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Issue 950 - 05 July 2013

Iran/Oman: Dialogue

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Muscat has maintained its policy of regular consultations with the Iranian government, promoting rapprochement and acting as a back channel for other allies to connect with the leadership. Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said sent a cable of congratulations to president-elect Hassan Rouhani after his election, and on 20 June, the Islamic Republic’s deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs Hoseyn Amir-Abdollahian held talks with Omani foreign minister Yusuf Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah in Muscat.

Iran | Oman
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Donald Trump’s decision to turn his harsh rhetoric into a confrontational policy on Iran’s Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal was widely expected – in the process undermining another legacy of his predecessor Barack Obama. The US president has gone as far as he could to call the JCPOA into question, but this is still not as far as candidate Trump promised during last year’s election campaign to trash “the worst ever deal”. The US ball is in Congress’s court, leaving the world wondering what his next step might be.

Iran
Free

The former emir of Qatar, Sheikh Khalifa Bin Hamad Al-Thani, died on 23 October at the age of 84. He ruled Qatar from 1972 until his overthrow by his son, Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani in 1995. Returned to Doha, Sheikh Khalifa had been unwell for some time; it was reported in July that he was seriously ill. While only a few would call him a great leader, Sheikh Khalifa was a historic ruler who oversaw a key period of Qatar’s development, showing a much-need level of professional competence in the earlier years of his rule.

Qatar
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Amid all the talk of war on Iran, it is worth noting that Israeli deputy foreign minister Daniel Ayalon took the time last week to distance his country from any notion of imminent conflict.

Iran
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One notable consequence of the Kurdish referendum has been the way it has led to closer co-operation between neighbouring states. A round of shuttle diplomacy among military top brass in Iran, Iraq and Turkey began in the run-up to the vote and has continued since. Iraqi Army chief of staff Othman Al-Ghanemi arrived in Ankara on 23 September for talks with his Turkish counterpart General Hulusi Akar. This was followed by joint exercises by Iraq and Turkish forces on 26 September.

Iraq
Issue 973 - 05 July 2014

Ramadan begins

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The holy month of Ramadan has begun across the region. In Saudi Arabia, the royal court announced that fasting would start on Sunday 29 June; the rest of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states and Iraq followed suit, while in Yemen it began the previous day. With protocol trumping any political tensions between Qatar and other Gulf states (GSN 965/1), Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani exchanged telephone calls with leaders including Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz Al-Saud, Kuwait’s Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, Bahrain’s King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the kings of Jordan and Morocco and the presidents of Sudan, Algeria, Palestine, Turkey, Libya, Djibouti and Mauritania.

Issue 939 - 24 January 2013

Oman holds first municipal elections

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Oman held its first ever nationwide municipal council elections on 22 December, part of a series of reforms promised by Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said in 2011, when he faced significant popular unrest. The government has presented the elections as proof Oman is making steady progress towards greater citizen participation, but it is not clear how much influence the advisory councils will have.

Oman
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The UK’s parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee (FAC) published its long-awaited report on the UK’s relations with Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on 22 November. It was broadly supportive of the government’s pursual of good relations with the Gulf, but urged London to put more pressure on Bahrain to reform. The inquiry was first announced in September 2012, provoking such dismay in Saudi Arabia that its ambassador to London, Prince Mohammed Bin Nawaf Al-Saud, said at the time that Riyadh would be “re-evaluating” its historic relations with Britain. In fact, the Saudis – as GSN predicted – had little to fear. After a year of gathering evidence – including 71 written submissions, six oral evidence sessions with academics, politicians, diplomats and human rights experts, a visit to Riyadh and a series of informal meetings (including one with Bahraini human rights minister Salah Bin Ali Abdulrahman and another with the secretary-general of Al-Wefaq, Sheikh Ali Salman) – the report concluded that, while the Gulf states might be “particularly challenging” in terms of human rights and democracy issues, “most are also wealthy and powerful, and vitally important to many of the UK’s interests in the region”.

Saudi Arabia | Bahrain
Issue 960 - 12 December 2013

Bahrain: Alba civil suit against Dahdaleh

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A civil suit brought by Alba in Pittsburgh against Alcoa reached settlement in October 2012. Alcoa did not admit liability but agreed to make a cash payment to Alba of $85m, payable in two instalments. Alcoa said in a statement that the settlement with Alba represented “the best possible outcome” and avoided the expense and time of complex litigation. Alcoa and Alba – whose chairman is now Mahmood Hashim Al-Kooheji (a prosecution witness in the London trial) – have also resumed a commercial relationship, entering into an Alumina Price Index-based long term alumina supply agreement.

Bahrain
Issue 1010 - 18 February 2016

Ras Al-Khaimah: Promising indicators

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Standard & Poor’s has affirmed its rating for RAK at A/A-1, saying the northern emirate’s relatively diversified economy should protect it against the regional economic slowdown. With little direct reliance on oil and gas, S&P expects RAK to maintain a fiscal surplus and low debt levels in the years ahead. The economy’s main pillars are supplying materials such as stone, mica, glass and ceramics to infrastructure projects around the GCC; and ports and free trade zones serving the local region and other nearby markets such as India (30% of RAK’s foreign direct investment comes from India).

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Relations between Tehran and Islamabad have soured after ten Iranian border guards were killed and three others injured in skirmishes with militants on 26 April near Mirjaveh in Sistan and Baluchestan province, on the border with Pakistan. The Jaish Ul-Adl group reportedly claimed responsibility for the attack. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Bahram Qassemi said the Pakistani government “should be held responsible” for the attack, for letting the assailants operate from its territory.

Iran
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Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal’s investment vehicle Kingdom Holding (KH) has suffered a dramatic fall in its fortunes, with a 90% year-on-year drop in revenue in Q3 2019, to SR47.6m, and a 65% fall in profits, to SR86.8m. The figures, announced on 10 November, also showed revenues fell by 21% yr-on-yr in January-September 2019, to SR1.4bn. when profits dropped by 37%, to SR401.8m.

Saudi Arabia
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In Kuwait’s stuttering projects market, for every step forward, there seem always to be two steps back. Reports in mid-June that the country’s major new airport project was being put on hold after companies bidding for the construction contracts pulled out was not, therefore, a particular surprise. Kuwaiti newspapers reported that the Ministry of Public Works has put the KD1bn ($3.6bn) second airport terminal project on ice after most of those bidding withdrew, apparently in protest at the onerous conditions.

Kuwait
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Qatari officials made a rare visit to Saudi Arabia in mid-September to take part in the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) extraordinary meeting, called by Riyadh to discuss comments by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he planned to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank if he won re-election on 17 September poll. The Qatari delegation was led by minister of state for foreign affairs Sultan Bin Saad Al-Muraikhi.

Saudi Arabia
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Foreign affairs and international co-operation minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan (ABZ) held talks with his British counterpart Jeremy Hunt and minister of state for the Middle East Alistair Burt in separate meetings on 6 September. Among the topics up for discussion was the Yemen war – the UK government continues to offer fulsome support to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition, not least through the supply of weapons to Saudi and UAE forces. The discussions also touched on the current situation in Syria and Libya.

United Arab Emirates (UAE)