Emirati Presidential Palace, Abu Dhabi 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 … Continue reading The Abraham Accord
Football, Yemen and More
Newcastle United Football Club flag. Source. 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 … Continue reading Football, Yemen and More
Libya & Turkey
Libya and Turkey. Wikimedia Commons. 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 … Continue reading Libya & Turkey
Omnibus (May and June 2020)
Saudi Flag on mountainside, author photo, Ad-Dayr, Jazan, KSA (Oct. 2019) 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 … Continue reading Omnibus (May and June 2020)
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 … Continue reading Workers, Finance woes, and Israel (May 1-7)
Coronavirus II
COVID-19, 3D Medical animation (Wikimedia commons) 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 … Continue reading Coronavirus II
Coronavirus
COVID-19 (U.S. Department of State) 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: https://twitter.com/KSAmofaEN/status/1236782999934509056 Then several European destinations, including Germany and France as well as Turkey … Continue reading Coronavirus
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 … Continue reading The Deal of the Century
Qassem Suleimani
[To be updated] Official and Semi-official: Restraint The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs was guarded in its official statement, despite implicitly referencing past Iran-associated actions as justification and motivation for the act. The Kingdom “calls for the importance of self-restraint” to avoid “aggravating the situation, with unbearable consequences.” https://twitter.com/KSAmofaEN/status/1213136791966027776 Adel Jubeir (Minister of State for … Continue reading Qassem Suleimani
The Return of Dhari
This holiday week saw the effective return, or at least rehabilitation, of Saud al-Qahtani, once deemed "the loudest and most visible Saudi official" online or off. This came as part of a round of verdicts announced in the trial of those accused of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi. The Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs made … Continue reading The Return of Dhari
