By Bobby Ghosh It’s not hard to guess why Vladimir Putin’s trip to Tehran was announced just as Joe Biden was arriving in Jerusalem and Jeddah. The Russian president is likely nostalgic for the time when the occupants of the White House and the Kremlin were treated as equals across the Middle East and North […]
Tag: Middle East
The Middle East after the Biden visit
By Kostas Raptis The contacts held by US President Joe Biden on Friday in Riyadh with the Saudi leadership and on Saturday in Jeddah, where the Gulf Security Council was also meeting, had a dual objective: on the one hand, to increase oil exports to relieve the testing international market (and to limit the losses […]
Biden Middle East Tour
The US president is criticized for his trip to the Middle East. On the campaign trail he promised to declare the Saudi crown prince undesirable – now he’s upgrading him. The street in front of the Saudi embassy in Washington was recently renamed: “Jamal Khashoggi Street”. It was no coincidence that the self-government of the […]
Biden like Trump in the Middle East
By Kostas Raptis It’s not usual for an American president to apologize, in a sarcastic way, to his domestic audience for a major initiative he intends to take in the field of foreign policy. But that’s exactly what Joe Biden did, publishing an op-ed in the Washington Post on Saturday about the Middle East tour […]
Why America is bowing its head in Saudi Arabia
By Bobby Ghosh The White House has confirmed that US President Joe Biden will visit Saudi Arabia next month, where he is expected to meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. He is the same prince that Biden had pledged to make an international outcry over the 2018 assassination of Jamal Kasogi, the Saudi dissident […]
Turkey’s dangerous game with NATO
Amid speculation about a US military commitment to security in the Middle East, Turkey has highlighted the region’s ability to act as a subversive force if its interests are neglected, writes James M. Dorsey, award-winning journalist and scholar, senior fellow at Middle East Institute of the National University of Singapore and Senior Fellow at the […]
Erdogan’s big obstacle in his ‘friendship attacks’
By Bobby Ghosh It is tempting to watch the recent diplomatic maneuvers of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, a return to the famous foreign policy doctrine of “Zero Problems with Neighbors” in the late 2000s, when Ankara embarked on ambitious the wider Middle East. Having spent most of the last decade burning bridges across the […]
Deutsche Welle: Solar energy from the Middle East to Europe?
Renewable energy sources in the Middle East could provide solutions to Europe’s needs. However, there are many inhibitory factors. It is obvious that the Middle East has a huge potential in solar energy. And yet, although the sunshine in the region is guaranteed, solar energy production remains much lower than in partly cloudy Europe. For […]
Tensions in the Middle East fueled the move, but it falters just below the $ 61 level
Tensions in the Middle East propelled WTI above $ 60, to new yearly highs. WTI retreats from the highs, still climbing 2% in the European session. Optimism about vaccines and US stimulus keep hopes of economic recovery alive. The WTI (futures on NYMEX) is retreating from the highest levels since January 2020 reached in the […]
UAE residents call for end to WhatsApp, Skype ban
Sergei Konkov | TASS via Getty Images DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Calls for the UAE to lift its ban on internet calling platforms like Whatsapp and Facetime are growing louder by the day as residents hunker down in their homes amid the coronavirus lockdown, unable to travel, meet or go outdoors. “Given the pandemic, […]