Isabel Debre

This image provided by Vida Mehrannia shows Swedish-Iranian researcher Ahmad Reza Jalali in Barcelona, Spain in 2014. Iran has sentenced Jalali to death for allegedly spying for Israel. (Vida Mehrannia via AP)

May 12, 2022, 12:18 pm

Wife of Swedish-Iranian facing death as ‘Mossad spy’ says Iran is ‘sacrificing’ him

Ahmad Reza Jalali is set to be executed within 9 days; experts say case is example of Iranian tactic of holding dual-nationals hostage as diplomatic chips

By Isabel Debre

Rabbi Elie Abadie says a blessing as he hosts a lunch for a Jewish business delegation at a villa that serves as a temporary synagogue for his congregation in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, May 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

May 11, 2022, 5:16 pm

Despite normalization with Israel, plans for Dubai synagogue at a standstill

Fast-growing Jewish community is running up against series of hurdles in the Gulf, where non-Muslim practice is tightly controlled and permits for religious buildings are limited

By Isabel Debre

A food-delivery worker for Deliveroo takes a moment as he returns to work in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, May 2, 2022. (Isabel Debre/AP)

May 10, 2022, 1:44 pm

Dubai delivery workers go on 2nd illegal strike to protest meager pay

Foreign drivers contracted by local unit of German company push for pay increase from $2.04 per delivery to $2.72 to offset UAE’s spiking gas prices and other costs

By Isabel Debre

A delivery driver for the app Deliveroo prepares to make a delivery, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 9, 2021. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell, File)

May 2, 2022, 5:27 pm

Dubai food delivery drivers launch rare strike to protest pay cuts

Mass walkout paralyzes Deliveroo, one of the country’s main delivery apps, and revives concerns about labor conditions in the Gulf emirate

By Isabel Debre

A Russian-speaking expat celebrating Easter lights a candle at the Christian Orthodox Church in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, April 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Isabel Debre)

April 24, 2022, 9:17 pm

In far-off UAE, Russian and Ukrainian expats mark Easter in the shadow of war

Hundreds crowd Arabian Peninsula’s only Russian Orthodox Church, with the two nationalities’ usually harmonious celebrations now mired in unspoken tensions

By Isabel Debre

A Journalist watches a show of the Israeli pavilion during a media tour at the Dubai Expo in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Sept. 27, 2021 (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

March 31, 2022, 5:18 pm

Party’s over as Dubai’s Expo 2020 comes to a close after 6 months of festivities

Pandemic-delayed event to shut its doors after 8 years of anticipation, over $7 billion in investment, 240 million hours of labor and a renewed focus on troubles of migrant workers

By Isabel Debre

March 20, 2022, 11:10 pm

UK-US dual citizen returned to Iranian jail despite deal

Morad Tahbaz was released last week alongside two other British citizens, but is sent back to jail barely two days after meeting his family in Tehran

By Isabel Debre

Illustrative: An Iranian Revolutionary Guard speedboat moves in the Persian Gulf while an oil tanker is seen in background, July 2, 2012. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

March 17, 2022, 11:48 am

UAE-flagged cargo ship reportedly capsizes off Iranian coast

Operating company says Al Salmy 6 sank due to poor weather; rescuers working to save crew of 30, consisting of nationals from Sudan, India, Pakistan, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia

By Isabel Debre

A US Navy Martin UAV drone flies over the Gulf waters as the Royal Bahrain Naval Force (RBNF) Abdulrahman Al Fadhel takes part in a joint naval exercise between the US 5th Fleet Command and Bahraini forces, on October 26, 2021. (Mazen Mahdi/AFP)

February 21, 2022, 6:23 pm

US Navy to establish Mideast drone task force with regional allies

5th fleet commander says Israel likely to join unmanned naval surveillance detail, which is set to launch in 2023; calls Iran ‘the primary regional threat’

By Isabel Debre and Jon Gambrell

Workers clean an area at Expo 2020 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, October 3, 2021. (AP Photo/Jon Gambrell, File)

February 2, 2022, 5:28 pm

Report reveals string of labor rights abuses at Dubai’s Expo 2020

London-based group Equidem says workers were forced to pay illegal recruitment fees to get jobs, face racial discrimination and routine threats of deportation and violence

By Isabel Debre

US service members board a stateless fishing vessel transiting international waters in the Gulf of Oman as a rigid-hull inflatable boat and patrol coastal ship USS Chinook (PC 9) sail nearby, Jan. 18, 2022. (US Navy via AP)

January 23, 2022, 3:00 pm

US detains ship loaded with bomb-making compound heading from Iran to Yemen

Same stateless fishing dhow was stopped last year with cargo of weapons UN said was likely intended for Houthi rebels; UK seizes $26m worth of drugs in Mideast waters

By Isabel Debre

Iranians mourn in Tehran during a funeral procession for 150 Iranian soldiers killed in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), whose bodies were recovered from battlefields, on January 6, 2022. (AFP)

January 6, 2022, 3:02 pm

Thousands of Iranian mourners attend mass funeral for 250 dead in ’80s war with Iraq

None of the victims’ remains identified; tombstones read ‘anonymous martyr’; largest such ceremony in recent years, ahead of 2nd anniversary of downing of Ukrainian plane

By Isabel Debre

In this February 8, 2021 file photo, a man receives his Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine from a medical staffer at Guru Nanak Darbar temple in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)

December 21, 2021, 7:31 pm

UAE reports major virus surge, despite boasting 99% vaccination rate

Country records 452 infections in past 24 hours, including 2 deaths, after cases hovered at 50 a day just over a week ago

By Isabel Debre

International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi gives an interview to The Associated Press, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on December 14, 2021. (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)

December 14, 2021, 8:54 pm

2015 nuclear deal no longer sufficient for reality of Iran in 2022, IAEA chief says

Rafael Grossi, head of UN nuclear watchdog, warns Tehran that there is no way around inspectors, says world currently only getting ‘blurred image’ of country’s nuclear program

By Jon Gambrell and Isabel Debre

Maya, 36, plays with her one-year-old undocumented daughter in a dank, overstuffed section of an apartment, subdivided by hinged partitions, that she shares with eight other women, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Nov. 24, 2021. (Kamran Jebreili/AP)

December 13, 2021, 12:37 pm

No longer criminalized in UAE, out-of-wedlock babies still remain in shadows

Unwed mothers may not face jail anymore, but a tangle of red tape prevents documentation of their children

By Isabel Debre