UAE

Lowest Solar bid in World History for new Abu Dhabi Facility, as expensive Coal, backed by Trump, declines further

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Abu Dhabi has accepted a historically low bid of 1.35 cents a kilowatt hour for a new giant 1.5 gigawatt solar farm, to be built at al-Dhafra by the largely government-owned French consortium Électricité de France (EDF) and China’s Jinko. The price is 44% less than was paid for the […]

Donald Trump

Trump Narrative of Iran Meddling in Yemen dashed by Secession of Emirates-Backed Southerners in Aden

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Al-Jazeera reports that the Southern Transitional Council (STC) in the Arabian Sea port of Aden has declared independence. Aden is a little more populous than Philadelphia inside city limits, at about 1.7 million, which makes it about 5 percent of Yemen’s 28 million population. The STC maintains that the Riyadh […]

Bahrain

With Oil Prices in Freefall, Coronavirus Reveals Weaknesses of Saudis, Arab Gulf States

Middle East Monitor

By Marwan Kabalan | – ( Middle East Monitor) – The coronavirus outbreak has put the Arab Gulf States under the spotlight and exposed their structural weaknesses. It has also suggested that security, which is often the focus because of geopolitical regional rivalry, especially with Iran, distracts from other equally important threats. While it is […]

Nuclear Energy

Why is it only Suspicious when Iran Does it? Energy-Rich United Arab Emirates is about to open 4 Nuclear Reactors

The Conversation

By Paul Dorfman | – The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is building the world’s largest concentrated solar power plant, capable of generating 700 megawatts. During daylight, solar power will provide cheap electricity, and at night the UAE will use stored solar heat to generate electricity. But at the same time, four nuclear reactors are nearing […]

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 […]

Featured

That’s not Good. Popular ToTok App is Emirates Spyware

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – ( Lily Hay Newman at Wired explores the implications of the revelation that the ToTok app is actually spyware for the United Arab Emirates. The app is fiendishly clever in the sense that there is nothing virus-like about it. It is just a communications application that wants to know who […]

Houthi

World’s Worst War: Can South Yemen’s Warring Factions Make Peace amid Saudi-Emirates Rivalry?

Middle East Monitor

By Stasa Salacanin | – At the beginning of November, warring parties from Yemen’s south reached a power-sharing deal which aimed not only to defuse tensions among Arab alliances in South Yemen but was also seen to as a step closer towards ending the war in the country. The tensions between the Saudi-backed Hadi government […]

Government surveillance

How the Emirates Weaponized ex-NSA Spying Expertise against Democracy Activists

Middle East Monitor

US officials and former NSA employees build UAE secret surveillance unit

Brazil

Beef and Oil: Are Brazil’s Bolsonaro and Saudi’s MBS a Match Made in Heaven?

Tori Avila

By Vitoria Avila Fioravanti | – Sao Paulo (Special to Informed Comment) – Beef, oil and veiling and a murdered journalist have catapulted the burgeoning relationship between Brazil and the controversial Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into the headlines for the first time this fall, though the two countries have had formal diplomatic relations since 1968. […]