It’s been a bad week for the Saudi rulers in the US media. A slew of embarrassing stories got wide coverage, with the seeming intention of undermining Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies. Not coincidentally, the Saudi-led bloc then capitulated in its standoff with Qatar. The row between Qatar and the other Gulf states of …
Continue reading US Dishes Dirt on Saudis to Flush Gulf Blockade on Qatar
Theresa May has oddly declined to comment on the reported arrest of the mini-skirted lass who was videotaped cavorting through an ancient Najd village this week, provoking unexpected roars of animalistic male fury in a kingdom known for its judicial leniency, political moderation, gender equality and fraternal love for its Muslim neighbours. May should, surely, have drawn the …
Continue reading Saudi Arabia: the Kingdom Whose Name We Dare Not Speak At All
What has been an open secret across the Arab world is not a secret anymore even in the US: What happened last month in the deep recesses of the House of Saud with the ascension of Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, aka MBS, was in fact a white coup. Nearly a month ago, as I’ve …
The central event of the G20 summit in Hamburg was the meeting between Putin and Trump. The Russian and American presidents, among other things, agreed on the situation in southwest Syria. The heads of the Russian Federation and the USA did not discuss the crisis in the Persian Gulf after the Saudi Arabia, the UAE, …
Iran calls the US a terrorist sponsoring state and the US strikes back with sanctions. The United States has just levelled new sanctions on Iran. The stated justification for the sanctions is Iran’s procurement of “military hardware, such as fast attack boats and unmanned aerial vehicles”. But while the US admits that Iran has not …
The saga of the Saudi-Qatar dispute continues. This week saw some important developments, which might provide pointers to what is likely to happen in the coming weeks and months, and possibly years. As expected, the US stepped in to ensure that the Saudis, UAE, and Bahrain did not escalate their actions against Qatar. In particular, …
Continue reading Trump Steps in to Protect US Assets in the Persian Gulf Mafia Battle
The manipulation of news and the distortion of reality are the most powerful weapons in the hands of power. They can make a whole reality disappear. Yemen’s, for example. A child dies in Yemen every ten minutes from preventable causes, UNICEF reported in June. These deaths are only part of a humanitarian catastrophe, among the …
Continue reading Yemen: The War That Isn’t Happening Even as It’s Happening
The Ansar Allah Movement was founded in 1992 under the name of “Faithful Youth Movement”. The movement’s followers are known as the Houthis, named after the founder of the movement Badr al-Din al-Houthi, who is considered its religious leader. While many believe that the Houthis are Shiites, they are in fact from the Zaydi faith, …
Continue reading Yemen’s Ansar Allah Movement (Houthis): What is it?
It is hard to imagine that along with the catastrophe that has been inflicted on Syria for the past six years, another calamity is unfolding in Yemen of damning proportions while the whole world looks on with indifference. What is happening in Yemen is not merely a violent conflict between combating forces for power, but …
