The US launched strikes against Iran on Tuesday after attacks on three commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said, escalating tensions between Washington and Tehran.

CENTCOM said the strikes were carried out in response to Iranian strikes on commercial shipping and aimed at imposing costs for targeting vessels carrying civilian crews in international waters.

“Iran’s demonstrated aggression was unwarranted, dangerous, and a clear violation of the ceasefire,” CENTCOM said in a statement.

According to Reuters, Iranian state media reported that strikes hit areas including Qeshm Island, Bandar Abbas and Sirik.

The US had earlier said there would be consequences following the attacks on commercial vessels in the Strait of Hormuz, a major global shipping route.

US revokes waiver on oil-linked sanctions on Iran

The strikes followed a decision by the US Treasury Department earlier on Tuesday to revoke a waiver that had temporarily eased some oil-related sanctions on Iran.

CENTCOM said it had hit over 80 targets with precision munitions. It said that US forces “struck Iranian air defense systems, command and control networks, coastal radar sites, anti-ship missile capabilities, and more than 60 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps small boats in and near the strait.”

The Strait of Hormuz, located between Iran and Oman, is one of the world’s most important energy transit routes, with disruptions there carrying potential implications for global oil markets and maritime trade.

Meanwhile, according to a Reuters report, oil prices rose and bond futures dropped on Wednesday after the US strike on Iran and reinstated trade sanctions following attacks on tankers in the Strait of Hormuz.

US crude futures CLc1 were up 2.7 per cent to $72.40 a barrel and 10-year Treasury futures TNc1 slid seven ticks as traders priced in the risk that inflation and interest rates rise.

The UAE’s energy transition has entered a new phase. After rapidly scaling renewable generation, particularly solar, the focus is shifting from building clean energy capacity to creating the infrastructure required to integrate it reliably into the grid.

For decades, the country’s power system was built around predictable generation sources, but the growth of renewables is changing how electricity is produced, managed and dispatched. As solar becomes a larger part of the energy mix, technologies such as battery energy storage, flexible gas generation and digital grid management are becoming essential to maintaining reliability while reducing emissions.

With almost three decades of experience operating power and water infrastructure across the GCC, ENGIE has been closely involved in the region’s evolving energy landscape. Niko Cornelis, CEO GCC at ENGIE, discusses how the UAE is moving towards a more integrated energy model, why storage and flexibility will be critical, and how the next generation of grids will combine renewable generation, advanced technology and resilient infrastructure.

The UAE has been one of the fastest-moving markets on clean energy deployment in the region. Where would you say the country sits today in that journey?

The UAE’s energy transition has advanced faster than most comparable markets. Solar capacity has grown substantially, clean energy targets are backed by contracted projects rather than aspirational plans, and the strategic frameworks governing the sector have proven consistent enough for developers and operators that commit capital over decade-long horizons.

ENGIE has been part of this journey for almost 30 years, contributing to both power generation and water production across the country. Producing approximately 20 per cent of the UAE’s electricity gives us a ground-level view of how the system is evolving and what it takes to keep it performing reliably as the generation mix changes.

The country is now at the stage where the generation buildout and the grid integration layer are advancing together. This is the natural progression of an energy system that has successfully scaled clean generation and is now building the infrastructure to dispatch it with the same reliability the system has always delivered.

As solar takes a larger share of the generation mix, the operational profile of the grid changes significantly. What does that mean in practice for developers and operators like ENGIE?

As solar takes a larger share of the generation mix, the operational profile of the grid changes. Generation becomes more variable; the system needs assets that can not only produce, but can respond quickly.

In the UAE, this is being addressed through structured long-term frameworks. Our projects are contracted through PPAs that provide commercial visibility for decades, which is what allows us to invest in the right combination of technology – not just solar, but battery storage and flexible gas.

For ENGIE, our core business is built around integrating renewable generation with flexible capacity and storage, designed to deliver reliable power around the clock. This capability is proven across our global operations, and its directly relevant to what the UAE is building now.

ENGIE has operated across power and water infrastructure in the GCC for decades. What lessons from that experience apply to how the UAE is sequencing generation, storage and transmission today?

ENGIE’s three decades of operating major power and water assets in the GCC has taught one primary lesson: generation, storage, and flexible capacity must be planned and built together to ensure grid reliability. The UAE’s current energy strategy is a direct application of this principle.

This is visible in three ways:
Managing the shift to renewables: Leveraging its experience from running foundational gas assets like Al Taweelah A1, ENGIE understands the need for a stable grid. As it helps develop massive solar projects, this experience informs how to integrate vast intermittent renewables without sacrificing reliability.

Firming renewable power: The UAE is pairing its solar build-out with energy storage (BESS) and flexible, fast-ramping gas turbines

Integrated grid planning: The strategy recognises that generation and storage assets are only effective if connected by a modern, intelligent grid. The UAE is sequencing its investments to ensure its transmission network can manage the complex energy flows of a renewables-led system.

In short, the UAE’s disciplined approach, combining renewable generation with integrated storage and a modern grid, is a direct reflection of the hard-won operational lessons learned by partners like ENGIE over decades.

Battery energy storage has moved quickly from pilot to utility-scale deployment in the GCC. How do you see BESS reshaping the way solar is delivered to the grid?

The simplest way to think about it is that without storage, solar power is only available when the sun is shining. With BESS, you can store what’s generated during the day and release it into the grid during the evening peak or overnight. That changes solar from an intermittent source into something much closer to firm, dispatchable power, which is what grid operators require.

In the UAE, future large-scale solar projects will be designed with storage integrated from the outset, reflecting a clear intention to provide firm, dispatchable renewable power alongside traditional generation. ENGIE is actively building its capacity in this space and we see BESS as an essential tool in making our renewable projects bankable and operationally reliable over the long term.

Gas has historically been the backbone of UAE generation. As renewables scale, how is its role evolving?

Flexible and efficient gas generation remains the essential enabler of the UAE’s energy transition. As more renewable capacity comes online, the primary role of gas is shifting from providing continuous baseload to providing the essential firming capacity needed to guarantee grid stability.

This new role demands gas assets that are not only reliable but also aligned with long-term decarbonization goals. The focus is now on deploying state-of-the-art technology. For instance, high-efficiency combined-cycle gas turbines (CCGT) offer best-in-class performance, generating more electricity from less natural gas. This superior efficiency directly reduces CO2 emissions per megawatt-hour, ensuring that the grid is stabilised in the most carbon-conscious way possible.

Furthermore, the strategy for gas involves future-proofing these assets for a net-zero world. The latest generation of turbines are being designed to be “hydrogen-ready,” capable of co-firing hydrogen with natural gas today and transitioning to 100 per cent hydrogen in the future. This creates a clear pathway to decarbonise these plants over their operational life. Paired with the potential integration of Carbon Capture, Utilisation, and Storage (CCUS), these modern gas assets are being positioned not just as a bridging fuel, but as a long-term, low-carbon source of essential grid reliability.

Physical assets such as storage, flexible gas, and solar, are only part of the equation. What role does the digital – layer play in making it all work together?

As the generation mix becomes more diverse, the digital layer that orchestrates these assets is critical for grid stability. Real-time data and smart dispatch are essential for balancing the system as conditions change.

The UAE’s commitment to building this digital capability in parallel with its physical assets makes it a leading market. For ENGIE, this allows us to bring our global expertise in energy management directly to the UAE, using our advanced analytics and operational platforms to enhance reliability and optimisze the entire system.

The UAE Energy Strategy 2050 and Abu Dhabi’s 2035 clean energy targets have created a substantial project pipeline. How is ENGIE contributing to these agendas, and what does a project like Khazna represent in that context?

The UAE Energy Strategy 2050, the Abu Dhabi target to meet a majority of electricity demand from clean and renewable sources by 2035, and the project pipeline supporting both reflect the kind of long-term consistency that makes deep investment rational for developers and their partners.

ENGIE’s contribution to that pipeline includes the 1.5 GW Khazna Solar PV project, developed alongside Masdar under a 30-year agreement with EWEC. Once fully operational in 2028, this project will provide a significant volume of renewable power, directly supporting the UAE’s clean energy and decarbonisation objectives. Being part of a programme on this scale and maturity is where the energy transition moves from strategy to execution.

As the UAE moves into this next phase, what should observers be watching for as the markers of success?

From our perspective as a long-term energy partner in the UAE, the key indicator of success is not simply the gigawatts of new capacity built, but how effectively all the new and existing assets work together to ensure reliability, year after year.

What makes the UAE’s approach noteworthy is that this integration is already at the heart of the strategy. We see that renewable generation, flexible gas, battery storage, and desalination are being planned and deployed to function as a single, cohesive system.

For observers, this tangible shift from focusing on individual projects to executing a fully integrated energy plan is the most important marker of a successful, resilient transition. Our role, as a committed partner, is to help deliver this next phase by combining generation, flexibility, and infrastructure to support the UAE’s long-term energy security.

We profile 50 of the most influential MENA leaders and CEOs, whose decisions and business acumen are shaping the future of business across the region. They are driving transformation, elevating industries, and defining a more ambitious, dynamic and globally connected MENA region.

The financial industry has fixed its attention on artificial intelligence, yet AI alone cannot reshape global markets. Machine intelligence is advancing quickly, but the infrastructure beneath it was built for an earlier era. The future of finance will instead rest on two foundational layers, with AI serving as the intelligence layer and tokenisation serving as the infrastructure layer.

AI is already creating a new class of market participant. Autonomous agents now research opportunities, allocate capital, rebalance portfolios and execute trades with limited human involvement. The scale of that shift is already measurable. Wolters Kluwer reports that 44 per cent of finance teams will use agentic AI in 2026, an increase of more than 600 per cent on the previous year, while McKinsey records 50 of the world’s largest banks announcing more than 160 agentic AI use cases in 2025 alone.

“The next generation of investors may not always be human. Increasingly, they will be AI-powered systems acting on behalf of individuals, institutions, and businesses. Such systems hold an advantage in speed and scale, acting far faster than any human trading desk. Markets that serve them continuously, across borders and without manual intervention will capture that activity first,” said Tajinder Virk, co-founder and CEO of Finvasia Group and Blockmaze.

Yet that intelligence is being asked to operate on infrastructure that was never designed for it. Legacy markets depend on fragmented intermediaries, manual reconciliation, limited trading windows and jurisdictional barriers. Each handoff adds cost, delay and risk of error, frictions a machine operating at scale cannot absorb. AI can make intelligent decisions in milliseconds, yet it cannot operate efficiently on plumbing assembled decades ago.

Tokenisation closes that gap, as tokenised stocks and real-world assets create programmable, machine-readable ownership that AI systems can verify, settle and transfer instantly. Settlement that once took days can complete in seconds, and compliance rules can be written directly into the asset itself. Ownership becomes something software can read and act upon directly, rather than a record locked inside incompatible systems. AI supplies the intelligence, tokenisation supplies the infrastructure that allows autonomous markets to function securely and compliantly.

The rise of AI investing strengthens the case for tokenised equities. Investors are allocating more capital towards AI companies and AI-powered sectors, and tokenised stocks make those opportunities more globally accessible through fractional ownership, seamless cross-border investing and continuous digital infrastructure.

Forecasts for that transition are substantial. Boston Consulting Group estimates tokenised assets could reach around $16tn by 2030, close to 10 per cent of global GDP, while a more recent projection produced with Ripple points to almost $19tn by 2033. Each trend reinforces the other. Growth in AI investing increases demand for assets that machines can hold and move, while tokenised equities give AI systems the rails they need to act.

Trust will determine which infrastructure prevails. Autonomous agents cannot be allowed to transact on rails that lack verifiable ownership, regulatory recognition and built-in compliance. Regulators will not permit autonomous systems to move capital through markets that cannot prove who owns what, and institutions will not commit volume to rails that sit outside established legal frameworks. Compliance, rather than slowing this transition, is its precondition. The convergence of AI, tokenisation and regulated digital markets therefore depends on a foundation that institutions and regulators can rely on.

“Artificial intelligence is transforming how investment decisions get made, but intelligence on its own has nowhere to act without trusted infrastructure beneath it. Tokenisation provides that foundation, recording, transferring and governing ownership in a form machines can verify and act on directly. The firms that lead the next decade will treat AI and tokenisation not as competing trends but as two layers of a single system, intelligence on top and infrastructure underneath,” added Virk.

Blockmaze positions itself at exactly this convergence, as a compliance-first infrastructure layer for the next generation of finance. The company is building regulated, tokenised rails where AI, tokenisation and digital markets meet, allowing autonomous and human investors alike to own and exchange assets with confidence. Blockmaze’s regulatory alignment gives banks, asset managers and digital-native investors a single venue they can trust. The future, on this view, belongs not simply to AI, but to AI operating on trusted, tokenised financial infrastructure.

Saudi Arabia has launched a pilot programme for its new Package Visa, allowing eligible international visitors to obtain a tourist visa as part of an integrated travel package, in the latest move to simplify entry procedures and accelerate tourism growth under Vision 2030.

According to Saudi Press Agency, the initiative, currently available through approved general travel and tourism service providers in selected pilot markets, has been developed through a joint effort by the Ministry of Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Interior and the Insurance Authority.

The Package Visa allows travellers to complete their visa application alongside booking return flights and accommodation at licensed hospitality establishments through a single platform. Packages can also include events, activities and tourism experiences, creating a more streamlined visitor journey.

The launch builds on Saudi Arabia’s broader tourism liberalisation strategy, following the introduction of the tourist e-Visa, visa on arrival and the Stopover Transit Visa. Together, these initiatives helped the Kingdom welcome more than 29 million inbound visitors in 2025, highlighting the rapid expansion of its tourism sector.

Minister of Tourism Ahmed Al-Khateeb stated: “Saudi Arabia’s tourism story has always been about ambition, openness, and continuous progress. With the Package Visa, we are taking the next step: empowering our travel and tourism partners, simplifying the journey for visitors, and creating a smarter, more seamless way to experience Saudi Arabia. This pilot is a glimpse of what comes next, and we invite our partners and future visitors to be part of it.”

For travel providers, the programme creates an opportunity to integrate visa processing directly into travel packages, helping reduce friction in the booking process while encouraging longer stays and higher visitor spending through more comprehensive itineraries.

To participate in the programme, travel and tourism service providers must meet specific operational requirements, including operating digital booking platforms and providing 24/7 technical support and customer service.

The Package Visa forms part of Saudi Arabia’s continued efforts to strengthen private sector participation in tourism while making the Kingdom more accessible to international travellers. Officials said the initiative reflects a broader shift towards integrated travel services designed to enhance visitor experience, support tourism businesses and reinforce Saudi Arabia’s position as one of the world’s fastest-growing tourism destinations.