The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the ultimate prize for those who want to topple the US-led order in Middle East To say that the Middle East is a volatile region is an understatement, and yet its centrality to global stability is still often forgotten. In fact, the region could be far more disruptive to […]
There is a certain amount of confusion among observers about Saudi economic strategy. We can gain clarity on this if we look at the many initiatives of Vision 2030 in the manner that a venture capitalist would look at his portfolio of investments. Doing so, we would see Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman as placing […]
As Iran and Israel enter an era of direct confrontation, a lot of attention is now being paid to the position of Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Cooperation Council states, particularly to where they stand on this crisis and how they will behave if it escalates, as it may. The Iranian regime, with its […]
Once the dust settles post-Hamas, it will be crucial for Israelis to confront the harsh reality of the attack on Oct. 7. The escapist impulse to reduce the motive for the assault to “pure evil” inhibits a deeper examination of the conditions and context that led to these horrors. Even the most extreme and shocking […]
Today, U.S. influence on Saudi Arabia (KSA) is greatly diminished. This could change, however, if the United States were to formally extend its military umbrella to protect the Kingdom against external threats to its security. A tangible guarantee of U.S. military intent will deter adversaries, play well with Saudi public opinion and thus encourage Saudi […]
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) today is a country working hard to be at peace with its neighbors, striving to bring stability to its region, and actively building strong relationships with key international partners—the US, the EU, the UK, China, and Russia in OPEC+—and is laser-focused on its internal economic transformation. The Khashoggi tragedy […]
US President Joe Biden in his presidential campaign would often say, “Don’t compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative.” And that is exactly the approach the United States should take in judging foreign governments. Saudi leaders have undertaken a critical and extraordinary transformation of the country that is crucial to the stability […]
إن الاختلال في ميزان القوة للحد الذي يتعذر تجاوزه بين العرب والإسرائيليين، ناهيك عن الفلسطينيين والإسرائيليين، يفرض علينا إعادة التفكير بشكل جذري في نهج حل مشكلة فلسطين. إسرائيل حقيقة واقعة مفروضة على الأرض يتوجب على المنطقة المحيطة تقبلها حتى وإن كان على مضض. فبينما لم يكن لها “الحق” أبدًا في تهجير ملايين الفلسطينيين واستعمار أرضهم، […]
The immensity of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s reforms in Saudi Arabia have not been adequately understood by outside observers. In a state three hundred years old with a bloody history of conflict in its royal successions, he has resolved a once-a-century royal generational succession and actively marginalized the reactionary clerical class that was effectively […]
A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. On the face of it, the recent photo of Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman hosting the emir of Qatar and the national security adviser of the UAE at a Red Sea resort is unremarkable. It appears to show three youthful, physically fit leaders enjoying […]
Once the dust settles post-Hamas, it will be crucial for Israelis to confront the harsh reality of the attack on Oct. 7. The escapist impulse to reduce the motive for the assault to “pure evil” inhibits a deeper examination of the conditions and context that led to these horrors. Even the most extreme and shocking […]
If the Persian language had a term for chutzpah, it should have been the title for Javad Zarif’s recent essay in The Atlantic. Written by Iran’s foreign minister and master propagandist, a man who has perfected the art of spoon-feeding credulous Westerners his spin, the article depicts an odious Iranian regime that has spread chaos and destruction throughout the […]
On Oct. 2, 2018, the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi was killed in the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul. After his disappearance, politicians and pundits called on the United States and its allies to hold Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman responsible for the crime. “It should be United States policy,” former National Security Advisor Susan Rice wrote in the New York […]
Last week, the Saudi government expelled the Canadian ambassador from Riyadh, and canceled flights, educational exchanges, and trade and investment activities between the two countries. This crisis was precipitated by a tweet — published both in English and, crucially, in Arabic — on Aug. 3 from the Canadian foreign ministry saying it was “gravely concerned” about the arrest […]
Terrorism is a problem that we all still struggle to understand. That challenge only increases when partisan politics are injected into the mix. This is what happened earlier this month, when President Trump visited Saudi Arabia, provoking the publication of a flurry of articles such as Fareed Zakaria’s “How Saudi Arabia played Donald Trump” criticizing […]
Since Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MBS) 2016 announcement of Saudi Vision 2030, commentators and analysts have maligned the plan’s “unrealistic” goals and time lines. Their negative assessment is based on a fundamental misreading of Vision 2030 as a foreordained business plan cast in stone, rather than a preliminary road map designed to send a […]
WASHINGTON – The killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi has left the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in its weakest diplomatic position since the horrific terror attacks of September 11. Khashoggi’s murder followed a series of Saudi missteps that had already left many questioning the country’s trajectory, including the arrests of women activists, the Saudi-German and Saudi-Canadian […]
Since 1979, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has seen itself as facing a radical, militaristic and expansionist Iran that leverages Shi’a disenfranchisement, local power vacuums and a vast and growing network of well-armed and well-trained proxies to export its Islamic Revolution throughout the Middle East. From the Saudi perspective, the kingdom is fighting a rearguard […]
As custodian of Islam’s holiest sites, Mecca and Medina, and as leader of the 41-nation Islamic coalition established to combat terror, Saudi Arabia is on the front line of the global fight against radical jihadi terrorism. It is also the ultimate target of terrorist organizations that dream of controlling the center of the Islamic world […]
WASHINGTON — When Air Force One touches down in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, this week, President Trump can be sure of one thing: His Saudi hosts have firmly pressed the reset button on a relationship that became strained in the latter years of Barack Obama’s presidency. Mr. Obama made four visits to Saudi Arabia, more than […]
The recently announced Bantustan-like “deal of the century” and the basically insurmountable power imbalance between the Arabs and Israelis, let alone between the Palestinians and Israelis, argues for a radical rethinking of the approach to solving the Palestine problem. Israel is a reality firmly implanted on the ground that has to be accepted, however grudgingly, […]
Arab and Muslim leaders have just concluded a series of emergency summits in Mecca to discuss recent attacks on Saudi and Emirati territory which US officials have linked to Iran and its proxies. While both Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have repeatedly said they do not want war with Iran,they have strongly backed Washington’s decision to impose sweeping sanctions on the […]
Saudi Arabia is undergoing a perilous, but essential transformation. Those wishing to safeguard one of the last bastions of Middle East stability should support Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s (MBS) dramatic socioeconomic reforms and also appreciate the challenges, resistance, and limitations amid which he is forced to operate. As rapid reform risks destabilizing the kingdom’s […]