Saudi Arabia is concerned by the recent increase in oil prices as the market is no longer short on supply, the country’s oil minister said on Monday. Ali al-Naimi said the Gulf state would continue to increase output to meet any additional demand but warned that the recent price spike was not due to lack of supply. “Saudi Arabia is concerned about rising oil prices in the international oil market. The current high price of oil is simply not supported by market fundamentals,” Naimi in a statement sent to the media.
Yemen’s government has announced the death of a senior Al Qaeda leader, claiming he was killed during an operation in the south of the country. Said al-Shihri was reportedly killed in the Hadramawt area in circumstances which remain unclear. The Yemeni government on Monday claimed responsibility for the killing, but analysts have speculated it could have been the work of a US drone.
Trade between China and the UAE rose 10 percent in 2011, from $14.2 billion to $15.6 billion last year, the UAE’s Ministry of Foreign Trade has announced. China is the second-largest trading partner for the UAE, following India. China’s trade links with the entire Middle East have been getting stronger in recent years, with McKinsey forecasting that by 2020, total trade flows between the regions will reach between $350-500 billion.
Qatar has ordered the expulsion of the son-in-law of ousted Tunisian president Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, who had fled to the Gulf Arab state during the Tunisian uprising, a presidential spokesman said. Sakhr Materi, who was a powerful figure during the rule of his father-in-law, is wanted in Tunisia for financial corruption. Tunisian presidential spokesman Moncef Marzouki said in a statement that Qatar had agreed to a Tunisian request to expel Materi.
