What is certain about the visit by US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to Saudi Arabia and his meeting with the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) last Monday is that it couldn’t have been to extend an invitation to the Summit for Democracy that President Joe Biden plans to convene on December 9-10. …
Imagine what would have happened if Donald Trump had secured a second term and Benjamin Netanyahu enough votes in the Knesset to form a government. Iran would have been bombed by now – Netanyahu was pressing for an attack even when it was clear Trump had lost – Saudi would have normalised relations with Israel,…
The Biden effect is shaking up the Middle East and forcing foes to talk to one another. But where it’s all heading is even more exciting for Saudi Arabia and Iran. Unimaginable reconciliations are taking place across the entire region, since Joe Biden was sworn into office and indicated that he wasn’t going to tolerate…
It took Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman three years and six months to come to the same conclusion that some of us reached days into the blockade of Qatar: that it was doomed to failure. The project to silence the voice of an independent neighbour was doomed the moment that then-US defence secretary James…
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was reluctant to accede to demands from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to agree to an attack on Iran when they met last Sunday in Neom, Saudi sources with knowledge of the meeting told Middle East Eye. Bin Salman’s reluctance was said to be for two reasons. Firstly, he read…
You can detect the shadow of Donald Trump fading from the Middle East in the nervous twitches of his closest allies. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accelerating settlements before the inevitable freeze or pause in construction in January when President-Elect Joe Biden takes over. Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is releasing just a fraction of…
