Surrounded by unyielding enemies of its own making, and cheered on by opportunist allies determined to suck its blood to the last drop, Saudi Arabia seems to have landed itself in an unprecedented predicament. There has probably been no other day on which its enormous wealth seemed so utterly useless. Now, US President Donald Trump, publicly…
Just over a fortnight after he issued a decree stripping Kashmir of its semi-autonomous status, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will arrive in Abu Dhabi on Friday to collect a prize – the Order of Zayed, the statelet’s highest civilian award. This makes perfect business sense for the little Sparta of the Gulf, hell-bent on establishing…
Saudi Arabia has begun implementing a “strategic plan” to confront the Turkish government, after Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman decided he was being “too patient” with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the wake of journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. The plan is detailed in a confidential report based on open- and closed-source intelligence prepared by the…
There was a time – and to the Saudi crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, it must now seem a long time ago – that a war against Yemen’s Houthi rebels sounded like a very good idea. A quick win, using Saudi Arabia’s unchallenged air superiority in the north and their ally the United…
Since the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2, some American lawmakers have assumed the right and moral authority to dictate the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s succession line-up. In November, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham accused Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) of being “crazy” and asserted that “he…
In the second half of February, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, visited a number of Asian nations. His tour became a perceptible political event in the region of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. Out of the countries, initially included in the trip (Pakistan, China, India, Indonesia…
