In the ME you are not allowed to leave the country, unless you have approval from your sponsor I.E. QR!
Carrying knives....to cut a long story short sometimes upper management gets involved in our day to day ops. One captain refused to carry VIPs with daggers on his flight. The guys did not want to hand over the weapon so he denied them boarding. CEO got involved. Capt was offloaded and received warning letter for insubordination. Replacing Capt accepted to do the flight against all regulations but as a favor to the boss. (That person now is a chief pilot!)
One little piece of advise: be sure to get all info before coming here! Its a different world all together!
By The Way, there is NO 777 base planned in the states for at least another 3-4 years so dont let them fool you during the roadshow!