The United Arab Emirates' decision to leave OPEC was a sovereign choice driven by production strategy, not politics, UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei insisted Saturday in a post on X.
Suhail Al Mazrouei © EPN
The United Arab Emirates' decision to leave OPEC was a sovereign choice driven by production strategy, not politics, UAE Energy Minister Suhail Al Mazrouei insisted Saturday in a post on X.
"It is not driven by political considerations, nor does it reflect any division between the UAE and its partners," he wrote, seeking to downplay tensions following the UAE's departure from the oil producers' group on May 1.
The exit nonetheless carries significant weight. As one of OPEC's largest producers, the UAE's withdrawal weakens the group's grip on global oil supplies and deepens a growing rift with Saudi Arabia - OPEC’s de facto leader - at a particularly sensitive moment. An unprecedented energy crisis, triggered by the war involving Iran, has already exposed sharp divisions among Gulf nations.
The UAE's move signals a new era of fracture within a bloc that has long shaped the world's energy landscape.
By Mariam Al Mualla
The ink on the US-Iran framework agreement was barely dry before the recriminations began, not from Tehran's enemies in Washington, but from the very allies Donald Trump was supposed to be protecting.
Authorities in southern Lebanon warned people displaced by three months of war between Israel and Hezbollah against rushing home on Monday despite a U.S.-Iran deal to end the wider conflict, as Israel said it would not withdraw troops from the south.
Let us call it what it is. The framework agreement on Iran is not a peace deal. It is a capitulation dressed up in diplomatic language, and its most immediate victims are the two countries that have paid the highest price in blood and treasure to confront Iran's aggression: Israel and Lebanon.
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