When Saad Hariri appeared on Saudi state-run Al Arabiya television last week to deliver his “resignation” as the Lebanese Prime Minister, many felt that Hariri, who is also a Saudi citizen was being forced to resign by the Saudi regime. Several obvious inconsistencies were present in the original “resignation” speech. First and most strangely, he…
Our region stands on the brink of war. We should not let small details — such as the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri’s resignation or the detention of princes and former ministers in Saudi Arabia — divert us from the big picture and the real developments taking place behind the scenes. The really…
Mass arrests of senior royals, amid fear of assassinations, indicate that what is going on in Saudi Arabia is a far-reaching purge. The facade of a “corruption probe” – promoted in part by Western news media and US President Donald Trump – is a barely credible cover. The cover is not just for a ruthless…
Whatever their plans, the stakeholders in the Middle East must remember that clever plans to remake the Middle East have hitherto been remarkable for their inability to anticipate countermoves by opposing forces. Tension is increasing all across the Middle East and the United States is again falling into a trap set up by its so-called…
Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman forced the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and subsequently detained him not just to destabilize Lebanon, but because the foreign leader is a dual-Saudi national who was plotting against the future King and could have granted “political asylum” to fleeing royals eager to one day exact their revenge…
The anachronistic family enterprise known as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has long been politically fragile. In some respects it is remarkable that this entity has endured into the Twenty-first Century. A clan of royals lives on rake-offs from the country’s petroleum wealth, while using more of that wealth to buy off a fast-growing population. The Saudis…
