A United Arab Emirates-backed Saudi effort to wrest control from Jordan of Islam’s holy places in Jerusalem signals a sharper, more overt edge to Saudi religious diplomacy and the kingdom’s quest for regional hegemony that risks deepening divides in the Muslim world. The effort also serves to support Donald J. Trump’s plan for a resolution…
Iran’s Indian-back port of Chabahar, inaugurated months before the United States re-imposed sanctions on the Islamic republic, is where Asia and the Middle East’s multiple political conflicts and commercial rivalries collide. Chabahar was destined to become a player in geopolitical and economic manoeuvring between China, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and…
Oil realities in 2018 Donald Trump has Tweeted about a phone call to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman where the elderly monarch is said to have agreed to increase the production of oil to 2 million barrels per day so as to lower fuel prices in the United States, the world’s second largest energy consumer. https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1013023608040513537…
History may have registered stranger geoeconomic bedfellows. But in the current OPEC-plus world, the rules of the game are now de facto controlled by OPEC powerhouse Saudi Arabia in concert with non-OPEC Russia. Russia may even join OPEC as an associate member. There’s a key clause in the bilateral Riyadh-Moscow agreement stipulating that joint interventions…
As TV channel Al Arabiya has reported, Jordan withdrew its ambassador Abdullah Suleyman Abu Rumman from Iran. Amman presented a very interesting interpretation to justify its actions. This decision was adopted by the Council of Ministers of the Kingdom in relation Tehran’s policy of interference into affairs of the countries of the Middle East. It…
A grenade went off shortly after Prime Minister Abiy was done addressing a huge crowd of supporters in central Addis Ababa, killing at least two people and injuring dozens. The country’s leader sharply condemned the attack and vowed that the perpetrators won’t succeed in destabilizing Africa’s second-most populous state and its fastest-growing economy. It’s not…
