Search results

The influence and financial muscle of Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states was more apparent than ever at the 6-9 October International Monetary Fund/World Bank annual meetings in Washington.

Projects such as King Abdullah Economic City (KAEC) and the new financial city north of Riyadh have been proposed as one solution to make it easier for foreign investors and banks to operate in King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz’s Kingdom than his father, Saudi Arabia’s founder King Abdelaziz Bin Abdelrahman (Ibn Saud), apparently intended.

Turkey is coming to play a central role in strategic thinking in the Arab/Islamic world, as well as in the West and Eurasian zones. Regional trade is booming, Ankara’s relationship with Israel has become strained while Turkey has emerged as a key player in Iraqi Kurdistan; and as a nuclear Iran emerges, Turkey’s relations with the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states may well become central to regional strategies.

The US State Department on 15 September confirmed the role of the Omani government in securing the release of imprisoned hiker Sarah Shourd, who was arrested with two other Americans by Iran 13 months ago when walking in the mountainous Iranian/Iraqi border region

King Hamad shows no sign of relaxing a security campaign that seems intended to squeeze opposition outside parliament and depress voter turnout in support of opponents within the constitutional framework, when legislative elections are held on 23 October

The rumour mills are grinding again after Crown Prince Sultan Bin Abdelaziz left the Kingdom on 28 August for what the state Saudi Press Agency described as a “private holiday”. Sultan has returned to his palace in Morocco, where he spent much of his time in 2009 convalescing from treatment.

‘Success’ for president’s treatment

Two decades after Saddam Hussein’s invasion and in the fifth year of Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah’s rule, is a more positive investment and policy implementation story starting to emerge from Kuwait? The sometimes beleaguered prime minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammed Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah seems to think so.

Shekha Lubna: Palestinian visits

Emir Sheikh Hamad in Europe

Funeral prayers for cousin

MBR in Europe

Qatar’s gas-fuelled economic boom is reflected in a burgeoning population, which has soared by 128% in just six years to 1.69m people, according to the preliminary results of Qatar Statistics Authority (QSA)’s latest census.

While US diplomacy may not be getting very far in Baghdad – vice president Joe Biden’s recent visit did not lead to any breakthrough in negotiations on a new government – former diplomats and officials are doing well in Iraqi Kurdistan, acting as advisers to the Kurdistan Regional Government or its commercial partners

With the 31 August deadline looming for the withdrawal of US combat forces in Iraq, GSN has visited locations across the country to conduct a wide-ranging assessment of the security situation and the likely impact of withdrawal. We asked what the drawdown would mean on the ground and whether the Iraqi Security Forces will cope.