Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani had long planned to abdicate in favour of 33-year-old Crown Prince Sheikh Tamim.
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani will meet ruling family members on Monday amid reports that he intends to hand over power to his crown prince, Sheikh Tamim.
Twelve UAE nationals were arrested after the boats allegedly crossed into Iran’s territorial waters.
Senior Afghan officials had accused Washington on Wednesday of breaking assurances to Kabul.
A team of U.S. negotiators arrived in Qatar earlier on Wednesday and held a meeting with Afghan diplomats in the Qatari capital.
Ties between Egypt and the UAE have been strained since the revolution that toppled veteran Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak.
Ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran are tense over many issues, notably the war in Syria.
The court made its ruling after throwing out an opposition challenge to changes to the electoral system decreed by the emir.
Hassan Rohani, who replaces Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is known for a conciliatory approach and is backed by reformists.
Rohani will take up the presidency in August, replacing Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was legally barred from seeking a third consecutive term.
Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has whittled away the army’s power and even holds up his executed predecessor as a political model.
Witnesses said police surrounded around 100 protesters at a demonstration in Buraidah on Tuesday and made some arrests.
The two were detained since they reported on the protests that have been taking place in Turkey for almost two weeks.
Demonstrations began two weeks ago and so far three people have been killed and about 5,000 hurt.
Members of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah intervened in Syria’s civil war in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
Kuwait has penalised several Twitter users in recent months for slurs against the emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah.
Both Washington and Amman said on Sunday the Eager Lion exercises were not related to the war in Syria.
Hundreds of police and protesters have been injured since riots began on Friday.
The GCC has called Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria “sectarian intervention”.
Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird confirmed the news in Ottawa.
The move comes a day after Bahrain’s foreign minister called the head of the Shi’ite Muslim group a “terrorist”.
Prince Miteb’s promotion bolsters his credentials within the ruling al-Saud family.
Mustapha al-Shamali is Kuwait’s long-serving finance minister.
A former member of parliament, Musallam al-Barrak has been out on bail since he was sentenced in April but could still receive another sentence.
In January the government signed a deal with a consortium led by France’s GDF-Suez to build the 1,500 megawatt Az Zour plant.
The Canadian visa waiver announced earlier this year has still not come into effect, confirmed embassies.
The new structure for Dubai’s government is to be implemented in two years’ time and will be “the Government of the future”.
The country’s mission in Libya was targeted by a car bomb in April.
An investigation traced the attacks to hundreds of internet protocol addresses in a number of countries.
One of the world’s richest countries per capita, Kuwait has struggled for years to get big infrastructure projects off the ground because of bureaucratic red tape and political turmoil.