six months, I was pregnant with our fourth baby. We were still trying to settle in, I had no family, no friends, no car and suddenly I went from a working woman with a career in marketing to a stay-at-home mom, just trying to keep it together,' Nazli recalls. During this transition, she also launched her small business, Peek-a-Boo. 'So after a few months of trying to adult, mom, wife, mompreneur and socialise all at once, I saw The Mum Club on Instagram and I figured The Mum Club might just be the unicorn I needed - moms, coffee, conversation, and someone else entertaining the baby for once? Count me in. Sanity brought me to The Mum Club… and it didn't disappoint.' Nazli discovered the club during a 2am Instagram scroll while feeding her baby. 'It felt like a sign… or at least a well-targeted ad.' She was hoping to 'meet some like-minded moms who get it: the chaos, the love, the sleep deprivation. Somewhere I could actually have an adult conversation that didn't involve the words 'potty' or 'snack,' and maybe just maybe finish a hot cup of coffee without reheating it three times.' Her first experience exceeded expectations. 'It was honestly lovely, the hosts were very friendly and welcoming. I met so many amazing women from all over the world who were going through similar things, trying to navigate motherhood in a new country, just like me. We talked nonstop from beginning to end, and it was exactly what I needed at the time, both mentally and emotionally. It felt like a reset button.' Overcoming barriers Before joining, Nazli faced significant isolation challenges. 'Dubai is dazzling, but it can be incredibly isolating without your village. Although I have my husband, who is my best friend and very supportive and hands-on, I still felt somewhat alone. In the early days, it felt like everyone had their crew except me. There were moments I'd go days without adult conversation - unless you count asking Siri how to remove crayon from walls.' The absence of extended family support proved particularly difficult. 'Not having grandparents pop by or aunties take over for an hour made everything feel heavier. I missed the 'drop-by support' and those impromptu family meals that feed your soul more than your stomach. Here, every bit of help had to be scheduled and sometimes paid for.' The practical challenges of going out with children in Dubai were substantial. 'Going out with four kids feels less like a casual outing and more like prepping for a full-on military operation - timings, snacks, backups, and all. While Dubai is quite kid-friendly, it's surprisingly hard to find cafes that truly cater to babies or toddlers. Most places offer colouring pages and a few crayons, but that only buys you about six minutes of peace.' Finding suitable activities proved equally challenging. 'In the beginning, it was really difficult. There just weren't many options that I knew of, and I often felt like I had to choose between what I needed and what was good for my baby.' Meeting other mothers presented its own obstacles. 'It was surprisingly hard. Unless you randomly bond with a mom over rogue raisins in a play area, it's awkward. Most meetups felt too formal or forced.' Barriers included 'time, energy, and the weird fear of rejection (yes, even as grownups). Sometimes you don't want to seem desperate or intrusive.' Life-changing impact The club transformed Nazli's experience in multiple ways. 'In more ways than I can count. It gave me a sense of belonging and reminded me that motherhood isn't meant to be done in isolation. Now I have friends who get it, who've cried over sleepless nights and laughed over exploding nappies. Emotionally, I feel lighter, more seen, and a lot more human.' The club also provided unexpected professional benefits. 'As a mompreneur, The Mum Club became more than just a support circle, it turned into a powerful networking space. I got to connect with my exact target audience (aka other amazing moms!) and even had the chance to showcase my small business, Peek-a-Boo AE, at one of the Breakfast Mornings. Coffee, connection, and a little brand visibility? Win-win-win.' The club's format proved ideal for busy mothers. 'The Mum Club has been the perfect balance. My baby's happy, stimulated, and safely entertained while I get to enjoy a proper breakfast, hot coffee (a rare luxury!), thoughtful goodie bags, and genuine conversations with a lovely group of moms. Sometimes there are expert talks too, which is like a bonus TED Talk in your morning. All that, for a small cost? Honestly… what more can you ask for? And I leave feeling refreshed, not depleted.' The organic nature of connections appealed to Nazli. 'The Mum Club made it organic like speed-dating for mom friends, but with better coffee and less pressure. The Mum Club gave me a space where everyone wanted to connect and it removed the awkwardness. Now, I've got a circle of strong, hilarious, supportive women who've become more like family.'
Middle East Eye
5 hours ago
- Middle East Eye
Does Trump care about the issue of Palestinian statehood?
The US president's sentiments on Palestinian statehood have shifted significantly over the past week, as three of his G7 allies proclaimed they would recognise the State of Palestine at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September. French President Emmanuel Macron's somewhat sudden announcement on X came first, to which Donald Trump - prompted by a reporter - said nonchalantly, "That's fine if he does that. It's up to him. I'm with the United States, I'm not with France". On Monday, just hours after a sit-down with Trump in Scotland, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that he too would recognise a Palestinian state in September. "I'm not in that camp... if you do that, you really are rewarding Hamas," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One. By Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney had joined the UK and France, as all three parties argued that this was the only pathway to ending the 77-year-old Israel-Palestine conflict and the war on Gaza. New MEE newsletter: Jerusalem Dispatch Sign up to get the latest insights and analysis on Israel-Palestine, alongside Turkey Unpacked and other MEE newsletters "Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh' [sic] Canada!" Trump wrote on his TruthSocial account. He then raised tariffs on Canadian products from 25 percent to 35 percent. Is Trump just feeling the isolation of now having nearly 150 countries - many of them US allies - recognise that Palestinians are entitled to a state, or are others in his close circle driving his policy for him? Why Trump has little interest in delivering a ceasefire in Gaza Read More » "I think that Trump was caught flat-footed initially, and so he was just dismissive, and anything that's not an initiative that he would take, or any action or comment that doesn't turn the attention to him and give him the impression that he is the master of whatever issue is under discussion, he will viscerally reject or oppose," Glenn Carle, a national security expert who spent 25 years in the CIA's clandestine services, told Middle East Eye. "Once matters had evolved a little, he started to think, well, this could create some headaches for me," he added. "The bureaucracies weighed in to the extent they remain capable and relevant. That would be the State Department largely saying, 'Well, this is fraught'." Indeed, US Secretary of State and national security adviser Marco Rubio has been leading the administration's official messaging on the matter. Rubio had been a staunch pro-Israel voice during his years in the Senate. "Irrelevant. It's irrelevant," he said of the recognition of Palestinian statehood on Fox Radio on Thursday. "The UK is like, well, if Israel doesn't agree to a ceasefire by September, we're going to recognise a Palestinian state. So if I'm Hamas, I say, you know what, let's not allow there to be a ceasefire. If Hamas refuses to agree to a ceasefire, it guarantees a Palestinian state will be recognised by all these countries in September," Rubio said in the radio appearance. 'Trump's not in control' A ceasefire that was in effect for six weeks in January - brokered by the Biden administration and enforced by the Trump administration - was broken by Israel on 1 March. Since then, Hamas has insisted that a full restoration of UN aid distribution and a permanent end to the war are the only two conditions it would accept for another deal with Israel. 'Trump's not in control. I think we need to take a look at the first three months of Trump's presidency, and then we need to compare that to the last four or five months,' Abdelhalim Abdelrahman, a political analyst and host of the podcast Uncharted Territory, told MEE. Abdelrahman says that in the first three months, Trump managed to negotiate a successful ceasefire with the Houthi rebels, diplomacy with the Iranians, and his envoy Steve Witkoff managed to twist Netanyahu's arm into accepting a ceasefire. 'If you look at who Trump has surrounded himself with, there's no doubt who's guiding his Middle East policy' - Abdelhalim Abdelrahman, host of Uncharted Territory "I know that Senator Lindsey Graham has been in the president's ear, pushing back against this. Mark Levin, who's a host at Fox [News], who was really pushing Trump to bomb Iran, has also been pushing back on this." There's also the Heritage Foundation, a highly influential right-wing, Evangelical Christian think tank in Washington that was key to formulating Trump's playbook for both his terms in office. The organisation celebrated this achievement back in 2018, and has undoubtedly seen more of its recommendations go into action now with the doxxing, firing, and deportation of students and faculty who took part in pro-Palestine protests last year. At a Thursday event in the US capital hosted by Heritage, speakers included the US ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee and the chairman of the scandal-plagued Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, Johnnie Moore. Organisers pledged to help Israel annex Judea and Samaria, otherwise known as the occupied West Bank, and never once mentioned the word Palestine or Palestinians during the 90-minute discussion. Moore in particular referred to them as the "Arabs of Gaza". "The Heritage Foundation has very much been peddling this idea that A, Palestinians are not indigenous to the land, and B, that the Trump administration should take just about every pro-Israel avenue that they possibly can," Abdelrahman said. "There is no such thing as a Palestinian people," to the Evangelical Christian community to which officials like Huckabee and groups like Heritage belong, Carle said. Is the two-state policy dead in the US? Washington adopted the policy of two states, Israel and Palestine, at the signing of the 1978 Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. It became official at the signing of the 1993 Oslo Accords in the White House Rose Garden. No administration has officially, on paper, overturned that policy since, but now more than ever, no government action even remotely suggests that it remains in effect. "The two-state policy is undoubtedly dead," Abdelrahman said. Carle said that US policy now effectively only serves the objectives of the Israeli right-wing, its current government run by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Likud Party. US calls Saudi and French-led conference on two-state solution a 'publicity stunt' Read More » "It used to be a pretty clear majority of Israelis who favoured a two-state solution and opposed the colonisation of the West Bank," Carle said, but the numbers have dwindled. Just one week ago, the Knesset voted 71-13 on a non-binding motion to annex the occupied West Bank. "The Trump administration has never taken any steps towards a two-state solution. The Biden administration was quite a classic American one, in that it did want a two-state solution, but was feeling caught between the contradiction of supporting Israel's existential existence, which then meant that the US never pushed Israel," Carle said. In a move that the State Department insisted is unrelated to the momentum building around Palestinian statehood, the Trump administration on Thursday placed sanctions on officials in the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) over their work taking Israel to international courts. The unnamed officials were "not complying with their commitments and undermining the prospects for peace", the State Department said. "Ironically enough, the PLO de-armed about 40 years ago, and has recognised Israel's right to exist, has abided by the Oslo security apparatus, and has just done about everything to appease the United States," Abdelrahman noted. Efforts by US lawmakers Also on Thursday, Jewish Insider revealed that California Congressman Ro Khanna, a progressive Democrat, had begun circulating a draft letter among colleagues, calling on Trump to recognise Palestinian statehood. The US must " recognise the need to meaningfully address the decades-long conflict and injustice underlying these 22 months of horrific war", the letter read. "With such an outcome opposed by the current Israeli government and actively undermined by its accelerating annexation campaign in the West Bank - as well as open calls by Israeli ministers to annex much if not all of Gaza - meaningful action is necessary to bolster the legitimacy of Palestinian statehood," the letter concluded. At the time when it was obtained, there were no signatures added to the letter yet. Khanna quickly shared the article on his X account and insisted that its revelation hampers discussions with the White House. "Someone leaked our effort to try to sabotage it. Sad. It won't work," he wrote. "Recognising a Palestinian state is an idea whose time has come. The response of my colleagues has been overwhelming. We will build support and release prior to the UN convening," he added. Abdelrahman told MEE it's likely "going to be nipped in the bud", at least until Republicans gauge where public sentiment is after the 2026 midterm elections for lawmakers. More and more young America Firsters have questioned US loyalty to Israel's objectives over the past several weeks, highlighting a split among Trump's most ardent supporters. And even if all the other G7 countries recognise Palestinian statehood, there won't be much of an effect anyway, Carle argues. "I think the reality is that there are only two countries that can really affect Israel's foreign policy. One is Israel, and the other is the United States".
