Mar 8 2018
An extraordinary welcome is laid on for Muhammad Bin-Salman in London By Abdel Bari Atwan London these days is hosting a political circus without precedent, featuring a variety of performers and impresarios and a clash of political colours, due to the three-day visit of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia which began on Wednesday. Days […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Mar 2 2018
Score-settling between Trump’s Arab allies undermines his plans against Iran By Abdel Bari Atwan We do not know what Donald Trump’s real intentions and motives were when he called the leaders of the three main parties to the Gulf dispute – Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar – this week to invite them […]
Feb 26 2018
Saudi Arabia continues to needlessly make more enemies for itself By Abdel Bari Atwan Saudi diplomacy under the current foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, has been distinctly lacking in the qualities and practices normally described as ‘diplomatic’: such as the use of verbal restraint to suppress quarrels, defuse tensions and improve a country’s relations with other […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Jan 28 2018
Did the detained media moguls capitulate to Muhammad Bin-Salman? By Abdel Bari Atwan Between Friday evening and Saturday morning, the Saudi authorities released some of the most high-profile of the 200+ individuals arrested nearly three months ago on charges of corruption. Their detention had become a liability to the kingdom due to the damage it […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Jan 7 2018
Cash hand-outs can’t keep a lid on Saudi public discontent forever By Abdel Bari Atwan It was no surprise nor coincidence that Saudi King Salman’s decision to order a 52 billion riyal (around $14 billion) hand-out to more than 1.2 million public employees and pensioners to compensate for inflation followed the outbreak of anti-government protests […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Dec 21 2017
How much longer before the Saudis agree to negotiate a way out of Yemen? By Abdel Bari Atwan Saudi Arabia’s leaders did not commemorate the passage of 1,000 days since they began their war on Yemen. But the main target of that war, the Houthi Ansarallah movement, was never going to let the occasion pass […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia, Yemen •
Dec 20 2017
Trump’s new National Security Strategy should alarm his Arab allies By Abdel Bari Atwan Donald Trump has been giving his Gulf Arab allies a hard time in recent days. His vetoing of the draft UN Security Council resolution that would have compelled him to rescind his recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was an […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia, The Gulf, Yemen •
Dec 14 2017
Saudi Arabia and the UAE have effectively split the GCC in two By Abdel Bari Atwan The division within the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was put on clear display at Wednesday’s Islamic summit in Istanbul. It was reflected in the member-states’ level of representation at the conference, the political stands they took, and their […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia, The Gulf •
Nov 19 2017
Israel’s leaders won’t go war on Riyadh’s behalf but are quite happy to lure it into a series of self-destructive conflicts By Abdel Bari Atwan Saudi Arabia continues to spring surprises and fan the flames of conflict in the region, as though the wars in Syria, Yemen, Libya and (partially) Iraq are not enough. After […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Nov 16 2017
The Saudis are mistaken if they think they can turn Palestinians in Lebanon against Hezbollah By Abdel Bari Atwan Although Saudi Arabia and its regional machinations have been very much in the news in the past few weeks, one recent visitor to Riyadh attracted relatively little media attention. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas remained tight-lipped […]
By mahaburbar1 • Palestine, Saudi Arabia •
Nov 10 2017
Muhammd Bin-Salman’s purge in Saudi Arabia is the prelude to something bigger By Abdel Bari Atwan 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 […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Nov 2 2017
As Trump escalates against Iran, the Saudis up the ante against Hezbollah By Abdel Bari Atwan It is becoming clearly apparent that a new chapter in Saudi Arabia’s vendetta with Iran is about to begin unfolding in Lebanon, and that it will take many forms: involving the political, economic and media spheres. This was made […]
By mahaburbar1 • Hezbollah, Saudi Arabia •
Oct 24 2017
After the failed U.S. and Kuwaiti attempts to mediate in the Gulf/Qatar crisis, the four boycotting countries may be preparing for another significant move against Doha By Abdel Bari Atwan After the Kuwaiti and American attempts at mediation between Qatar and the four states boycotting it have failed, there are strong indications that the December […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia, The Gulf •
Oct 19 2017
The Gulf crisis is open to all kinds of possibilities, the least dangerous of which is delaying the upcoming Gulf summit, which, ironically, will be hosted by Doha this season By Abdel Bari Atwan The rapid visit that Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad, the Kuwaiti Prince, is paying to Al-Riyadh on Monday where he will be […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia, The Gulf •
Oct 7 2017
Are Saudis turning to Moscow to find them a way out in Yemen and mediate with Iran? By Abdel Bari Atwan Perhaps it was a coincidence that this week’s high profile visit to Moscow by King Salman of Saudi Arabia fell on the second anniversary of the deployment of Russian forces to Syria — overturning […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Sep 14 2017
The authorities’ ruthless determination to throttle all dissent and disloyalty is likely to backfire By Abdel Bari Atwan The detention last week of the well-known reformist Saudi preachers Salman al-Odeh and Awadh al-Qarni did not come as a surprise. It was only to be expected given the current state of political and tribal polarization […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Sep 11 2017
Has Saudi-led military intervention against Qatar been prevented, or merely postponed until conditions allow? By Abdel Bari Atwan With the almost instant collapse of Qatar’s surprise ‘initiative’ to seek dialogue with Saudi Arabia last week, hostile media exchanges between the two principal parties to the crisis in the Gulf have resumed with ever-increasing venom, and […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia, The Gulf •
Aug 20 2017
The Saudis are making clear they want the Qatari emir ousted, but how do they plan to achieve that? By Abdel Bari Atwan The crisis between Qatar and Saudi Arabia has recently taken a potentially serious turn for the worse. More than two and a half month months into the quarrel – during which […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia, The Gulf •
Aug 18 2017
After clearly trying to ease tensions with Tehran, why has Riyadh suddenly changed course again? By Abdel Bari Atwan Saudi Arabia’s angry denial that it is interested in any kind of reconciliation with Iran has come as something of a shock. An official statement on Thursday insisted that the kingdom ‘has not asked for any […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia, Yemen •
Apr 3 2018
Presenting Credentials
The young Saudi crown prince seeks US approval by sucking up to Israel By Abdel Bari Atwan A close reading of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Bin-Salman’s lengthy interview with The Atlanticleaves the impression that it is the most important and significant he has yet given — not just because of the new attitudes and information it revealed, […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •