Saudi Arabia shows off Chinese missiles

It was an interesting crowd which gathered at Hafr Al-Baten on 29 April to mark the end of a massive military exercise called “Abdullah’s Sword”. The guest of honour was defence minister Crown Prince Salman Bin Abdelaziz, and there were many international guests – Bahrain’s King Hamad, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed, Kuwait’s defence minister Khalid Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah, secretary general of the Omani defence ministry Mohammed Bin Nasser Al-Rasbi, and Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) chief Abdul-Latif Al-Zayani. Despite Doha’s assertion that any GCC rift was “over”, Qatar was noticeably absent, at least according to the Saudi state news agency’s list of attendees.