Syrian Intentions
August 5th, 2008 by Adam
Alex & Qifa Nakbi at Syria Comment write on how Syrian President Bashar al-Assad can build up confidence in his intentions so that Israel-Syria peace talks are taken seriously by regional actors and are not undermined. One option would be to gradually implement political reforms so that Assad can lessen his isolation and make himself more palpable of a figure to the West. A second option would be to help push for a simultaneous, yet parallel Israel-Lebanon track. The final option would be for Syria to embrace the Arab Peace Initiative to smooth over relations with Saudi Arabia in order to limit their willingness to act as a spoiler.
Posted in Israel, Lebanon, Mideast Peace Plan, Saudi Arabia, Syria | Comment »
The Status of Al-Qaeda
July 22nd, 2008 by Sarah
This week’s edition of The Economist focuses on the status of al-Qaeda worldwide.
The issue addresses the current debate over CIA Director Michael Hayden’s claim of a “near strategic defeat” of the terrorist organization, its growing strength in Pakistan, its ability to recruit and export its ideology, the contrast between home-grown terrorism in Europe and the U.S., the effects of maintaining Guantanamo Bay on fighting global terrorism, tactics explored by Saudi Arabia to tackle terrorism, and al-Qaeda’s self-destructive tendencies.
Posted in EU, Military, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism, US foreign policy, al-Qaeda | Comment »
Iran’s Response to Incentive Offer is Leaked
July 17th, 2008 by Sarah
A leaked Iranian letter, responding to the P5+1 incentives package, indicates that while Iran is not interested in talks aimed toward Iran foregoing its nuclear program, the country is interested in negotiating a broader peace and security deal.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon warns that Iran’s ballistic missiles could reach Eastern and Southern Europe and Guy Faulconbridge at Reuters reports that Saudi Arabia allegedly has offered a lucrative arms contract to Russia if it curtails its cooperation with Iran. Moscow has denied that the offer was connected to relations with Iran.
Posted in EU, Iran, Military, Saudi Arabia | Comment »
U.S. Support for Autocracies Promotes Radical Islam?
June 30th, 2008 by Sarah
Chris Zambelis at the Jamestown Foundation examines some of the factors contributing to the radicalization of Islam. Zambelis points to the use of torture by autocracies, often seen as oppressive and illegitimate, in Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia as formative in the psychology of radicalization. U.S. support for these governments “serve as a battle cry for militants to take up arms against the United States.”
In related news, Daniel Kimmage in the New York Times sees the internet as a “very practical means of countering al-Qaeda,” but laments that “the authoritarian governments of the Middle East are doing their best to hobble Web 2.0. By blocking the Internet, they are leaving the field open to Al Qaeda and its recruiters.”
Posted in Egypt, Freedom, Human Rights, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism, al-Qaeda | Comment »
Succession in Saudi Arabia
June 23rd, 2008 by Adam
Anne Penketh’s article at The Independent examines how the succession of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah might play out. “Abdullah issued a decree providing for an ‘allegiance council’ of sons and grandsons of the country’s founder, Abdul al Aziz al Saud, to decide on the future successions once Sultan became king.” Though it is likely the throne will return to the al-Sudairy wing of the family, an unexpected death could reignite a power struggle between the two wings of the Saud family.
Posted in Saudi Arabia | Comment »
2008: Intra-OPEC Disputes and the U.S. Elections
June 19th, 2008 by Matt
Gal Luft, posting at Harvard’s Middle East Strategy blog, theorizes that recent intra-OPEC squabbles between Saudi Arabia and Iran over oil output are being influenced by each country’s hopes for the outcome of the U.S. presidential elections. Luft thinks Saudi Arabia is rooting for McCain because of their fear that an American withdrawal would strengthen Iran, and thus the Saudis might release more oil thinking a stabilization in prices would help McCain’s chances in the fall. One then has to wonder if the Saudis think McCain’s energy independence plan is merely concocted as lip service or political expediency, considering it contains some pretty harsh words for certain authoritarian regimes in the Middle East.
Posted in Election 08, Iran, Oil, Saudi Arabia | Comment »
POMED Notes: U.S.-Saudi Dilemma: A Challenge for the Next Administration
June 19th, 2008 by Adam
On Wednesday, The Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Saudi Arabia (CDHR) held two panel discussions regarding the political and human rights situation in Saudi Arabia and how U.S. policy can address these concerns. The first panel included, Paul Marshall of the Hudson Institute, Ahmed Mansour, President of the Ahl-Al-Quran Center, Wafa Sultan, a prominent human rights activist, and Tawfik Hamid, a religious reformer and author. The panel was moderated by Dwight Bashir of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The second panel featured Joshua Muravchik of the American Enterprise Institute, Alex Petersen of the Henry Jackson Society, and Rachel Ehrenfeld, Director of the American Center for Democracy. The panel was moderated by Ali Alyami, Founder and Director of CDHR. There were also brief remarks by Representatives Zach Wamp (R-TN), Sue Myrick (R-NC), and Dan Burton (R-IN).
For POMED’s full notes, click here.
Posted in Event Notes, Human Rights, Saudi Arabia | Comment »
POMED Notes: Reform in Saudi Arabia
June 18th, 2008 by Sarah
The Middle East Institute invited Usamah al-Kurdi to discuss the status of political, economic, and women’s reform in Saudi Arabia. Since 2001, Al-Kurdi has served as a member of the Majlis Al-Shura Consultative Council of Saudi Arabia. Al-Kurdi argued that U.S. foreign policy can best contribute to the country’s reform by using a “hands off” approach. MEI’s Vice President Dr. Michael Ryan introduced the speaker.
For POMED’s full notes, click here.
Posted in Elections, Event Notes, Human Rights, Islam and Democracy, Journalism, Reform, Saudi Arabia | Comment »
Back to Baghdad
June 13th, 2008 by Adam
With security improving in Iraq, an editorial in the Wall Street Journal discusses how recently more of Iraq’s neighbors have been willing to send envoys back to Iraq. The one noticeable exception amongst Iraq’s neighbors is Saudi Arabia, which is hesitant about the Shiite government in Baghdad. The editorial states that Saudi Arabia should send its envoy and support Iraq for its own strategic interests as a U.S. presence in the region would halt any regional adventurism by Iran.
Posted in Iraq, Saudi Arabia | Comment »
Saudi Nuclear Assistance Agreement
June 10th, 2008 by Adam
In the Wall Street Journal, Representative Edward Markey (D-MA) decries a little noticed agreement signed last month in Saudi Arabia between the kingdom and the U.S. regarding nuclear technology. According to Markey, the deal allows the U.S. to assist Saudi Arabia in developing nuclear reactors, train nuclear engineers, and construct nuclear infrastructure. Even though the Saudis have promised not to develop uranium enrichment or spent fuel processing, Markey worries that, “Saudi Arabia’s petrodollars could flow to the dangerous expansion of nuclear technologies in the most volatile region of the world.”
Posted in Saudi Arabia | Comment »
Saudi King Calls for Religous Dialogue
June 5th, 2008 by Adam
The Daily Star reports on the call by King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia for dialogue between Islam and other faiths at a conference for Muslim scholars. The King’s call seems to be a means to confront growing extremism in the Muslim world. The monarch stated, “The challenges facing the [Muslim] nation are difficult at this time, as its enemies - including those extremists among its own people - have joined forces in a flagrant aggressiveness to distort the … righteousness and tolerance of Islam.”
Posted in Saudi Arabia | Comment »
Potency of Kuwaiti Parliament In Question
May 23rd, 2008 by Amanda
In the wake of Kuwait’s Parliamentary elections held last week, The Economist argues that the nation’s efforts toward democratic reform are slowing down democratic reform in the region, not facilitating it. Even though “Kuwait has the strongest and noisiest parliament among the Arab monarchies of the Gulf,” the article claims that “few of their ruling families and friends think the price of democracy is worth paying.” And while the elections have turned over more seats to Islamists who are “just as likely to take on the government” as more secular factions, their long-term viability in the face of the monarchical bulwark is questionable.
Other Gulf countries, such as Qatar and UAE that resemble Kuwait’s societal structure have not yet constructed an election process for Parliamentary members. Despite Kuwait’s problems, however, women participate more directly in government than neighboring states like Saudi Arabia.
UPDATE: For analysis on Kuwait’s party participation, read commentary by Nathan Brown at Abu Aardvark.
Posted in Elections, Kuwait, Political Islam, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE | Comment »
Language Matters
May 21st, 2008 by Pasha
Averroes worries at Syria Comment that a spike in sectarian language in the Syrian media will exacerbate developing sectarian rifts, and investigates the control of public opinion through media in Syria and Saudi Arabia.
Posted in Arab media, Public Opinion, Saudi Arabia, Syria | Comment »
2008: Hamas, The Saudis, Hezbollah, And The Boogeyman
May 19th, 2008 by Matt
A number of articles to pass on from late last week on McCain, Obama, and some important Middle East issues:
Last Thursday, Joe Klein wrote a piece wishing that we could have an honest debate about how to engage groups like Hamas, while avoiding “anti-Israel” accusations and unhelpful bluster. Klein is disappointed not only with McCain’s inflexibility on Hamas, but also with Obama’s “sad abandonment of principles”.
On Friday, Bloomberg.com published an article saying that despite some anti-Saudi rhetoric from the McCain campaign, McCain is still the Saudis’ preferred candidate due to his tough stance on Iran and commitment to staying in Iraq, two issues the Saudis are “preoccupied” with.
Also on Friday, David Brooks gave Obama a call to give him a chance to elaborate on some statements Obama had made about Lebanon and Hezbollah that Brooks found worrying. Brooks came away from the conversation believing that Obama likes to look at root causes in foreign policy (like many Democrats), while also maintaining a strong realist streak. Max Boot offers a bit more skepticism.
Finally, John Dickerson at Slate looks at how McCain and Obama have chosen “boogeymen” that they constantly try to associate with their opponent to help define their policies.
Posted in Election 08, Hamas, Hezbollah, Saudi Arabia, US foreign policy, US politics | Comment »
Kingdom of Saud
May 16th, 2008 by Pasha
Grant Swank of The Conservative Voice plugs a website decrying honor killings, mistreatment of women, and other atrocities. He notes a “case focused particularly on a woman who was tortured to death by her employer,” which a Saudi official described as “‘the will of Allah,’ with no apology given.”
As President Bush exchanges “civilian” nuclear technology for oil, Gal Luft at Middle East Strategy at Harvard speculates that the Saudis are truly aiming to counterbalance potential Iranian hegemony in the region. Speaking of speculators, Luft dismisses the Saudis blaming rising oil prices on speculators as “utter nonsense.”
Posted in Human Rights, Oil, Saudi Arabia, Women | Comment »
Negotiappeasement
May 16th, 2008 by Pasha
The Washington Post’s Karen DeYoung reports that Secretary Gates seems to agree with Thomas Friedman’s position in The New York Times that the US should negotiate with Iran, but only after accumulating more bargaining chips “by creating economic, diplomatic or military incentives and pressures that the other side finds too tempting or frightening to ignore.”
Democracy Arsenal’s David Shorr suggests that the Bush administration’s condemnation of “appeasement” is misplaced, in that “no serious political figure” takes that condemned position, and that the “moral clarity” offered by the administration is “self-satisfying” but distracts us from what the US’s goal should be: “discrediting terrorists, exposing their grisly hollowness, and draining their public sympathy” as argued by Philip Gordon in Winning the Right War. Shawn Brimley agrees, lamenting President Bush’s “conflation of diplomacy with appeasement.”
Michael Cohen also agrees, noting that analogies to Neville Chamberlain’s diplomatic acumen are misplaced because “he didn’t appease Hitler because he talked to him - he appeased him because he gave him half of Czechoslovakia.”
Redstate’s Pejman Yousefzadeh explains that Bush’s statement is “relatively banal… because it has been repeated in some form or another by Western leaders ever since it became indubitably clear that Neville Chamberlain did not quite have things right at Munich.”
Mark Green of the Huffington Post is dismayed, and argues that refusal to engage in talks, “provides an unpopular Iranian government with a convenient outside enemy to rally nationalistic support to its side.”
Matthew Yglesias questions the popular meme that negotiations enhance prestige, rejecting the premise of the idea altogether: bolstered prestige “in the eyes of whom? And what does this enhanced prestige allow him to do?” Yglesias notes Senator Liebrman’s support of Bush’s speech, and suspects that Lieberman will be characterized as drifting further right, while in reality “his is the sort of rhetoric New Dems regularly engaged in back in 2002-2005 when it was cool.”
J Street takes offense to Bush’s allusion to appeasement, arguing that the Bush Administration policies “have fueled the fires of extremism rather than dampening them. His delusions led us into a disastrous war in Iraq. His disdain for diplomacy has alienated friends and emboldened enemies.”
Abu Muqawama sees Bush’s current efforts to persuade the Saudi royal family to increase oil production to lower gasoline prices as hypocritical given his stance against appeasing”terrorists and radicals.”
Posted in Iran, Saudi Arabia | Comment »
Obstacles to Women Advancement in Saudi Arabia
May 6th, 2008 by Sharlina
The Economist highlights a new report released by Human Rights Watch that argues the biggest obstacle to women’s advancement in Saudi Arabia is “the imposition of male guardianship over adult women.” The article notes that in terms of women’s rights, “despite having signed various international charters for women’s rights, the Saudi government has done little either to modify the system or to enforce the minor reforms it has sponsored.”
Posted in Human Rights, Saudi Arabia, Women | Comment »
Egyptian Parliament Raises Fuel Prices During Tense Economic Times
May 6th, 2008 by Sharlina
In a recent move, the Egyptian parliament voted Monday in favor of a package of price hikes and tax surges in order to pay a recently-announced 30% wage raise. Such a decision came amidst tensions among Egyptian citizens with soaring food prices.
In a discussion of the effect of such economic woes like food prices and rising inflation, Joshua Landis finds the middle class in the Middle East increasingly “tilted toward poverty.” Landis looks at Syria, where both a rise in food and oil prices is coupled with a decrease in state subsidies, Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
Posted in Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria | Comment »
Blogging Blues in Saudi Arabia
April 28th, 2008 by Amanda
The Washington Post reports that Fouad al-Farhan, popular activist blogger of Saudi Arabia, was released after a four month arrest without charges. Despite warnings “Farhan had used his blog to criticize corruption and call for political reform in Saudi Arabia, an absolute monarchy.”
The article states that “Saudia Arabia restricts press and speech freedoms and does not allow political parties, civil rights groups or public gatherings.” Farhan and his group were accused of supporting terrorism, while his lawyer asserts “they were arrested for their political activism and their intention to form a civil rights group.”
Posted in Saudi Arabia | Comment »
Pushing for Reform in Saudi Arabia
April 18th, 2008 by Sharlina
Slate Magazine’s Nicholas Schmidle finds that Saudi society is “in the midst of a minor social revolution,” where Saudi citizens tell him that the government wants more change than the people do. Analyzing a “slow, steady change,” Schmidle argues that Saudi oil revenues could assist in implementing wide-changing reforms.
Posted in Reform, Saudi Arabia | Comment »
