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| 2007 Archives – Saudi Arabia |
King Abdullah prepares Al-Saud for a generational leap
Consolidating the House of Saud’s long-term position at the head of Arabia’s most powerful state, King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz has announced the membership of the Allegiance Commission (Al-Hayaat Al-Bayaa), the new council of senior royals tasked with discussing the choice of an heir apparent after a monarch’s death.
Issue 820, 21 December 2007. more
Also see Issue 820: Who’s who in the Saudi Allegiance Committe and Issue 792, 27 October 2006: With ‘Allegiance Committee’, circles of power evolve in Saudi Arabia
Saudi budget: caution even as Riyadh steps on the spending gas
Analysis of the Saudi budget suggests that capacity constraints continue to hold back the pace at which King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz’s ambitious social spending goals can be fulfilled – even though education, health and the development of a long-term credit funding base for housing and the non-oil economy emerged a key priorities in next year’s spending programme, which has been fattened with revenues from the continuing oil boom.
Issue 820, 21 December 2007. more
As Sarko prepares for Saudi visit, Western governments express concerns over policy issues
With President Sarkozy expected to fly in during January, Western governments are keen to cultivate the Saudi leadership. But while European officials generally express admiration for King Abdullah’s commitment to reform, in private reservations continue to be expressed about the direction of policy coming from Riyadh on a number of key issues. GSN focuses here on French and (below) British concerns.
Issue 818, 23 November 2007. more
Papal dialogue plays better than dinner at the palace with King Abdullah’s Saudi critics
Religious radicals are less bothered about dialogue with faith leaders than the government’s partnership with Washington and London. For ordinary Saudis jobs, crime and schools are bigger worries than ideology.
Issue 817, 9 November 2007. more
Saudi Arabia plays the wealthy mediator role in Somalia’s clan warfare
Saudi Arabia has emerged as a significant player in Somalia’s various conflicts, with King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz Al-Saud playing a personal role to help turn around a deeply destabilising situation for the region. Abdullah is being urged by the internationally recognised Transitional Federal Government (TFG) to support the formation of an Arab-African force, under United Nations command, to replace Ethiopian troops backing the interim government, who are constantly under attack from an insurgency. He is also being asked to provide financial support to the cash-strapped TFG in his capacity as chairman of the League of Arab States’ rotating presidency.
Issue 817, 9 November 2007. more
UK’s parochial preoccupations waste opportunity of Saudi tour
For superficiality, inaccuracy and lack of perception, it would be hard to think of a visit to the United Kingdom by a major international figure that could rival Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz for the dismal quality of its press coverage. Abdullah’s crucial and long-running efforts to develop a common Arab negotiating position for a Middle East peace settlement went almost without mention, as did his slow but steady programme of domestic modernisation, including the holding of the Kingdom’s first ever nationwide elections, for local councils, in 2005.
Issue 817, 9 November 2007. more
Allegiance Committee’s new rules
Following last year’s creation of the Allegiance Committee (Al-Hayaat Al-Bayaa), King Abdullah has again chosen the final days of Ramadan to release new rules guiding the body.
Issue 815, 12 October 2007. more
Talking up the jihadist threat, MoI is on the lookout for rockets
Although fears of a Ramadan spectacular have not been realised this year, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) remains on alert, and continues to talk up the potential risk of militancy in a way that surprises some Saudi-watchers. This has recently included warnings of a potential Katyusha-style rocket attack.
Issue 815, 12 October 2007. more
New chances and tough choices for the 21st century Kingdom
With oil revenues flooding in and capital piling up, Saudi Arabia is embarking on one of the most ambitious phases of development in its history. Facing the challenge of relentless population growth and persistently high unemployment, but empowered with the financial means to respond, King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz has decided on the creation of six new economic cities, which are forecast to have a combined GDP equal to that of Singapore and a population three times that of Dubai.
Issue 814, 28 September 2007. more
Eurofighter confirmed, disputes rumble on
The Saudi government’s announcement that it had signed the contract to purchase 72 Typhoon aircraft from the Eurofighter consortium was intended to draw a line in the sand under the protracted talks prior to King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz’s official visit to the United Kingdom in early October.
Issue 814, 28 September 2007.
more
Rights focus as reformers show support for Al-Hamid
Human rights are the main focus of new campaigning by Saudi liberals and other reformists, at a time when the prospects for a democratising change in the Kingdom’s political system seem uncertain.
Issue 812, 14 September 2007. more
Saudi crackdown turns to farce and a climbdown
The detention of a prominent Saudi reformist is derailed by international embarrassment, forcing a retreat.
The shortlived detention of a leading political reform supporter, lawyer Abdullah Al-Hamid, and his brother, Isa Al-Hamid, was made on the order of top figures in the Interior Ministry headed by Prince Nayef Bin Abdelaziz.
Their arrest followed the holding of five women, on the specific orders of Mohammed Bin Nayef Bin Abdelaziz, against the advice of local security chiefs in the conservative city of Buraydah, GSN has been told. It was also there that the Al-Hamids were detained on 19 July.
Issue 811, 3 August 2007. more
Mutawa trials signal a cautious normalisation in Saudi Arabia
For the first time in the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (Mutawa)’s 81-year history, members of the religious police are being tried – in three separate cases – in a civil rights court, for crimes against humanity.In the past, abuses were either hotly denied or dealt with through internal disciplinary action, which one analyst called “a joke”. New York-based Human Rights Watch’s Gulf analyst Christoph Wilke told GSN that during a meeting with the Mutawa’s head he asked how often disciplinary action was taken. The response was: “maybe once every two years.”
Issue 810, 20 July 2007. more
Saudi Miksa deal at the heart of Sarkozy’s GCC agenda
While Paris remains close to several smaller Gulf states, the relationship with Riyadh will be pivotal for France’s new president – and securing the long-awaited Miksa defence deal would be a symbolic and lucrative prize.
Issue 809, 6 July 2007. more
Saudi naval delays frustrate potential suppliers
France and the USA have dominated Saudi naval procurement, but even for these practised partners the slow pace of RSNF development is frustrating.
Issue 809, 6 July 2007. more
Air defence: Saudi fleet development options
Were Saudi Arabia to decide to pull the Eurofighter Typhoon deal – which is still unlikely, despite the Al-Yamamah ‘bribery’ scandal in the United Kingdom – the Royal Saudi Air Force (RSAF) and Saudi policy-makers would be confronted with a number of problems.
Issue 809, 6 July 2007. more
BAE scandal barks on, but may not bite deep into contracts
The headlines associated with the British Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation into BAE Systems will continue to cause alarm in the corporate world and in the Saudi Ministry of Defence and Aviation (MoDA), but the signs are that the furore may only delay, but not derail, UK defence aerospace industry efforts in the Kingdom.
Issue 809, 6 July 2007. more
Alignment with US neocons costs Bandar dear
This has not been a comfortable time for the high-profile former envoy. In Riyadh, Prince Bandar is losing critical foreign policy arguments, while in the West he faces a barrage of unfavourable coverage linked to Al-Yamamah.
Issue 808, 22 June 2007. more
The UK’s BAE ‘scandal’: what’s new(ish) in a convoluted history
Interrogations and allegations surrounding payments made to Prince Bandar for his contribution to BAE System’s Al-Yamamah contract have been filling the British media for weeks – asking severe questions of the UK’s much-vaunted anti-corruption credentials, as well as throwing the Saudi commissions culture into sharp relief. Below, GSN highlights some of the newer aspects of this very high-profile ‘scandal’.
Issue 808, 22 June 2007. more
Saudis drop Maliki over Iranian ties
There has been a notable downturn in relations between the Iraqi government and Riyadh in recent weeks, with King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz informing US State Department officials that the Kingdom was no longer able to support Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki. Riyadh regards the Daawa politician as too much in hock to Tehran to do anything about its critical Iraqi, such as reconciliation with, and greater protection for the Sunni community.
Issue 806, 25 May 2007. more
Nayef hammers home front message
The Saudi authorities are hammering home their message that people should be vigilant and quietly suffer the tribulations of homeland security measures, following the 27 April announcement of 172 terrorism-related arrests in the Kingdom
Issue 806, 25 May 2007. more
Saudi leadership pushes for unity to overcome terrorism threat
King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz has made remaking Arab/Islamic unity a cornerstone of his leadership. This was apparent at the League of Arab States summit held in Riyadh in March, when the Saudi leader was unusually frank in apportioning blame for such Arab setbacks as the Israeli conflict, catastrophic Palestinian infighting, and crisis in the arc of conflict spanning Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Riyadh has understood that these conflicts could threaten all the Gulf states, with potentially dire consequences for their home countries.
Issue 806, 25 May 2007. more
After arrests ‘triumph’ Saudi public steeled for a long war
The capture of 172 suspected terrorists delighted observers, as did acknowledgement that fighters and cells were being trained in Iraq, but the lack of detail released by the Saudi authorities rung alarm bells among analysts – some fear it’s just the Kingdom’s latest public relations stunt.
Issue 805, 11 May 2007. more
Saudi/UAE border negotiations grind to a halt in regional stalemate
In a region where borders were mostly settled years ago, a handful of territorial disputes involving GCC states are still to be negotiated, starting with the revived Saudi/UAE spat that affects the massive Shaybah oil field.
Issue 804, 27 April 2007. more
Hard work pays off for quiet mega-investor
Low-profile Saudi investor Maan Al-Sanea has emerged into the international spotlight with a series of large investments, culminating with a stake in mega-bank HSBC – and he’s not finished yet.
Issue 804, 27 April 2007. more
Sudeiris hold strong as Abdullah retreats from reshuffle
Oil markets were pleased Naimi stayed on and Arab states supported his efforts to bring regional stability, but King Abdullah’s “reshuffle that wasn’t” disappointed advocates of reform. King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz was on robust form declaring the US-led invasion of Iraq “illegal” while hosting a League of Arab States summit that sought to revive his Middle East peace process, forcing Hamas and Fatah together. But while the Saudi monarch has been basking in the international limelight – a position his long-standing commitment to a just MidEast settlement fully merits – domestic critics are concerned Abdullah is ceding too much ground to his Al-Saud rivals.
Issue 803, 13 April 2007. more
Iraq returnees fuel jihadi terror threat to Saudi Arabia
Insurgency fighters are trickling back to Saudi Arabia and appear to be planning a new home front, choosing targets that will reduce the risk of alienating the public. Some elements of a divided government see conservative preachers as allies in countering this threat.
Issue 802, 30 March 2007.more
After the Hejaz killings, expatriates again feel the heat of low sophistication attacks
The attack on a group of French expatriates underlined the view that low sophistication incidents against soft targets, rather than major terrorist ‘spectaculars’, remain the biggest threat in the GCC. GSN analyses the Saudi killings for indicators of the risks posed to expatriates by small jihadist groups. Such incidents have been recorded across the GCC, although in recent times there has been little to really concern security officials.
Issue 801, 16 March 2007. more
Return of Saudi gazette raises fear of oil attacks
The online voice of Saudi jihadism, Sawt Al-Jihad, has returned to the web after a 20-month hiatus. Its focus on targeting the oil industry includes sophisticated strategic discourse and attention to tactical detail – raising the prospect once more that jihadists could turn their focus to the global energy industry.
Issue 799, 16 February 2007. more
Tougher times for Gulf coast Shiites as Iraq fuels Saudi conservative fears
Pressures are rising in the Kingdom’s key oil-producing region as the Iraqi bloodbath undermines the Wahhabi old guard’s willingness to extend trust to a once sidelined community.
Issue 798, 2 February 2007. more
Dynastic struggles to control Saudi future
Current rivalries are less concerned with the direction of Saudi Arabia’s cautious process of modernisation than the role that ambitious individuals will play in shaping it.
Issue 797, 19 January 2007. more
TOP
| 2006 Archives – Saudi Arabia |
Turki, SFO spats highlight fight to influence pattern of Saudi policy
Deep rifts have opened in the Al-Saud elite over international policy and the internal balance of power. Coming after a period of steady reform and intensifying concern about regional security, King Abdullah must arbitrate between some very differing views of how Saudi Arabia expresses its influence in a dangerous world.
Issue 796, 22 December 2006. more
Threats low in sophistication but enough still to cause Saudi jitters
Should expatriates and Saudis who believe they provide a soft target for underground jihadists really still be worried about ‘terrorist’ threats in the Kingdom? Is it time, as a European banker in Riyadh asked GSN, to remove those ugly concrete slabs from around his impressive building?
Issue 795, 8 December 2006. more
New ‘slush fund’ claims threaten British relations
More investigative-minded sections of the London press have been full of claims about payments allegedly made to senior Saudi princes under the Al-Yamamah defence offsets agreement – whose latest phase, involving the sale of 72 Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft, has been seen in the defence industry as a major coup for the United Kingdom, reflecting London’s good relations with King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz.
Issue 794, 24 November 2006. more
King sees hydrocarbons as a tool for development
Touring Saudi Arabia’s deep south this month, King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz launched infrastructure, educational and health projects worth billions of Saudi riyals in the underdeveloped cities of Jizan and Najran in Asir. He is anxious to ensure that the government’s wider long-term campaign to boost national petrochemicals output generates real socio-economic development benefits for the Kingdom’s less well off regions.
Issue 794, 24 November 2006. more
With ‘Allegiance Committee’, circles of power evolve in Saudi Arabia
The industry that mushroomed to speculate on Saudi succession during the late King Fahd’s long illness has been in abeyance since Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz took the throne, but the announcement of a princely panel to formalise succession will set the rumour mill buzzing again – especially if it really weakens the Sudeiris’ hold on power.
Issue 792, 27 October 2006. more
Key Al-Abdullah and Sudeiri princes
GSN updates its listing of family appointments, businesses and other data on key Al-Saud branches. A full family genealogy was published in GSN 772.
Issue 792, 27 October 2006. more
Jitters and sensitivity as ‘organised crime’ targeted
The authorities continue to talk up their successes in the ‘war on terror’, but the Saudi rumour mill continues to turn out news about alleged ‘terrorist’ activities at a rampant pace.
Issue 791, 13 October 2006. more
Najran sees Ismaili resentments bubble, alongside a widening National Dialogue
The southern Saudi city of Najran has been the scene of renewed tension in the wake of a public protest by several hundred members of the local Ismaili Shia community, who claim to be the target of discriminatory land seizures and detentions without trial. Security forces surrounded the 5 September demonstration, but violence was averted after an Ismaili sheikh persuaded the protesters to go home.
Issue 788/789, 15 September 2006. more
Also see Issue 831, 13 June 2008:Saudi Ismailis under pressure, Issue 700, 20 December 2002: Saudis Soften On Treatment Of Najran Ismailis and Issue 636, 15 May 2000: Ismaili unrest in Southwest Saudi Arabia
King Abdullah’s first year: what’s the score?
It was with a palpable sense of relief that many Saudis and the Kingdom’s key external partners saw Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz inherit the throne just 12 months ago, after the uncertainties and princely turf battles that characterised the declining years of King Fahd. But what has really changed?
Issue 787, 4 August 2006. more
Jihadis a persistent challenge to complex Saudi security machine
The authorities moved quickly to boost public confidence after the 7 July escape of seven Al-Qaeda suspects from Al-Malaz prison in Riyadh, brushing aside suggestions that the fugitives could have been helped by collusion among staff at the jail. But the reassurances offered by officials including Interior Ministry spokesman Lieutenant-General Mansour Al-Turki were not sufficient to silence the doubters – for whom the escapes threaten to undermine the credibility of claimed successes in curbing the jihadi challenge.
Issue 786, 21 July 2006. more
Riyadh arrests point to renewed compound threat
Saudi Arabia’s security situation is much improved from the dark days of 2003-04, but news of threats to expatriate targets retains the potential to set back the Saudi state’s risk profile.
Issue 785, 7 July 2006. more
Saudi ministry procrastinates over legal challenge to clerical role in elections
The government has judged that discretion is the better part of valour as it seeks to play down controversy over the influence of religious leaders in the 2005 municipal polls.
Issue 784, 23 June 2006. more
Boeing prepares for major Saudi redeployment
Boeing is flying in thousands of new staff, underlining the upturn in risk perceptions of the Kingdom.
Issue 784, 23 June 2006. more
Are Abdullah’s cautious reforms breaking apart Saudi exile groups?
Claim and counter-claim are swirling about the exiled opposition, and various groups and individuals’ relations with the Saudi authorities. In this somewhat opaque world there is a growing feeling that, as King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz’s regime beds in, the exiled opposition is losing some of its teeth. Expect some lurid headlines and plenty of gossip to come as the authorities’ struggle with exiled Islamist opponents enters a new phase – for example, about prominent exiles’ alleged links to past plots involving other Arab governments and about their current sources of funding.
Issue 784, 23 June 2006. more
Prince Sultan promotes alliance
Smaller Gulf Co-operation Council nations still seem nervous at initiatives that include the region’s only officially poor country – whose eventual membership of the GCC, desired by the Sanaa government, would have major demographic consequences for the rich Arabian Peninsula nations’ grouping – but Saudi Arabia seems keen to bring Yemen into the fold (GSN 780/3, 773/3).
Issue 783, 9 June 2006. more
Saudi Coast Guard too over-stretched to secure Kingdom’s 2,640km coastline
Unless Saudi Arabia develops efficient coast guard forces, its burgeoning land-based defences will be easily flanked by determined terrorists, smugglers and economic migrants.
Issue 783, 9 June 2006. more
Thales under pressure as Saudis throw €7bn border security deal open to competition
A blow for the French and reassurance for Washington is also a signal of King Abdullah’s determination to enhance transparency and reduce the role of individual princes in placing major state contracts.
Issue 781, 12 May 2006. more
Saudi security follow-up highlights determined focus on oil targets
New incidents at Abqaiq show that Saudi jihadists retain the ambition – if not the capability – to hit oil export infrastructure, but the security forces now seem better equipped to tackle the challenge.
Issue 779, 14 April 2006. more
Abqaiq attack displays audacity and desperation of Saudi Jihadists
The 24 February attack on the Abqaiq oil facility could not have threatened a more vital node in the global oil industry. Its failure may reflect the current weakness of the jihadist threat in Saudi Arabia but that doesn’t mean oil facilities across the GCC won’t be targeted again.
Issue 778, 24 March 2006. more
Opposition strategies confused in Abdullah’s Saudi Arabia
International support for King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz and the consumer feelgood factor of an oil-fuelled stock market boom (on the wane of late) have combined to ease the pressure on the ruling Al-Saud, leaving opposition groups disoriented and unsure how to pursue their various campaigns for change.
Issue 777, 10 March 2006. more
Diplomatic bonhomie will not secure Dassault fighter deal, but it certainly helps
Relations between France and Saudi Arabia look particularly affable at present, and although a last ditch US bid to sell its warplanes can never be ruled out, President Chirac has helped create the right political atmosphere for the RSAF to place a second major order with a European supplier.
Issue 777, 10 March 2006. more
Big prizes for the committed as Europeans seal Saudi arms deals
A parting of the ways between the US defence industry and Saudi Arabia had begun by mid-2003 and the rift is increasingly visible (GSN 713/6). GSN’s sources among former US government securocrats continue to report that it has become politically untenable to attempt to push sensitive arms sales to Saudi Arabia through the Congress at a time when the scars of 9/11 are still raw. One former Pentagon official observed: “If Dubai has to run the gauntlet to buy our ports because two hijackers were from the Emirates, what president will ask Congress to arm a country that provided 15 of the 19?” (see GSN view).
Issue 776, 24 February 2006. more
Neighbourly relations prove one of the more thorny dossiers on Abdullah’s desk
The revived border dispute with the UAE is a reminder of the sensitivities within a Gulf Co-operation Council whose members wary widely in size and wealth. Beyond the GCC, the Iranian nuclear crisis poses a major foreign policy challenge for Saudi Arabia.
Issue 775, 10 February 2006. more
Iraq a factor bringing unity, for Saudi Arabia and the USA at least
A perception in Washington that Iraqi politics are getting beyond its control is mirrored by Saudi Arabia’s fear of anarchy next door and the potentials for blowback as Saudi jihadists return home. It seems that with King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz at the helm, and the Bush administration adopting ever greater pragmatism – underlined by ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad’s efforts to maintain contacts with all Iraqi political camps – post-9/11 tensions can be overcome as the two sides make common cause.
Issue 774, 27 January 2006. more
BAE assures future in Saudi Arabia with Eurofighter deal
The new Saudi Eurofighter deal is great news for the British aerospace industry even if the full scope of BAE System’s ‘$10.6bn deal’ remains somewhat unclear.
Issue 773, 13 January 2006. more
2010 Saudi Arabia archive
2008-2009 Saudi Arabia archive
2007 Saudi Arabia archive
2006 Saudi Arabia archive
2004-2005 Saudi Arabia archive
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