Dec 5 2018
The Israeli leader could be planning a military adventure to offset his domestic difficulties? By Abdelbari Atwan Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s unexpected flight to Brussels on Monday to meet with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was attending a NATO meeting there, was reminiscent of a similar meeting: the one his predecessor Ehud […]
By mahaburbar1 • Israel •
Dec 3 2018
The G-20 summit has demonstrated that money outweighs morals in international relations By Abdelbari Atwan The G-20 summit in Buenos Aires was a key test for Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad Salman. It was his first appearance at such a high-level international forum, surrounded by world’s top leaders, since the assassination of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Nov 25 2018
The Saudi crown prince is trying to signal it’s business-as-usual. But it may not be. By Abdelbari Atwan We do not know precisely which advisors continue to surround Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad in-Salman, after several of them were sacked or side-lined for being implicated in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. What we do know […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Nov 22 2018
The days when Israel could assassinate Palestinian resistance leaders at will are over By Abdelbari Atwan The name of Yahya as-Sinwar, Hamas’ leader in the Gaza Strip, has turned into a nightmare for Israeli leaders and public alike. There are several reasons for this, including his organisational skills, his turning of the Gaza Strip into […]
By mahaburbar1 • Palestine •
Nov 18 2018
The ‘crime of the century’ could scupper the ‘deal of the century’ and the US’ entire Middle East strategy By Abdel Bari Atwan The ‘crime of the century’ – the assassination of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in his country’s consulate in Istanbul — has not only damaged Crown Prince Muhammad Bin-Salman, the main suspect accused […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Nov 17 2018
Gaza’s missile retaliation has changed the rules and created a crisis for the Israelis By Abdelbari Atwan I called an old friend and colleague in Gaza on Wednesday. Hilmi Mousa spent more than ten years in Israeli occupation jails, and lived for a long time in Beirut where he worked for as-Safir newspaper before returning […]
By mahaburbar1 • Palestine •
Nov 12 2018
The First World War was a disaster for the Arab World: and we may be facing are-run By Abdelbari Atwan At this time of year, many British people make sure to pin red paper poppies to their chests as in solidarity with the soldiers who lost their lives on the frontlines during the First World […]
By mahaburbar1 • Europe (West), European Union, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States of America •
Nov 8 2018
What’s behind the proposed ‘peace railway’ connecting Israel to the Gulf? By Abdel Bari Atwan The normalisation blowskeep coming. First,Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu visits Muscat and is greeted most cordially. Then, Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev tours the Abu Dhabi mosque dedicated to the late Sheikh Zayed, who led the Arab oil embargo in […]
By mahaburbar1 • Israel, The Gulf •
Nov 7 2018
Trump’s sanctions are purely in implementation of an Israeli agenda By Abdel Bari Atwan When Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu describes the implementation of the second instalment of US sanctions on Iran, directed at its energy and banking sectors, as a ‘historic day,’ then every Arab or Muslim with any sense of self-respect must stand […]
By mahaburbar1 • Iran •
Nov 2 2018
Top-level changes could be coming in the Saudi ruling family By Abdel Bari Atwan Many questions were raised about the prolonged stay in London of Prince Ahmad Bin-Abdelaziz, youngest of the seven Sudairi sons of Saudi Arabia’s founding monarch – especially after he told a group of protestors outside his residence that they should not blame […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Oct 30 2018
Could a reconciliation between Saudi Arabia and Qatar be on the cards? By Abdel Bari Atwan Qatar may yet emerge as the biggest beneficiary of the crime of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The coalition opposed to it, led by Saudi Arabia, has been weakened to an unprecedented degree, and has begun to […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia, The Gulf •
Oct 29 2018
The US, Israel and Arab partners set the stage for the launch of their anti-Iran alliance By Abdel Bari Atwan It was no coincidence that the star of the ‘Manama Dialogue’ conference held in the Bahraini capital over the past few days was US Secretary of Defence James Mattis. He was joined by the foreign […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia, The Gulf •
Oct 28 2018
Why are Gulf governments increasingly flaunting their ties with Israel? By Abdel Bari Atwan Three painful normalisation blows were dealt in as many days to what remains of the Arab states’ self-respect. The first was the participation of an Israeli delegation at a sports tournament in Qatar. The second was the despatch of another sporting […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia, The Gulf •
Oct 23 2018
Riyadh hopes the lure of cash and trade deals will offset international revulsion over the Khashoggi murder By Abdel Bari Atwan It is ironic that Saudi Arabia is holding its Future Investment Initiative conference – the so-called ‘Davos in the Desert’ — at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Riyadh. That is where Crown Prince Muhammad […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Oct 19 2018
Attempts to bury the Khashoggi case by blaming rogue operatives are unlikely to succeed By Abdel Bari Atwan There are three main parties currently standing in the way of US President Donald Trump’s plans to whitewash the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside his country’s consulate in Istanbul, and to absolve Saudi Arabia’s de facto […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Oct 18 2018
With Turkey preoccupied and the Nusra Front split, a military solution is looking likelier By Abdel Bari Atwan Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s ‘disappearance’ has indirectly affected the Idlib agreement between Russia and Turkey. Monday was the date for the more important part of that agreement — requiring the withdrawal of the Tahrir ash-Sham Organization (former Nusra Front) from the […]
By mahaburbar1 • Syria •
Oct 14 2018
We may see a ‘Megrahi Scenario’ being applied to cover up the Khashoggi Affair By Abdel Bari Atwan In his recent comments, US President Donald Trump gave us an indication of how the case of the Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi, who went into his country’s consulate in Istanbul last Tuesday and never reappeared, may be […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Oct 10 2018
If Turkey doesn’t reveal the truth, there should be an international inquiry into the Saudi journalist’s disappearance By Abdel Bari Atwan It is painful to see the case of the disappearance of the well-known Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi becoming more mysterious by the day. With all the conflicting information, and the absence of conclusive evidence, […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Oct 8 2018
The disappearance of Jamal Khashoggi is a message to all the Saudi crown prince’s critics, wherever they may be By Abdel Bari Atwan The Turkish security authorities have yet to live up to their promise to reveal full details, with supporting video evidence, of the disappearance of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi since he went into […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •
Dec 11 2018
Death of the GCC
The Gulf regional grouping is being sent the way of the Arab League By Abdelbari Atwan Far more important than the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit — which convened for just a few hours in Riyadh on Sunday — and the ‘poetic’ closing statement it issued, were the remarks made by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel […]
By mahaburbar1 • Saudi Arabia •