‘Avoid Driving’: Dust Alerts as Storms Return to UAE

Vehicles during a heavy sandstorm in Gulf emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 14 August 2022. (EPA)
Vehicles during a heavy sandstorm in Gulf emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 14 August 2022. (EPA)
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‘Avoid Driving’: Dust Alerts as Storms Return to UAE

Vehicles during a heavy sandstorm in Gulf emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 14 August 2022. (EPA)
Vehicles during a heavy sandstorm in Gulf emirate of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 14 August 2022. (EPA)

Large parts of the United Arab Emirates were hit by dust and sandstorms on Sunday as authorities urged caution on the roads and battened down for expected heavy rain.

Homes and landmarks in major cities were caked in a fine layer of brown dirt and visibility plunged in the latest adverse weather following a series of choking dust storms around the Middle East.

On Saturday, Abu Dhabi's official media office urged motorists to "avoid driving unless absolutely necessary". Visibility was below 1 kilometer (0.6 miles) in Abu Dhabi and Dubai on Sunday.

Forecasts of rainstorms this week, unusual in high summer in the desert state, follow the deaths of seven Asian migrants in flash flooding last month.

Emergency services said they had answered hundreds of calls for help as floodwaters swamped the streets of the port city of Fujairah and other eastern districts.

A series of sandstorms, widely thought to be exacerbated by climate change, have smothered Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran and others this year, closing airports and schools and sending thousands to hospital with breathing problems.

The UAE is highly vulnerable to global warming, according to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, as temperatures soar, rainfall dries up and storms increase, while rising sea levels threaten its low-lying coast.



Saudi Arabia Welcomes Macron’s Decision to Recognize Palestine as a State 

France's President Emmanuel Macron looks on as he waits for Lebanon's Prime Minister ahead of their working lunch at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris, on July 24, 2025. (AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron looks on as he waits for Lebanon's Prime Minister ahead of their working lunch at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris, on July 24, 2025. (AFP)
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Saudi Arabia Welcomes Macron’s Decision to Recognize Palestine as a State 

France's President Emmanuel Macron looks on as he waits for Lebanon's Prime Minister ahead of their working lunch at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris, on July 24, 2025. (AFP)
France's President Emmanuel Macron looks on as he waits for Lebanon's Prime Minister ahead of their working lunch at the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris, on July 24, 2025. (AFP)

Saudi Arabia welcomed on Thursday French President Emmanuel Macron’s decision to recognize Palestine as a state.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said the Kingdom hails “this historic decision, which underscores the international community’s consensus on the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and to establish their independent state on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

The Kingdom stressed “the importance of continued efforts by states to implement international resolutions and uphold international law.”

It reiterated its call for all countries that have not yet recognized the State of Palestine “to take similar positive steps and adopt serious positions that support peace and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”

Macron said in a post on X that he will formalize the decision at the UN General Assembly in September. “The urgent thing today is that the war in Gaza stops and the civilian population is saved,” he wrote.

The mostly symbolic move puts added diplomatic pressure on Israel as the war and humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip rage. France is now the biggest Western power to recognize Palestine, and the move could pave the way for other countries to do the same. More than 140 countries recognize a Palestinian state, including more than a dozen in Europe.