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Khalifa Bin Zayed: Exxon meeting

It will take more than a reshuffle to resolve the deep-seated contradictory pressures within Saudi Arabian politics and society. Even so, King Abdullah’s recent personnel changes send a powerful signal at a time of renewed succession concerns.

Will Mohammad Khatami secure the backing of Rahbar (Supreme Leader) Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for his presidential comeback bid this summer? Unlikely as this might have seemed even weeks ago, Iranian political observers, whose debates GSN has joined in the past week, are agreed that this may be the decisive question

The extent of Dubai’s economic downturn is preoccupying many GSN readers. Here are some short attempts at answers to some deep, difficult questions: How deep is the crisis? – Dubai’s economic survival rests on its ability to refinance debt, but the extent of that debt is unknown.

Kingdom Holding Company posted a $8.26bn net loss in Q4 08, compared with a gain of $68.2m in Q4 07.

Prince Khalid Bin Sultan has been in the news this month for his meetings with senior Pakistani military officials and French staff officers.

Thirty-year-old Prince Saud Bin Abdelrahman Bin Saud Bin Abdelaziz married a daughter of Prince Bandar Bin Abdelaziz on 14 November. Bandar has ten daughters.

While Netherlands Crown Prince Willem-Alexander was touring Dubai his wife Princess Maxima met with Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum’s wife Sheikha Haya.

A joint investment fund between State Bank of India (SBI) and the government will be launched formally in March.

The Investment Stability Fund (ISF), intended by the government to restore confidence in the Muscat Securities Market (MSM), was expected to be launched on 1 February.

Crown Prince Al-Qasimi has held talks with Zambia’s Finance Minister.

Ahmed Bin Saeed Al-Maktoum

Following weeks of negotiations and delays – which prompted talks of a walkout by parliamentarians and fresh grilling threats against the prime minister – Kuwait has a new government, albeit one with only two new faces. Many MPs have responded angrily to what is in effect a minor reshuffle rather than a new government, with 12 parliamentarians staging a walkout at the National Assembly ceremony to swear in the new cabinet.

The breakdown of the deal between The Dow Chemical Company and Petrochemical Industries Company – in which the Kuwaiti state-owned PIC would take a 50% stake in the United States’ largest chemicals group for around $9bn in return for the Americans developing the emirate’s downstream value-added via the KDow joint venture – is unsurprising.

So President Barack Obama is back in the White House, and it is time to get back to work. But the US vote for continuity will not prompt much celebration in the Iranian corridors of power. Several hours after the result was in, the Iranian state news agency Irna made no mention of US politics, although it did post a story saying the prevailing world system “is already meeting its doomed end”.