Author: Andrew Leber
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Popular Boycott of Turkish Goods
This all kicked off with a speech from Turkey’s President Erdogan to the Turkish parliament on October 1, which included reference to: The rulers of some countries in the region [who] pursued, in self-denial, policies that do not comply with wisdom, logic, and conscience, are further deepening the crisis. Some of these countries target us…
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Bandar bin Sultan Interview (10/2020)
A recent media interview by Prince Bandar bin Sultan has attracted considerable media attention and commentary, not the least from analysts seeking to read the tea leaves about when, exactly, Saudi Arabia might normalize relations with Israel. Bandar appeared on Al-Arabiya, a station run by the MBC Group, which is in turn now controlled by…
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The Abraham Accord
Gulf/Saudi reactions to the “Abraham accord” normalizing relations between the UAE and Israel – my time is limited, so this post will be a work in progress (updated with column from Abdelrahman al-Rashed, 8.15.2020 + further columns, 8.16.2020 + further columns 8.24.2020). Saudi papers in general have seemed uncertain how much attention to accord the,…
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Football, Yemen and More
Newcastle Deal Last week the efforts of the Public Investment Fund to participate in the takeover of UK football club Newcastle United fell apart, mainly due to the lingering fallout over Saudi Arabia’s tolerance and likely creation of a pirated version of Qatari sports broadcaster BeIN Sports. The dominant theme among patriotic commentators and Tweeters…
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Libya & Turkey
As tensions cool (slightly) v-a-v Iran, Saudi commentary has shifted to focus more on Turkey’s activities in Libya and Syria. I’ll tack on more articles in the days ahead and post to Twitter when done. Most of Abdelrahman Rashed’s June commentary has been on Libya, and on how “What is coming… is worse”: In the…
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Omnibus (May and June 2020)
It’s been more difficult than I thought to keep up with this, so this is a fairly haphazard dump of links to commentary for the past month or so. Qatar 3 years on from the start of the Gulf rift, double-header op-eds from leading Aawsat columnists Salman al-Dosari and Abdelrahman al-Rashed What saddens Qatar is…
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Workers, Finance woes, and Israel (May 1-7)
Foreign workers Saudi papers and media outlets have seen an uptick in discussions of foreign workers – probably concerns over Saudi citizens’ employment once the economy starts to open up again + reported COVID-19 cases being disproportionately among expatriate workers in the Kingdom. These have ranged from fairly neutral discussions of statistics and labor markets…
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Coronavirus II
It’s getting a bit tricky to keep this updated with everything else going on – spending a fair amount of time at home with the COVID-19 closures and restrictions, but also spending more time on things like grocery shopping than I normally would. Hence no time to review social-media content, though you’re welcome to pass…
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Coronavirus
Government Reactions and Commentary [Update] The government has announced a wave of flight cancellations, although airlines have been left to fill in the details for many cases: First, several MENA destinations along with South Korea and Italy: Then several European destinations, including Germany and France as well as Turkey – cutting off 3 major routes…
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The Deal of the Century
The Palestinian Issue Through the (Very Recent) Ages First, check out Ian Black’s excellent review of GCC-Israel ties. Now, a look back at the past 5 years or so of prominent commentator Abdelrahman al-Rashed’s main articles related to Palestine and the Palestinians. From 2014 – “The Secret of Palestine’s Negotiations” I doubt that Kerry’s plan…
The Bitter Lake 