MUST-READS

• Why British and US strikes on Yemen are not working

  On Jan. 11, 2024, Britain and the US initiated airstrikes in Yemen with the stated goal to degrade the capabilities of the Ansarullah movement—better known as the Houthis. The decision was prompted by the Iran-backed movement’s claim of targeting ships headed to and from Israel since Nov. 2023, in an effort to allegedly force a ceasefire in Gaza. However, the western strikes have not been effective. Paradoxically, they have instead emboldened the Houthis to escalate their attacks.

• Saudi Arabia clashes with West over Chinese green tech

  The head of Saudi Arabia’s state oil company praised China’s exports of green technology, echoing Beijing’s talking points in what appeared to be a deliberate rebuke of Western policymakers. “China really helped by reducing the cost of solar energy,” Aramco CEO Amin Nasser told the World Energy Congress in Rotterdam on Monday. “We can see the same now in electric vehicles…a lot of policymakers do not understand what is required and how [the energy transition] is going to happen.”

• 9% spike in Mideast military spending driven by Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey

  The institute noted that three largest spenders in the region — Saudi Arabia, Israel and Turkey — all increased military spending last year. Saudi Arabia was the fifth largest spender in the world, with spending increasing 4.3% from the year prior to $75.8 billion in 2023. However, Saudi military spending from the 2014 through 2023 decreased by 18% compared to the previous decade.  

• Iran’s Israel strike coincided with crackdown on dissent at home
  The same day Iran launched its first ever direct attack on Israel it embarked on a less-noticed confrontation at home, ordering police in several cities to take to the streets to arrest women accused of flouting its strict Islamic dress code.
  Iranian authorities insist that their so-called Nour (Light) campaign targets businesses and individuals who defy the hijab law, aiming to respond to demands from devout citizens who are angry about the growing number of unveiled women in public.

• Israel military strikes northern Gaza in heaviest shelling in weeks
  Israel bombarded northern Gaza overnight in some of the heaviest shelling in weeks, panicking residents and flattening neighbourhoods in an area where the Israeli army had previously drawn down its troops, residents said on Tuesday.
  Tanks made a new incursion east of Beit Hanoun on the northern edge of the Gaza Strip, though they did not penetrate far into the city, residents and Hamas media said. Gunfire reached some schools where displaced residents were sheltering.

• Saudi Arabia pushing for Israel to accept ceasefire, more aid into Gaza: FM

  Saudi Arabia is pushing for a ceasefire in Gaza and the entry of more aid into the territory amid Israel’s war on Hamas, the Kingdom’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan said in an interview with Al Arabiya.

  An agreement between Hamas and Israel must include those two factors, he said.

• EU announces five-year Schengen visas for Saudi, Omani and Bahraini citizens

  The Schengen Area, which includes 29 European countries, was expanded last February to include Bulgaria and Romania, eliminating all air and maritime border controls.

  Citizens from the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia have been exempted from the UK's pre-entry visa requirements.

  In November, Gulf countries announced plans for a unified tourist visa similar to the Schengen permit in a move to ease travel for residents and tourists.

• Saudi PIF Merges Mobile Tower Firms to Create Regional Giant

  Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund agreed to buy a majority stake in Saudi Telecom Co.’s tower unit for 8.7 billion riyals ($2.3 billion) and plans to merge it with other local assets to create a new mobile tower giant.

  The Public Investment Fund will own 54% of the new venture while STC, as Saudi Telecom is known, will hold 43%, according to a filing on the Saudi stock exchange. The entity will combine towers unit Tawal with Golden Lattice Investment Co., which the PIF bought from Zain Saudi last year, and manage a portfolio of about 30,000 towers across five countries.

• Middle East military burden is world’s highest in 2023 as Israel spending up 24%

  Middle East countries spent 4.2 per cent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on defence in 2023, the highest rate globally, as Israel's military expenditure jumped by nearly a quarter amid its intensifying war in Gaza, according to new research.

  Military expenditure as a percentage of GDP, known as the military burden, is a measure of the relative economic cost of defence for a country.

  In 2023 the average military burden "grew substantially" for nations in the Middle East by 0.5 percentage points, according to the latest data by the Sweden-based think tank Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri). The independent institute conducts research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament.

• Settler terrorism: Palestinians are becoming prisoners in their own homeland

  The recent surge of settler terrorism and violence in the occupied West Bank is the inevitable culmination of years of policy decisions. Over the past decade, successive Israeli governments have unabashedly armed settlers, effectively equipping them to carry out their own brand of intimidation and aggression. National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s recent decision to distribute even more weapons in the wake of the events of 7 October is simply another chapter in this grim saga.

• 10 of 61017 results<< 1 … 355 356 357 … 6,102 >>