Like Israel, Saudi Arabia wants a formalised security agreement, even if that accord may not target Iran as explicitly as Israel’s request does.
Nato’s spat over Turkish opposition to Swedish and Finnish membership is about more than expanding the North Atlantic military alliance.
Rather than push for an immediate improvement of strained relations with the United States, Saudi Arabia appears to be looking forward to a
The Russian Orthodox Church blesses rather than fire weapons. In doing so, it has emerged as a powerful weapon in its own right in President Vladimir Putin’s civilisationalist arsenal.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have drawn praise for social reforms that have domestically reduced the role of religion in public life.
Long banned, Christmas has finally—at least tacitly—arrived in Saudi Arabia; just don’t use the name in marketing or be ostentatious about your tree.
Just in case there were any doubts, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu demonstrated with his visit to Lebanon last week that improved relations between Middle-Eastern rivals would not bury hatchets.
Two separate developments involving improved relations between Sunni and Shia Muslims and women’s sporting rights demonstrate major shifts in how rivalry for the leadership of the Muslim world and competition to define Islam in the 21st century are playing out in a world where the Middle Eastern states can no longer depend on the United States coming to their defence.
President Donald Trump's abrogation of the 2015 international nuclear agreement with Iran is likely to put his America First policy to the test. Trump's decision to walk away from the agreement that curbed Iran's nuclear programme risks fuelling a nuclear race in the Middle East, particularly if Iran decides that the US withdrawal has rendered the deal unbeneficial.
With US President Donald J Trump scheduled to announce whether he will uphold the international community's nuclear agreement on Iran and Iraqi elections slated for the same day, May 12 is gearing up to be a day that could shape the future of the Middle East.
There is no indication that this week's protests in Khuzestan were anything more than an expression of popular anger against perceived denial of an Iranian Arab identity.
In his effort to improve Saudi Arabia's badly tarnished image and project the kingdom as embracing an unidentified form of moderate Islam, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has hinted that he envisions a conservative rather than an ultra-conservative society, but not one in which citizens are fully free to make personal, let alone political choices of their own.
The Gulf crisis that has pitted World Cup host Qatar against a United Arab Emirates-Saudi Arabia-led alliance for the past eight months is showing up the fiction of a separation of sports and politics.
It's the pot calling the kettle black. As Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of seeking to encircle it with its support for Houthi rebels in Yemen as well as Qatar, the kingdom and the Islamic republic are extending their bitter rivalry beyond the Middle East into the Caucasus.
In a further warning sign, 67.3 percent favoured Iran seeking to achieve economic self-sufficiency—a policy pursued by former hard-line Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. That promises to complicate any future negotiation with Iran.
Turkish allegations of Saudi, Emirati and Egyptian support for the outlawed Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) threaten to turn Turkey's military offensive against Syrian Kurds aligned with the PKK into a regional imbroglio.
Self-serving Pakistani politics threaten to aggravate the country's myriad problems that have strained its relations with the United States and could heighten tension in the restless, key geo-strategic region of Balochistan, a vital node bordering Iran in China's Belt and Road initiative and the earmarked home for the People's Republic's second foreign military base.
In many ways, Prince Mohammed faces the same considerations in deciding how to respond to events in Iran as does US President Donald J Trump.
