... elections will be held in 2020, paving the way for the country to have further democracy. Yet, the regional conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran would reflect on Kuwait as the Kuwaiti community is divided between both regional powers. Regarding the Sultanate of Oman,... ... between Tehran and the GCC countries, the European countries and the US, working actively with Riyadh to put an end to the war in Yemen. However, success depends on how much effort the new Sultan Haitham bin Tarek can put into resolving these regional tensions: ...
... capable of organizing such an attack all on their own since they had previously shown cruise missiles with the necessary range to the public. However, in all fairness, we should note that experts identified them as radically simplified knock-offs of Iranian cruise missiles. Debates about the military capabilities of the Houthis are likely to continue, but some conclusions can be drawn. The war in Yemen costs Saudi Arabia dearly, both economically and in terms of its public image. Saudi Arabia is also clearly vulnerable to new attacks, despite enormous military spending and assistance from the United States. The media has added fuel to the fire by
suggesting
...
... from the west, and that required knowledge of the fact that Saudi missile defense systems were covering the northeast (towards Iran and Iraq) and the south (Yemen), leaving the western direction, the “no man’s land,” open.
What about the United States?
The shale revolution in ... ... simultaneously weakened its strategic ties with its Middle Eastern partners. While military cooperation between the United States and Saudi Arabia remains high (despite the fact that imports from Saudi Arabia are at a 32-year low, see Figure 2), American voters ...
... acquiring surface-surface missiles, and stockpiling weapons in any bordering territory of a neighbouring State.” The fact that Saudi Arabia had already been bombing Yemen for three weeks by the time the resolution was adopted (since March 25) was conveniently omitted from the document.
One month after the killing of Ali Abdullah Saleh, the Saudis might intensify the “southern dimension” of their deterrence of Iran.
Clearly, the Houthi missile launched towards the Saudi capital in November 2017 gave the Saudis yet another reason to demand ...
... its ongoing war. To Saudi Arabia, Russia is not an enemy nor a fierce competitor. It is the Iranian influence that Saudis fear the most, it is the historical enemy of Saudi Arabia, and both countries have waged proxy wars in each of Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen. It is the modern “Cold War” of the Middle-East. One of the reasons Saudi Arabia did not join the Astana initiative is that Iran is a founder. The Saudis does not fear a Russian influence in Syria, but they rather fear an Iranian one. Plus, Russians and Saudis have a lot to discuss and cooperate such as Oil and Gas markets, they have to deal openly at some point. It is in ...
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 ... ... Arabia). The event focused on security challenges in the Gulf and the prospects for political resolution of the situation in Yemen. The opening remarks were made by Ivan Timofeev, RIAC Director of Programs, and Saud Al-Sarhan, Secretary General of the ...
... failure so far. As if that was not enough, Iraq is shifting under the Iranian influence. It would have been only normal that under these circumstances Riyad felt the pressure to act and do so vigorously.
To recap, the combats might be taking place in Yemen, but for all purposes the protagonists of this sort of not-so-cold war are Saudi Arabia and the Sunnites on one side, and the Shiites and Iran on the other. It also starts to look more and more as the Kingdom of the Peninsula might have found itself stuck in their own Vietnam in Yemen, a war where their powerful military apparatus is ineffective, but still costs an estimated $ 200 million ...
... momentous for themselves and the region.
The Syrian settlement is dangerously moving off the rails of the Vienna process, as Iran and Saudi Arabia, its key regional members, are losing the incentives to fulfill their obligations.
To this end, Syria and Yemen appear most vulnerable. The Syrian settlement is dangerously moving off the rails of the Vienna process, as Iran and Saudi Arabia, its key regional members, are losing the incentives to fulfill their obligations. On the contrary, they tend to support their proxies in a more aggressive manner by providing them with arms in order to tip the balance. The Yemeni conflict ...
...
In the case of Yemen, a minor oil producer strategically situated in a region where more than half of world oil reserves are located, geopolitics becomes a long-term market factor. Price hikes there have more to do with a possible standoff between Saudi Arabia and Iran, rather than Yemen itself.
Disruption in oil transit
REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah/Pixstream
Leonid Issaev:
Yemen: Following in Afghanistan’s Footsteps?
Yemen controls part of the strait of Bab el-Mandeb, a bottleneck that separates the Red Sea and the Arabian Sea....
