... family descended from Sheikh Mohammad Abdel Wahab, the founder of Wahhabism, to which the incumbent Grand Mufti of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia belongs, and second, the Uthaymeen family, to which belonged one of the most honored contemporary religious scholars ... ... genealogical and confessional affinity could not prevent the rift between the Arabian monarchies.
Aleksandr Aksenenok, Omar Mahmood:
Russia – GCC Relations After the Signing of the JCPOA with Iran
I still believe that the parties will manage to reach an agreement, since ...
... region. The campaign by the Syrian regime against its own people has had a devastating spillover impact. The GCC states have been patient observers of Russia’s actions.
REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser
Anna Manafova:
Is Oil-And-Gas Friendship Possible Between
Russia and Saudi Arabia?s
The GCC states have attempted to use various economic and political levers to bring Russia closer. Most GCC-Russia business and economic initiatives have yet to see the light of day. Per one Russian expert, Russian business is notoriously slow at
responding ...
1. Introduction
Oil prices have declined significantly since the middle of 2014, causing significant concern among major oil exporters, among the Russia and the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC; Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE). There have been significant calls for cooperation between the GCC states, other OPEC members, and Russia, with the goal of stabilizing oil prices. Whether or not a substantive agreement emerges remains to be seen. One of the ...
... initiation, with significant consequences for the strategic balance. The latest critical development has been formal intervention by the Russian Air Force. This comes at a time when the long-term regional role of key players such as the US, Russia, Saudi Arabia, and Iran, remains up in the air.
Russian and GCC commentators are well-acquainted with the Iranian and Western views regarding this crisis. However, Russian and GCC commentators are comparatively uninformed about each other’s perspectives regarding this key development due to the nascent nature ...
... production and its ability to influence the market. During OPEC’s November 2014 meeting, the organization officially abandoned its role as a swing producer by refusing to cut production and support oil prices.
Some analysts speculated that a Saudi-led GCC decision in OPEC was targeted against Iran and Russia. Saudi Arabia has had its own experience with such market conditions in the 1980s and does not want to repeat the same mistake for the sake of other producers’ benefits. Saudi oil minister Ali Al-Naimi was very clear in explaining Saudi oil policy: ...
