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  • Can Saudi Arabia’s solar manufacturing initiative be a game changer?

    Saudi Arabia is actively developing its solar power capacity through various projects. In July, the Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) announced partnerships with China’s JinkoSolar and TCL Zhonghuan, leading producers of solar modules and silicon wafers, along with wind turbine manufacturer Envision Energy. These collaborations will introduce 30GW of solar PV manufacturing capacity – from ingots to modules – to Saudi Arabia, supporting the goal of localizing 75 percent of renewable energy components by 2030, as outlined in the National Renewable Energy Program.

  • On the Second Anniversary of Mahsa Amini’s Death, Where Do Women Stand in Iran?

    Large numbers of women are appearing in public without headscarves and a newly inaugurated government includes a woman cabinet minister, a female vice president in charge of the environment and a woman spokesperson.  Despite these efforts, the number of women in the government of President Masoud Pezeshkian is fewer than during the two terms of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2005-2013) and only slightly higher than during the tenure of Hassan Rouhani (2013-2021). There remains skepticism about the depth of these gestures, as Iranian women continue to face substantial structural barriers and cultural attitudes that hinder progress toward gender equality.

  • Commentary: Workplace child care in Gulf countries would help employed mums. What gets in the way?

    As a result, it is much more efficient to have – hypothetically – two childcare facilities serving 30 children each than it is to have 10 childcare facilities serving six children each. Certainly, in the case of an office tower with thousands of employees, having a shared, building-level childcare facility is economically sound. However, for smaller workplaces such as a bank branch, a clothing store or a coffee shop – where many Gulf women work – mandating an establishment-level childcare facility is both costly and highly inefficient.

  • Sources of Saudi Tourism: Who’s Traveling, Who’s Spending?

    Saudis are exploring their own country in bigger numbers and foreigners are bringing the cash. That’s the takeaway from a report by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the state of the Saudi economy. “The surge of visitors has been mostly domestic-driven while the surge in visitors’ spending was mostly inbound-driven (i.e., international arrivals),” said the IMF report. Saudi reported 109 million visitors in 2023, beating its initial target of 100 million visitors by 2030 – a goal it has since lifted to 150 million.

  • Will a Turkey-Iraq Security Agreement Diminish Iran’s Hold Over Iraq?

    The MoU, which followed a historic visit to Iraq in April by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is a significant maneuver intended to solidify Turkey’s influence in Iraq. By labeling the Kurdish Kurdistan Workers Party or PKK a “banned organization,” Turkey seeks to legitimize its cross-border operations and strengthen its foothold in Iraqi politics and security.

  • Gaza Impact Creep: Is the Fight Against ISIL a Casualty?

    Without such kinetic pressure, he is convinced ISIL would succeed in reconstituting itself in northeastern Syria from its safe haven in the Badiya desert, nominally under Syrian regime control – but largely ungoverned space below the large northern quarter of Syrian territory that Abdi’s forces control. ISIL continues to have funding streams in the northeast, including kidnapping for ransom and extortion, as well as regional inflows, and to find localized safe haven in communities with residual sympathy for the group.

  • Will Jordan’s new electoral law bring real change?

    But this time around, to strengthen the country’s political parties and engage voters more effectively, the government has reserved forty-one out of the 138 seats for candidates running on party lists. Yet, the resulting changes are likely only cosmetic since Jordanian parties are not winning voters’ confidence for various reasons, including on the pivotal issue of unemployment.

  • Time to retire ‘Arab-Israeli conflict’?

    The experience of the past 11 months has led many experts on the region like myself to reassess that term. Is “Arab-Israeli conflict” an accurate reflection, given that the active participants are no longer just Arabs and Israelis? Should we retire that term for good now that the conflict has widened, drawing in the United States and Iran–and potentially Turkey and others in the coming years?

  • Perspective: Will Saudi Arabia’s big bet on the Qiddiya gaming and esports city pay off?

    Milanov is now head of gaming at Qiddiya, a dreamy “Giga Project” under way near Riyadh in Saudi Arabia. The Saudis want 17 million visitors a year to go to Qiddiya by 2030, making it the “largest tourism destination worldwide.” Not so different from Team Liquid’s heaquarters, the aim of Qiddiya is to build a whole city where gamers, esports athletes and their fans can feel at home, and Milanov is moving into high gear soon to sell people on the idea of Qiddiya. Will giant sandworms get him, or will it all pay off?

  • Can Saudi Arabia Actually Afford Vision 2030?

    In other words, the suggestion that Saudi Arabia is in trouble because it cannot make the ends of its planned budget meet is accurate—up to a point. The megaprojects can be delayed, as they have been before when the price environment was sub-optimal. Money can also be drawn from international debt markets where Saudi bonds appear to enjoy substantial popularity, not unlike Aramco shares. Oil-dependent economies, it seems, still draw investors in, transition and non-OPEC output growth notwithstanding.