United Arab Emirates

The Major Archbishop visiting communities in the region. After a first stop in the northern vicariate, the second in the south between Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Apostolic vicar Msgr. Martinelli: ‘Collaboration “virtue” of the Gulf Church’. Among the unresolved knots mentioned by the prelate is ‘jurisdiction in the Middle East, even if the modalities have not yet been defined’.

The Moldovan-Israeli rabbi killed in Dubai was a member of a Hasidic group that, although not the largest, is known for its outreach. It boasts nearly 5,000 emissaries (shluchim) who run about 3,500 institutions, including Chabad houses. For Israeli activist, defining the rabbi’s death as an act of anti-Semitism is limiting. His movement is "very important", but with critical issues.

Coinciding with the UN's Day of Prayer and Action for Children, 20 November is also the Day of Prayer and Action for Children, an initiative born in Japan to harness the potential of religious communities to protect the welfare of the youngest children. In its sixth year, religious leaders, intergovernmental representatives and NGOs gathered in the United Arab Emirates to call for concrete action against violations of the rights enshrined in the UN Convention.

For the Jordanian scholar, the plan that led to normalisation with Israel ‘seems dormant’ but remains a valid ‘basis’. The Middle East is a different reality today compared to the Tycoon's first term. The ‘zero conflict’ policy pursued by Riyadh privileges the economic sphere and opens up dialogue with Tehran. The centrality of the Palestinian issue to stop conflicts.

Msgr. Martinelli told AsiaNews that it is ‘urgent’ to relaunch the Church's ‘presence’ in the country tormented by conflict and violence. The testimony of the nuns, the work of Caritas and the local Christian reality. The Houthi missiles towards Israel, the neutrality of the Gulf and the fragile balance with Riyadh and Tehran. The Abrahamic House a model of encounter, confrontation and prayer.

Some two thousand children took part in the initiative promoted by the vicariate. The camps provided an opportunity to play, learn and grow in faith. Sharing experiences in a migrant reality is fundamental, building a Church on the move and synodal. For Archbishop Martinelli, participants “experienced the freedom of life”.

Archbishop Martinelli stresses to AsiaNews the link that makes the declaration signed yesterday in Jakarta and the 2019 text on human fraternity‘different and complementary’. In a world marked by war ‘the danger is getting used to dehumanisation’. Strong ‘symbols’ such as the Tunnel of Friendship or the Abrahamic House are essential. From the Pope also the call to look in depth’ in interreligious dialogue, returning “to the question of God as a fundamental human question”.

Today's news: 2.3 billion deal between Emirates and Jordan for a railway line. Beijing ‘warns’ students with access to sensitive data about national security risks. Over 100,000 people at the torchlight procession in Kolkata a month after the rape and murder of a female doctor. One thousand civilians ‘trapped’ in a Buddhist monastery by fighting in the Sagaing region of Myanmar.

In AsiaNews, the Jordanian scholar underlines the degree of ‘autonomy’ with which Nasrallah moves, who has turned Lebanon into the ‘front line’ to protect Tehran's interests. The militias supported by the Islamic Republic in the various countries of the Middle East are useful in pursuing the strategy of chaos. Pezeshkian ‘dialogue’ face with the West to ease sanctions.

At the end of three days of talks involving Hamas, Fatah and 12 other groups, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi announced today an agreement for an "interim national unity government" in post-war Gaza. But the official Palestinian News Agency makes no mention of this in reporting the deal. Meanwhile, the United States, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates are once again talking to each other about an international mission with a role for the latter in Gaza.

This week, the prelate made his first pastoral visit to the Christian place of worship located in the Abrahamic Family House, which includes also a mosque and synagogue. Dialogue with people of different faiths "is not only desirable, but necessary." The local Christian community is “multi-ethnic and multicultural ever since its origin”. The prelate stressed that bearing witness to the faith "excludes any form of proselytism.”

Work on the mega-project has resumed after a 10-year stalemate. A delegation from Beijing visited the country in recent days. A facility competing with the route planned by the Emirates and Turkey. The unresolved knot of maritime disputes with Iraq. At the weekend the Emir signed the appointment of Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah as Crown Prince.