Biden’s Middle East strategy looks like a desire to find a middle ground between two extremes: ... ... discussions. Trump was also guided by it, although one of his first trips abroad was to Saudi Arabia. U.S. policy in the Middle East is overly militarized, while meddling in... ....S.-Saudi negotiations, the U.S. president met with a number of Arab leaders in the GCC+3 format (Egypt, Iraq, Jordan) is quite telling. This list indicates the states...
... I think it was a huge mistake to enact the blockade of Qatar and threaten a fellow GCC state in such a way, it also exacerbated problems in the sub-region. An unintended... ... post-popular uprisings phase had played out. Crucially there was new leadership in Saudi Arabia, finding its feet, still deciding on its direction. There was uncertainty... .... Deputy Secretary of State Ambassador Bill Burns, a member of my Board at the U.S./Middle East Project, has called this an American ‘unilateral diplomatic disengagement’...
... from ISIS to Hezbollah. We have done work together with key leaders in Europe and the Middle East to try to establish contact points between them. This week we are moving... ... and the Gulf. The EU has a specific relationship with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), they have been working on a free trade agreement for some 18 years and it is still... ... are very close to Europe. In terms of the trend, Europe is increasingly engaging with Saudi Arabia in terms of security, in an assortment of economic projects, religious...
... stability in its “natural” sphere of influence. In the Gulf case, the role of the regional hegemon is claimed jointly by Saudi Arabia and UAE, with Saudis providing most of the “hard” power, while Emirati contributing its political ideology and ... ... regional disputes. The United States appears to be the perfect candidate to play this role. In fact, the concept of a “Greater Middle East” popular with the J.W. Bush — Junior Administration in the beginning of the century, envisaged building various ...
... (perhaps because of the Center’s close ties to security services), but also project Saudi Arabia’s national concerns to all countries in the region.
Finally, trumpeting... ... factor” helps sideline the question of domestic threats to the security of the GCC countries. This discourse is turning Iran into an eternal and irreconcilable enemy... ...
REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser
Igor Ivanov:
Is a Collective Security System Possible in
the Middle East?
Point No. 4.
The GCC states must build a strategic deterrence system to...
... including oil.
Even setting aside the issue of Russia’s trustworthiness, OPEC and the GCC countries are uncertain about the Russian government’s ability to control... ... a coordinated output cut is detected.
REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail
Maxim Suchkov:
The Middle East between the U.S. and Russia:
Potential Traps for Moscow
Even if Russia decided... ... Embassy in Tehran
was stormed by suspected government-backed rioters
in January 2016, Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties with the Islamic Republic. Saudi relations with...
... Syrian conflict, which led to the much-noticed polarization among them: those countries intent on reconstructing stability in the Middle East carrying out a real fight against terrorist groups and defending the sovereignty and territorial integrity of states ... ... such as IS, which openly threaten “to enter Mecca and Medina”, can lead to the spread of terrorist activity within Saudi Arabia and the other GCC countries, as well as to their destabilization.
With Iran, on the other hand, it appears entirely possible to arrive at a ...
... friends in the region and the people of Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Lebanon”
[28]
.
In the meantime, the GCC states are countering the Houthi (an Iran backed proxy) insurgency in Yemen in an effort to restore the country’s legitimate ... ...
https://www.iea.org/oilmarketreport/reports/2015/0815/
[19]
Ibid.
[20]
IMF Executive Board Concludes 2015 Article IV Consultation with Saudi Arabia:
https://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2015/pr15383.htm
[21]
Regional Economic Outlook Update Middle East and Central Asia Department May 2015, Statistical Appendix, IMF:
http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/reo/2015/mcd/eng/pdf/mreo0515st....
The Camp David summit between Barack Obama and GCC states that took place on May 13-14 bears an enormous symbolic meaning for Washington as it echoes US Middle East peacemaking efforts under Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. This time, however, the summit’s goal was to reconcile ... ... warning system. Several GCC states have necessary defense components in place already, such as short-range Patriot systems in Saudi Arabia and THAAD systems in Qatar, but the new agreement provides for the installation of a comprehensive system that would ...
