... possible transfer of nukes from Pakistan to Saudi Arabia within hours, has been mentioned by some experts, which, if true, will mean that Saudi Arabia may nearly be a de-facto nuclear military power.
Ernesto Gallo, Giovanni Biava:
What Future for the Middle East?
Saudi Arabia is leader of a very strong Arab response force and is the economic patron to Egypt, another country with a large military, strategic location at the Suez, even close to Europe, and symbolic power via cultural assets. Saudi Arabia enjoys special ...
... stabilise a crucial region for world trade, resources, and security
After years of furious and brutal fighting, Syria and Iraq seem now to be slowly stabilising. A peace process in Syria is gaining momentum, and ISIS’ defeat is getting closer. However, Middle Eastern problems remain massive. Among them we have selected three main issues, which are also interconnected: the hostility between Saudi Arabia and Iran, Sunni and Shia; the stabilisation of oil prices, which are now rising but remain — as always — difficult to predict; the presence of terrorism, which, despite ISIS’ decline, is still a problem well beyond the region.
Starting ...
... Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, on August 21, 2017, Russia’s Special Presidential Representative for the Middle East and Africa Mikhail Bogdanov received the newly appointed Ambassador of the Yemen Arab Republic to Moscow Ahmed Salem ... ... Al-Wahishi was intended to represent. On July 13, 2017, President of Yemen Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, acting largely with the backing of Saudi Arabia,
appointed
him ambassador to Moscow. The new ambassador is
believed
to be a compromise between Mansur Hadi and ...
... third most significant city in the country (after Mecca and Medina), he is obviously wrong. Israel, and the United States in particular, have always underestimated the central place the Jerusalem issue takes in the eyes of Muslims. It is true that the Saudi Arabian rulers currently view Iran as a greater problem for themselves and the region than the Israel–Palestine conflict. However, the Saudi leader cannot possibly lose Jerusalem. James Dorsey, a well-known Singapore-based expert on the Middle East, believes that Mr. Trump’s recognition and any plan to grant Israel full control of Jerusalem would see the genie turning on the kingdom and its ruling family
It appears that the events in the region are giving Russia a window of opportunity ...
RIAC Policy Brief No. 14
The events in Yemen has long remained in the shadow of the numerous crises in other Middle Eastern countries. Nevertheless, the Yemen crisis carries threats that have already started to affect its neighbours in the Arabian Peninsula and which might affect the interests of global actors in the future. The situation in Yemen has already ...
... international collective security system — its inclusive nature. It goes without saying that leading Arab nations — Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE and others — have to play a decisive role in building such a system. However, can one ignore non-Arab states ... ... region -such as Iran, Turkey and Israel? These states are no less interested in a stable, predictable, prosperous and vibrant Middle East than their Arab neighbors are. It would be not only unfair, but also highly shortsighted to remove any of these states ...
On October 5, 2017, along with the historical visit of the King of Saudi Arabia to Moscow, several events were held to focus on the current state of relations and prospects for development of relations between Moscow and Riyadh.
On October 5, 2017, along with the historical visit of the King of Saudi Arabia to Moscow,...
... While Saudi Arabia has remained at loggerheads with Israel, recently both are part of the Anti-Iran alliance. Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia along with its GCC partners countries demanded at the Munich Security Conference, that Tehran is punished for propping ... ... Adel al-Jubeir further accused Iran in front of delegates at the conference. "It's determined to upend the order in the Middle East ... (and) until and unless Iran changes its behaviour it would be very difficult to deal with a country like this....
. The meeting was devoted to Russia-Saudi Arabia humanitarian cooperation in crisis situations in the Middle East, as well as countries' participation in multilateral humanitarian missions
On April 18, Aleksandr Aksenenok, RIAC member, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipoteniary, and Andrey Kortunov, RIAC Director General, participated in the meeting ...
... and domestic audiences.
This does not mean that Russia's work with Iran precludes cooperation with Saudi Arabia. Even so, with investment programmes shrinking in all the oil exporting countries and with the existing strategic contradictions between Saudi Arabia and Russia, Moscow will find working with the two Middle Eastern countries at once to be an extremely difficult balancing act.
The oil-and-gas cooperation plans recently announced by Russia and Saudi Arabia may sound like part of a rapprochement trend. Yet one should not expect too much from this rhetoric....
