It looks like the world has not yet had its fill of surprises from the US, which has recently outdone itself on this score. I am not about to rehash Afghanistan or Iraq, how Americans commemorated 11 September 2001, or how the current administration (...)
Media reports this week highlighted how the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Islah Party in Yemen has been handing over positions to Iran-backed Houthi rebels in a new obstacle to ending the war in the country that has now lasted for seven years since (...)
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal Bin Farhan on Sunday discussed at a meeting with his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar means of fostering bilateral cooperation in the political and economic fields.
The two ministers also reviewed the (...)
Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi will meet Iran's president on Sunday in Tehran to discuss issues including energy and Iran-Saudi relations, a government source said Friday.
The visit will mark Kadhemi's first meeting with Ebrahim Raisi since (...)
UN new Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg was greeted with a series of escalations in the conflict in the country this week, as the fighting continued both domestically and through attacks on neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
Grundberg, who assumed his new role (...)
The Middle East map is changing, not because of shifting borders, but because of profound transformations that are reordering political interests and priorities.
Perhaps the most important of these transformations has been the US withdrawal from (...)
Eight years into the war local Yemeni reports indicate that Hans Grundberg, who had replaced Martin Griffiths as UN special envoy earlier this month, has familiarised himself with and reached out to all political factions and social components (...)
Baghdad hosted a Conference for Cooperation and Partnership on 28 August, a first of its kind to bring together various Arab countries with Iran, Turkey and France. The purpose was to reduce regional tensions in order to tackle, in a collective (...)
"The Taliban of today are not very different from the Taliban of the 1990s. They might act differently for now, but I think in gradual terms we will be seeing a replay of Taliban rule in Afghanistan as it unfolded in the 1990s," commented Ahmed (...)
Malaysia says it will ease lockdown restrictions for people who are fully vaccinated as the government seeks to allay public anger against perceived mismanagement of the pandemic.
Daily infections breached 20,000 for the first time Thursday (...)
Will the new UN special envoy to Yemen, the Swedish diplomat Hans Grundberg, succeed where his predecessor Martin Griffiths failed?
This is the question on everyone's minds as the time approaches for Grundberg to assume his duties and as analysts (...)
While the Gulf media – Saudi outlets in particular – have focused on Tehran protests calling for the downfall of the regime, the Iranian media is talking about an imminent breakthrough in Saudi-Iranian relations.
An invitation was extended to Saudi (...)
Senior U.S. diplomats are holding talks in the Gulf region in a renewed push for a ceasefire in Yemen as fierce ground battles spread and the Iran-aligned Houthi group resumed cross-border attacks on Saudi Arabia after a brief lull over Muslim (...)
An explosion Wednesday in Saudi Arabia struck what authorities described as an ammunition dump containing "unserviceable munitions." Videos showed sparks, flames and smoke shooting out of a desert location southeast of Riyadh near a major air (...)
On his first foreign trip since his enthronement last year, the Sultan of Oman Haitham Bin Tariq Al-Said landed in Neom – northwest of Saudi Arabia – on Sunday. This is also the first visit by an Omani ruler to Saudi Arabia in many years.
All (...)
Occupancy rates in Egypt's hotel market are expected to range between 44% and 58% in 2021, according to Colliers International's latest Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Hotels Forecast in July 2021.
The company projected that Cairo and Alexandria (...)
It was a regular hot summer noon in Cairo when, instead of barricading themselves in air-conditioned shelters, people lined up at the Egypt International Exhibition Center (EIEC), e-tickets ready on their mobile phones while volunteers received them (...)
Saudi Arabia's deputy defense minister on Tuesday became the highest-ranking Saudi envoy to visit Washington since Joe Biden became president in January and was holding talks with senior officials on the Yemen war and threats from Iran.
The (...)
Occupancy rates in Egypt's hotel market are expected to range between 44% and 58% in 2021, according to Colliers International's latest Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Hotels Forecast in July 2021.
The company projected that Cairo and Alexandria (...)
Yemen is witnessing escalation on all fronts despite reports of an imminent peace deal. Last week, fighting flared up in oil-rich Maarib as the Houthi militia launched a three-pronged attack on the government forces controlling the region. The (...)
Saudi Arabia said it had thwarted an attempt to smuggle 14.4 million amphetamine pills from Lebanon, two months after it banned imports of Lebanese agricultural produce, citing an increase in drug smuggling.
The report on state news agency SPA late (...)
نشر رائد الفضاء الفرنسي، توماس بيسكيت، صورة للعاصمة السعودية، الرياض، التي تبرز أضوائها ساطعة في الليل، مشيرا في الوقت ذاته إلى بقعة مظلمة وسط الصورة، وذلك وفقا لما جاء في "سي إن إن" بالعربية.
Riyadh, capital of Saudi Arabia sticks out at night (...)
"We are trying to come up with an arrangement but so far it has not been easy to do so. We have to continue trying." This is how an Egyptian official characterised Cairo's ongoing attempts to kick-start humanitarian assistance and the reconstruction (...)
A few days ago the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that the Biden administration was "sharply reducing the number of US antimissile systems in the Middle East in a major realignment of its military footprint there". Gulf and US officials (...)
Gulf Arab states are unlikely to be deterred from dialogue to improve ties with Iran after a hardline judge won the presidency but their talks with Tehran might become tougher, analysts said.
Prospects for better relations between Muslim Shia Iran (...)
