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Energy minister Prince Abdelaziz Bin Salman announced wide-ranging changes on 16 November designed to bolster state utility Saudi Electricity Company (SEC), improve the transmission network’s reliability and encourage more renewable energy production. Prince Abdelaziz, who is also chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Restructuring the Electricity Sector and of the Electricity and Cogeneration Regulatory Authority (ECRA), said SEC’s net government liabilities – estimated at SR168bn ($45bn) – would be converted into shareholder equity via a sharia-compliant instrument. In addition, fees paid by SEC to the government would be cancelled.

A showcase mega-event has its downsides, even while the climate  talks place the UAE at the centre of the global stage.

It says something when even confirming the date of birth – 31 August 1985 – is seen as a breakthrough in getting a more exact image of arguably the Gulf region’s most talked-about – and influential – political personality. Deputy Crown Prince, secretary-general of the Royal Court, second deputy prime minister and defence minister Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdelaziz (MBS) is pushing Saudi Arabia towards a liberal economic overhaul and, by many accounts, driving bloody conflict in Yemen. But despite one extensive interview and his prominence in global newsflow and analysis, King Salman’s much-favoured 30 year-old son remains remarkably little known – while generating very mixed sentiments for a policy mix couched in management-speak and missiles.

A charismatic leader, as underlined by his generally well-regarded decades of driving Riyadh’s development, King Salman Bin Abdelaziz has been largely overshadowed by his heir-apparent over the two years. But the 82-year-old monarch has not gone away and he now appears willing to flex his political muscles once again, which might keep the ambitious Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) in check to some extent.

Deputy defence minister Prince Khalid Bin Salman Bin Abdelaziz made a return visit to Washington DC in late August, some six months after he left his post as ambassador to the United States against a backdrop of outrage over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Prince Khalid arrived on 27 August and met with secretary of state Mike Pompeo the next day and with defence secretary Mark Esper on 29 August. The visit was another sign the Trump administration would prefer to consign the Khashoggi case to the past.

Recent gloomy reports on a downturn in Saudi economic growth were underpinned by the announcement that Riyadh was extending its 1m b/d production cut until end-2023. However, the higher prices are not enough to make up for the fall in output. 

A long-running investigation into millions of dollars’ worth of bribes paid to Prince Miteb Bin Abdullah and his associates in 2007-10 has ended with the two defendants walking free from a London court, after successfully arguing the payments had been approved by the British and Saudi authorities. One defendant’s lawyer told the court his client was being prosecuted to deflect attention from the UK government’s decades of dubious payments in the Gulf

In a further accumulation of jobs in the ruling family, President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed has named his daughter Mariam as deputy chair of the Presidential Court for National Projects while his son Theyab has a new senior role at the Presidential Court for Development and Fallen Heroes’ Affairs

Vice President, prime minister and Dubai Ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum removed Abdulla Al-Habbai as chairman of the Dubai Holdings conglomerate on 7 November. He appointed Sheikh Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum in his place to temporarily oversee both Dubai Holding and its real estate subsidiary Meraas. The announcement was not accompanied by a clear explanation for the sudden change, but said it was “part of a fresh strategy” for both groups. GSN noted last month that Meeras and other state-owned property groups were facing difficulties.

Saudi Arabia has threatened to exert financial pressure on the Iraqi government to find a solution to end the war with Iran, according to a well placed source in Baghdad. The Saudi intention is said to have been made late last year, when funds to Iraq to maintain both its war effort and its huge development programme, were running at an estimated $20bn from Arab Gulf states. The source, involved in both military and civilian projects for the Iraqi government, says that the severity of Iraq's cash flow problem has begun to force major civilian projects to be postponed. It is estimated that 40% of new civilian construction has been postponed, indicating that Iraq is no longer receiving all the financial support it needs.

Casualties. It is not a phoney war being fought between Iran and Iraq. Though the pressmen and television crews which once thronged the lobbies of the Mansour Melia hotel in Baghdad and fought off cockroaches in the Shatt al Arab hotel in Basra have long since departed the conflict still continues.

IN A REPORT published earlier this month; Amnesty International claims that Iraqi use of torture is widespread. It bases its findings on interviews with former detainees and witnesses, and concludes that the use of torture on political prisoners has led to death under interrogation in a number of instances. The London-based human rights organisation only deals specifically with torture in this report, but on a number of occasions in the past has drawn attention to what it claims is a major increase in recent years of executions.

OVER THE COMING THREE MONTHS THE GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL will hold a series of Ministerial meetings in Riyadh, some of which will be dealing with highly sensitive and emotive issues. The first meeting is the GCC Ministers of Interior and Abdullah Bishara, the Council's Secretary General has already spoken out on the concerns the Ministers ]face in their deliberations. on 27 February.

THERE NEVER WAS ANY CO-ORDINATION in the various political moves, initiated in the wake of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, to structure a lasting Middle East peace. There is an American 'initiative' from President Reagan, an Arab peace plan agreed at the Fez summit, the late Mr. Brezhnev's scheme and a joint Egyptian-French design; all propounded as the solution for an overall Middle East peace settlement. Although these proposals express an ultimate common aim, they differ substantially as to the means by which it is to be reached and, even, as to its final political shape.

THE IRANIAN THREAT to prevent all Arab oil exports from the Gulf, if Iran's own oil exports are disrupted by Iraqi military action, is an ominous signpost to a possible spread of the Gulf war. The threat is directed more to the other Gulf Arab countries than to Iraq, since the seaborne route is already closed to the latter. The threat may be designed to so alarm the six countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) that they will pressurise Iraq not to carry out its threat to attack Iranian oil installations.