Saudi Arabia

By Umer Karim and Scott Lucas | – The news seeped out of Saudi Arabia into international outlets late on March 6. King Salman’s brother, Prince Ahmad bin Abdul Aziz, had been detained along with the king’s nephew Prince Mohammad bin Nayef, former crown prince and interior minister. Reports disseminated to the media said the […]

Featured

Behind the Turmoil: Russia Provoked Oil Price Fall to Protect its Markets from US Frackers, which could now Collapse

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Last weekend, OPEC Plus, an expanded cartel of petroleum exporters, considered a plan for members to cut back on their oil production so as to support prices in the face of a slowing world economy owing to the novel coronavirus. The Russian Federation rejected the plan put forward by OPEC, […]

Climate Crisis

“A Toothpick in a Tsunami”: US Big Oil Faces Bankruptcy as Prices Plunge 30% on Saudi Expansion

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Oil prices plummeted by 30% on Monday morning in Asia on news that Saudi Arabia intended actually to cut its prices and increase its production on April 1 to more than 10 million barrels a day. As a result, Asian markets also took a huge hit. Riyadh’s move came after […]

Featured

Seeking Absolute Power in Saudi Arabia, Bin Salman engineers Arrest of Rivals, including former Crown Prince

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Glen Carey and Vivian Nereim at Bloomberg report that the Saudi government has arrested former crown prince Mohammed Bin Nayef, his brother Nawwaf, and the brother of King Salman, Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. They say their Saudi sources intimated that the three are accused of plotting to overthrow […]

Donald Trump

UN Condemns ‘Shocking’ and ‘Terrible’ US-Backed Saudi Coalition Bombing That Killed 31 Yemeni Civilians

Common Dreams

By Jake Johnson, staff writer | – (Commondreams.org) – “Those who continue to sell arms to the warring parties must realize that by supplying weapons for this war, they contribute to making atrocities like today’s all too common.” The United Nations and humanitarian aid groups condemned the U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition for carrying out airstrikes Saturday […]

Saudi Arabia

Will Saudi Arabia ever End its Catastrophic War on Yemen?

Open Democracy

By Helen Lackner | – ( OpenDemocracy.net ) – While Saudi Arabia seeks an exit from the Yemen war, it is deepening its involvement in the South instead. Last year saw some significant changes in Saudi strategy in Yemen. Following on the UAE departure, the new Deputy Defence Minister, Khalid bin Salman, the crown prince’s […]

Corporate Surveillance

Did Saudi prince Bin Salman personally Hack Jeff Bezos’s Phone, Vacuuming up Secrets? What about Jared Kushner?

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Update 1/25/20: Subsequent reporting at WSJ and elsewhere has raised questions about how solid the conclusions were, of the cyber-security firm hired by Jeff Bezos, that pointed with certainty to a hack coming from the cell phone of Mohammed Bin Salman. We’ve long known that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’s phone […]

Houthi

Saudi-Led Coalition, Houthis still Ravaging Yemen with War Crimes: Millions at Risk

Human Rights Watch

( Human Rights Watch ) – (Beirut) – Yemen’s armed conflict and humanitarian crisis is resulting in unspeakable suffering for millions of civilians despite increasing global attention to abuses occurring in the country, Human Rights Watch said today in its World Report 2020. The Saudi government’s murder of the Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in late […]

Libya

Syria, Yemen, Libya: For the First Time since Versailles, will Rival Powers redraw the Middle East’s Borders?

Middle East Monitor

By Muhammad Hussein | – This New Year will mark a century since the historic Treaty of Versailles was put into effect, creating the borders of much of the contemporary world and enabling the European colonial powers to seize the Middle Eastern territories of the defunct Ottoman Empire. The consequences of that treaty and other […]