A youth poses while holding two fishes before his face in Iraq's southern port city of al-Faw, 90 kilometres south of Basra near the Shatt al-Arab and the Gulf, on May 18, 2020. In Iraq, a national lockdown to halt the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic has found some unexpected fans: local businesses who no longer have to compete with Turkish, Iranian or Chinese imports. Those countries, as well as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait, typically flood Iraqi markets with inexpensive products at prices local producers can't compete with. (Photo by Hussein Faleh/AFP Photo)

In this August 21, 2017 photo released by the U.S. Defense Department, Qatari special operations personnel conduct a military free-fall Friendship Jump over Qatar. The U.S. military has halted some exercises with its Gulf Arab allies over the ongoing diplomatic crisis targeting Qatar, trying to use its influence to end the monthslong dispute, authorities told The Associated Press on Friday, October 6, 2017. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Trevor T. McBride/ U.S. Air Force via AP Photo)

Danila Shmelev, an artist from Moscow, Russia, works on a 3-D picture in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, February 27, 2017. Artists who focus on 3-D pictures have gathered in Dubai for the Dubai Canvas 3-D Art Festival, which runs from March 1 through March 7. (Photo by Jon Gambrell/AP Photo)

Egyptian workers eat on a truck in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, January 22, 2023. Egypt is in an economic crisis is partly caused by the yearlong grinding Russian invasion of Ukraine. But the conflict in Europe has also exposed the frailties of an economy suffering from decades of mismanagement, turmoil from its 2011 Arab Spring popular uprising, years of militant attacks and then, the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Amr Nabil/AP Photo)

Jordanian policewomen train in unarmed combat in the training city August 21, 2008 in Muwaqqar, east of Amman, Jordan. A women's police academy opened in Amman in 1972 making Jordan the first Arab country to admit women to its police services. Jordanian policewomen work as personalities' guards, special security operations and traffic policewomen including motorcycling among other professions. (Photo by Salah Malkawi/Getty Images)

In this March 7, 1991 file photo, a U.S. Marine patrol walks across the charred oil landscape near a burning well during perimeter security patrol near Kuwait City. Twenty five years after the first U.S. Marines swept across the border into Kuwait in the 1991 Gulf War, American forces find themselves battling the extremist Islamic State group, born out of al-Qaida, in the splintered territories of Iraq and Syria. The Arab allies that joined the 1991 coalition are fighting their own conflicts both at home and abroad, as Iran vies for greater regional power following a nuclear deal with world powers. (Photo by John Gaps III/AP Photo)

A Palestinian boy herds sheep in front of the ruins of Yasser Arafat International Airport, which was bombed by Israel in the past, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip February 5, 2016. Nabil Shurafa's travel agency in Gaza was once packed with clients booking flights to London, Paris, New York or cities across the Arab world. These days, he's lucky if anyone comes in, as so few people can get out. (Photo by Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters)

“Dubai is sometimes called the “City of Gold” because of its stunning growth from a sleepy Gulf port to a world-famous business crossroads in the space of a single generation. Its nickname has a literal meaning for traders in the precious metal. The city is building itself up as a center for the gold trade, between sources in Africa and consumers in the rising economies of China and India”. – Kamran Jebreili via Associated Press

Photo: A gold press operator collects 10 gram gold blanks to press them with the logo of the Emirates Gold company in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Gold prices remained relatively steady in 2012, close to $1,700 an ounce. (Photo by Kamran Jebreili/AP Photo)