On December 25, while many Americans were eating turkey or Chinese meals and otherwise distracted from the rest of the world, leaders of the Arab states of the Persian Gulf met in Manama, the capital of the island state of Bahrain, for their annual summit. The meeting was scarcely noticed by American newspapers and other […]
Four Asian countries are now purchasing nearly all of Iran’s oil exports according a report this week from the Economist’s Intelligence Unit (EIU). “Almost all of Iran’s oil exports now go to China, South Korea, Japan and India,” the report said even as it noted a sharp decline in the amount of oil each country purchased from […]
For the last 60 years or so, the relationship between the US and the Gulf states can be likened to a Catholic marriage. Both were in need of each other and kept supporting each other in times of difficulty. During the oil crisis, the Gulf states came to the help of the world economy by […]
The UAE is one of several Gulf nations using its oil wealth to find new ways to build a position of substantial influence in the world. For many years, the ambitions of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nations were directed internally as they struggled with the mammoth task of building the infrastructure and social systems […]
As Egypt struggles to revive an economy battered by last year’s uprising against Hosni Mubarak, private lawsuits are attempting to overturn the sale of state assets during his rule. The court actions present the new government with a dilemma: It’s trying to attract foreign investment while addressing the demands of a population that stages protests […]
While both Tehran and Washington were eager to deny a New York Times report which claimed they had agreed “in principle for the first time to one-on-one negotiation,” the covert war between the main camps in the Middle East moved to the Lebanese capital Beirut. Even more than a coup for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad […]
Emirates foreign policy has gone through a dynamic change in recent years. The change is apparently broad and indeed fundamental. It encompasses the very content as well as the style in which the UAE deals with external opportunities and challenges. The relatively small but oil-rich UAE is noticeably more assertive and active regionally and globally […]
While the eurozone debt crisis hangs like a dark cloud over the global economy, a grey cloud is emerging in China with deep consequences for the states of the Gulf Cooperation Council: the prospect of a hard landing. Read Here – The National
looking beyond borders 