“This hardcore fan culture has always existed. It’s better than European football culture, it’s more like Latin American football culture. We have loudspeakers, drums… the songs, the flutes. That’s all part of our culture, not something we’ve imported.”
-Yasin, a Saudi Arabia and Al-Ittihad fan who’s travelled to Doha from Jeddah. Saudi Arabia’s fan culture wows the World Cup [Aljazeera]
“This win was an opportunity to remember why football is such a dynamic force in the Middle East. It has the power to bring people [together] from different nations and across different political contexts like nothing else. And when that unbelievable goal clinched a historic win for KSA, Qatar’s World Cup was truly celebrated as the Arab world’s World Cup.”
Hend Amry, a popular Muslim voice on Twitter. Saudi World Cup win over Argentina unites divided Mideast in celebration [Washington Post]
“The United States is now actively building and enabling an integrated air and maritime defense architecture in this region… Something long talked about is now being done, through innovative partnerships and new technologies.”
Brett McGurk, the National Security Council coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa, speaking at Manama Dialogue. [Times of Israel]
“What the administration decided this week in granting sovereign immunity to Mohammed bin Salman is in keeping with the practice of, custom of lawsuits involving foreign heads of state. It would have been a break of those customs to not grant that kind of immunity.”
-Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), speaking to host Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday,” about the Biden Administration’s assertion Thursday that the Saudi crown prince should be shielded from lawsuits in the United States. Sen. Mark Warner (D-Virginia) agreed. [Politico]
“The world looks at U.S. efforts to address Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan, and they wonder whether the U.S. failure to achieve most of its goals is due to lack of will or lack of capacity. As an Arab friend put it to me this week, the United States has proven itself simultaneously indispensable and unreliable. The U.S. position is a far cry from what it was when the Cold War ended and U.S. troops led a broad international coalition to liberate Kuwait.”
Jon B. Alterman, Muhammad Ali’s Foreign Policy Lessons [Defense One]
“The Saudi national team is considered to be playing on its land, playing among its fans. Having the World Cup in Qatar is like having it in Saudi Arabia. A simple border separates us. We will be present in very large numbers and fill the stadiums with 50,000 to 60,000 fans.”
Bader Turkistani, Travel-weary Saudi superfan awaits World Cup at ‘home’ [Al-Monitor]
“The Middle East has become a veritable hot spot of activity for the global coffee shop industry, particularly in Saudi Arabia, where a strong economy boosted by high petrochemical prices and social reforms is enabling the coffee industry to boom. We expect growth to continue over the next three to five years as Middle East consumers build on an inherently strong coffee drinking culture to embrace a vibrant market of international brands and up-and-coming domestic operators.”
Allegra Group Founder and CEO, Jeffrey Young, Branded coffee shops become big business in the Middle East [World Coffee Portal]
“There were some areas in Saudi Arabia where there was no phone connection and dusty weather. We decided to cross these places quickly…I’m not afraid walking in Saudi Arabia or the UAE. Both counties are the safest in the world. People were cheering me on the road and my videos on social media gained thousands of views.”
-Naif Shukri, 32, and his nephew Abdul Elah Shukri, 19, are walking from Riyadh to Abu Dhabi to celebrate UAE National Day. The two left Riyadh on November 3 and crossed the border into the UAE on Saturday. [The National]
“Almost 2 million pilgrims have arrived in Saudi Arabia from around the world to perform the lesser pilgrimage. The ten-month Umrah season will end just before the annual Hajj pilgrimage. Pilgrims from Indonesia, the most populous Muslim country in the world, formed the majority of foreign pilgrims at 551,410. Pakistan came second with 370,083 pilgrims, followed by India with 230,794 pilgrims. More than 150,000 pilgrims came from neighboring Iraq, while 101,657 arrived from Egypt.”
“Battery-powered cars now make up the fastest-growing segment of the auto market, with sales jumping 70 percent in the first nine months of the year from the same period in 2021, according to data from Cox Automotive, a research and consulting firm. Sales of conventional cars and trucks fell 15 percent in the same period. Buyers of electric vehicles in 2021 were more likely to be women and tended to be younger than in 2019, according to Cox data.”
Electric Vehicles Start to Enter the Car-Buying Mainstream [New York Times]
