Dubai: US President Donald Trump’s sons are to inaugurate a branded golf course in Dubai on Saturday, the first public launch for the business empire since Trump took office in January.
Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump will attend the opening of the Trump International Golf Club Dubai, developed by luxury real estate company DAMAC Properties. The launch comes amid growing concern in Washington over the president’s potential conflict of interest.
In January, Trump — at the time still president-elect — said he had rejected a $2 billion deal with DAMAC in Dubai as a personal and not official move.
“I didn’t have to turn it down,” he told a press conference in January. “But I have a no-conflict-of-interest provision as president.”
Trump sparked controversy last year in the mainly Muslim United Arab Emirates when he said during his campaign that he wanted to impose a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims” entering the United States.
Dubai-based concept store Lifestyle, which has branches across the Middle East, Africa and Pakistan, announced it would no longer sell Trump-branded home decor items out of respect for its customers.
DAMAC Properties at the time declined to comment on Trump’s remarks, but said the golf course development would continue.
The United Arab Emirates is not among the seven majority-Muslim countries listed on Trump’s controversial executive order restricting travel to the United States.
Since his November victory, Trump has said he will remove himself from running his business empire and transfer corporate control to his two eldest sons.
But the president has resisted divesting despite calls by ethics organizations.
The Trump Organization has instead said it would no longer pursue new deals outside of the United States.
The 18-hole Dubai golf course predates the pledge, with talks surrounding the project going back at least to 2015.
Critics have raised questions of conflict of interest over Trump’s business ties on the grounds that while the president is no longer nominally in charge of his eponymous empire, he may continue to profit from it.
Ethics lawyers in the United States are now suing Trump for alleged violation of the US constitution.
Liberal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) filed a lawsuit in January, arguing that Trump’s business ties violate an emolument clause in the constitution which prohibits the acceptance of payments from foreign governments by US officials.
US presidents are not legally required to give up business or investments while in office.
-- Agence France Presse
Trump sons to launch Dubai golf course
Trump sons to launch Dubai golf course
UN peacekeepers say Israeli forces fired on them in southern Lebanon
- “Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF soldiers in a Merkava tank,” UNIFIL said
- It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese territory
BEIRUT: The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon said Wednesday that Israeli forces fired on its peacekeepers a day earlier in the country’s south, urging Israel’s army to “cease aggressive behavior.”
It is the latest such incident reported by the peacekeepers in southern Lebanon, where UNIFIL acts as a buffer between Israel and Lebanon and has been working with Lebanon’s army to support a year-old truce between Israel and militant group Hezbollah.
“Yesterday, peacekeepers in vehicles patrolling the Blue Line were fired upon by IDF (Israeli army) soldiers in a Merkava tank,” a UNIFIL statement said, referring to the de facto border.
“One ten-round burst of machine-gun fire was fired above the convoy, and four further ten-round bursts were fired nearby,” the statement said.
It said that both the peacekeepers and the Israeli tank were in Lebanese territory at the time of the incident and that the Israeli military had been informed of the location and timing of the peacekeeping patrol in advance.
“Peacekeepers asked the IDF to stop firing through UNIFIL’s liaison channels... Fortunately, no one was injured,” it said.
Last month UNIFIL said Israeli soldiers shot at its troops in the south, while Israel’s military said it mistook blue helmets for “suspects” and fired warning shots.
In October, UNIFIL said one of its members was wounded by an Israeli grenade dropped near a UN position in the country’s south, the third incident of its kind in just over a month.
“Attacks on or near peacekeepers are serious violations of (UN) Security Council Resolution 1701,” UNIFIL said on Wednesday, referring to the 2006 resolution that formed the basis of the November 2024 truce.
“We call on the IDF to cease aggressive behavior and attacks on or near peacekeepers working to rebuild stability along the Blue Line,” the peacekeepers said.
Israel carries out regular attacks on Lebanon despite the truce, usually saying it is targeting sites and operatives belonging to Hezbollah, which it accuses of rearming.
It has also kept troops in five south Lebanon areas it deems strategic.
On Saturday, a UN Security Council delegation visiting Lebanon urged all parties to uphold the ceasefire.
It emphasized that the “safety of peacekeepers must be respected and that they must never be targeted,” after gunmen on mopeds attacked UNIFIL personnel last week.
