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  • Ethiopia just ended one war. Is another one beginning?

    When Ethiopia's government and rebellious forces from the Tigray region agreed in November to end their conflict, diplomats hailed the peace deal as a new dawn for Africa's second most populous nation. For many in the Amhara region, which neighbours Tigray and fought in support of federal forces during the war, the deal was something very different - a stab in the back whose failure to account for Amhara concerns portended another war.

  • Will Saudi Arabia make Friday a working day?

    Currently, the Saudi weekend configuration stems from a 2013 royal decree issued by the late-King Abdullah that changed the weekend from Thursday-Friday to Friday-Saturday. This move was made to align the Saudi business and economic activities with international markets, which predominantly observe Saturday-Sunday as their weekend. Fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member state Qatar was an early adopter, switching the public sector weekend two decades ago, followed by Bahrain in 2006 and Kuwait the following year. The Sultanate of Oman implemented the change one month before Saudi did in 2013, to align its banking and business days with other countries in the region.

  • Why are Iran and the UAE feuding over these Gulf islands?

    On Wednesday, Iran launched naval drills near strategic islands disputed with UAE after US boosted its military footprint in area

  • Opinion: Biden wants to bring Israel and Saudi Arabia together. But why?

    But the Biden administration is trying to formalize the fact that Israel and Saudi Arabia in recent years have quietly grown closer, in part due to their shared enmity for Iran’s Middle East influence and through less-public collaborations on technology and the military. And several other Arab states normalized relations with Israel under President Donald Trump’s Abraham Accords in 2020. Those transactional deals induced Arab states to make peace in return for the goodies they had sought from the US and Israel. The Biden administration initially distanced itself from that Trump policy but has since redoubled efforts, with Saudi Arabia as the prize.

  • Opinion: Is Saudi normalization with Israel possible?

    Much has been said about the recent visit of US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to Jeddah. According to US press reports, one of the topics on the table was the prospect of a US-brokered Saudi-Israeli normalization deal. Of course, there has been no official confirmation from the Kingdom. However, one has only to speculate, contextualize, and take recent developments into consideration to reach the conclusion that it is highly likely that such a deal might be possible.

  • Saudi Arabia and Turkey: The new peace brokers of Russia-Ukraine war?

    Nearly 300 prisoners of war – both Ukrainian and Russian – faced death or indefinite detention in late September of 2022. It was a fate that looked all the more real as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the mobilization of some 300,000 Russian conscripts to fight on the Ukrainian front. But on that very same day, the warring countries made the shock announcement that they had come to an agreement on a prisoner swap, which would release the detained fighters and political prisoners from their respective captors.

  • Commentary: Is the Middle East’s Makeover a Mirage?

    From a conflict prevention perspective, the Middle East’s turn to diplomacy and normalization offers indisputable benefits. Several of the region’s intertwined conflicts—between Israel and Hamas, Israel and Iran, and Israel and Hezbollah—are only a hair trigger away from a major escalation. A single miscalculation or miscommunication, or a rocket that hits a school or shopping center rather than a military target or an open field, could set off an uncontrolled chain of events. In such a situation, having preexisting lines of communication and active diplomacy are critical, even if those channels do not involve the immediate belligerents.

  • Why is Saudi Arabia so keen on hosting a Ukrainian peace summit?

    The upcoming summit is "another example of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's efforts to position himself as a global leader with influence beyond his region," The New York Times said, adding that it's not simply about his personal ambitions, but a broader effort to "carve out a role for the kingdom as a mediator" as well. The push comes as Saudi Arabia attempts to shed its reputation as a biased party after the "White House accused it last year of siding with Russia in keeping oil prices high — thus bolstering Moscow's finances," the Wall Street Journal reported. Western nations agreed to hold the talks in Saudi Arabia "partly in hopes of persuading China, which has maintained close ties to Moscow, to participate" as well.

  • Saudi Arabia has the most profitable company in the history of the world, and $3.2 trillion to invest by 2030. Who will say no to that tidal wave of cash?

    For the 100,000 or so people who jammed into VivaTech, Europe’s biggest tech trade show, in Paris earlier this summer, it was hard to miss the large green exhibition stand near the main stage. “Invest Saudi” was emblazoned on one wall, while a video monitor showed desert landscapes with gleaming robotics labs, solar farms, and skyscraper cities. “It’s a whole new world,” gushed Emon Shakoor, CEO and founder of Blossom Accelerator, a startup in Riyadh that seeds female founders.

  • Will Iraq succeed in quest to join World Trade Organization?

    Iraq’s 19-year-long push to join the World Trade Organization (WTO) is gathering pace. Baghdad initially submitted a request to join the international trade body back in 2004. It currently sits as an observer member, while it works through the process of implementing regulations, strategies, and internal policies necessary to meet the conditions for full membership.