Search results

Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah arrived back in Kuwait on 7 June, following an official visit to China. During his visit, which began on 2 June, he met President Xi Jinping, delivered a letter to him from Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, and invited him to Kuwait. He also held talks with Prime Minister Li Keqiang, who hosted an official dinner in the Grand Hall of the People’s Congress on 3 June, and National People’s Congress Standing Committee president Zhang Dejiang.

Prince Abdullah Bin Musaid Bin Abdelaziz has bought a 50% stake in English football club Sheffield United. He bought the stake in the club’s holding company, Blades Leisure Ltd, from owner Kevin McCabe, with whom he becomes co-chairman. McCabe said Prince Abdullah “shared our vision for the Blades to join the top tier of English football”. The prince is a former president of Saudi club Al Hilal and is worth some £18bn ($28bn), according to The Telegraph newspaper, although it is not clear how it came to that figure. He said he was determined to see the club achieve its goals and that money would be “spent judiciously”.

Foreign minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has apparently laughed off the latest rumours of his death. On 25 April, head of the foreign ministry’s media directorate Osama Nugali tweeted that he had informed the prince about the rumours by telephone. “He laughed and told me with his renowned modesty: ‘The news of my death should not be a huge story or exaggerated’,” Nugali wrote. It is not the first time there have been rumours of his death. In August 2012, hackers infiltrated the blogging platform of the Reuters website to post a false report that the prince had died from post-surgery complications.

King Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa made a relatively rare overseas trip on 18 March, travelling to Turkmenistan for an official state visit. He held talks with President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow at the Presidential Palace and the two leaders witnessed the signing of a series of memorandums of understanding, covering topics such as relations between their central banks, transportation, women’s affairs, e-government, education, tourism, youth and cultural co-operation.

US President Barack Obama flew into Riyadh with a large delegation on 27 January, to meet the new Saudi king, Salman Bin Abdelaziz, and offer condolences on the death of his predecessor Abdullah. Obama, who had called King Salman from Air Force One on 24 January to express his sympathies, cut short a visit to India to go to Riyadh for a few hours, during which he observed various protocols and held a meeting with the king. While Obama’s was only one of many international delegations coming to make contact with the new ruler, its size spoke of the value Washington continues to place on its relationship with Riyadh.

The estate of the bankrupt Icelandic bank Kaupthing has settled a dispute with the emir’s brother, former deputy prime minister Mohammed. The dispute stemmed from a deal the sheikh made to buy shares in the bank just before its 2008 collapse through his Q Iceland Holding. The bank had issued legal proceedings against the sheikh in Iceland.

The Abu Dhabi authorities have said that Sheikh Issa Bin Zayed Al-Nahayan – the figure at the centre of the torture tapes scandal that has made headlines worldwide (GSN 852/20) – has been detained in a criminal investigation.

A royal order on 23 April relieved Prince Abdullah Bin Musaid Bin Abdelaziz from his position, held since June 2014, as president of the General Authority for Sports (known until May 2016 as the General Presidency for Youth Welfare). Abdullah is a prominent businessman and has football interests. He is former president of Al-Hilal club and abroad he is a shareholder in English Football League club Sheffield United.

Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani appointed Emiri Diwan chief Sheikh Khalid Bin Khalifa Al-Thani as prime minister and interior minister on 28 January, taking over from the Sheikh Abdullah Bin Nasser Al-Thani who had handed in his resignation after six and a half years as premier; prior to that Abdullah had been minister of state for internal affairs and was promoted to prime minster and interior minister on Tamim’s succession.

King Salman Bin Abdelaziz inaugurated the much-delayed high-speed rail line between Mecca and Medina on 25 September. The 450km Haramain line also stops at King Abdullah Economic City, Jeddah’s King Abdelaziz International Airport and downtown Jeddah. It has an annual passenger capacity of 60m people and is the first high-speed service in the Gulf.

Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif arrived in Kuwait on 26 July for the first leg of a three-nation tour that also took in Qatar (the same day) and Iraq. His talks with Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah and foreign minister Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah were intended to seek “ways to improve bilateral, regional and international co-operation and to take effective approaches toward the battle against terrorism”, Iranian media said. “Any threat to one country is a threat to all,” Zarif told a news conference hosted by the Iranian embassy in Kuwait City.

King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz has given orders to renovate Cairo’s Al-Azhar Mosque at his expense, a move which not only underlines the current closeness between Saudi Arabia and Egypt, but also signals a desire to reinforce Saudi Arabia’s role as the custodian of Sunni Islam, which is being threatened by jihadist counterclaims. Al-Azhar was founded by the Fatimids in around 970, and remains the foremost centre of Sunni Islamic learning; the United States has been trying to encourage a more vocal denunciation of extremism from within its walls, a message iterated also by Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed (MBZ), who visited Al-Azhar on 18 September.

Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Al-Khalifa visited Kuwait on 12-13 June, meeting Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and other senior officials. Security co-operation was among issues at the top of the agenda. Sheikh Khalifa was seen off at Kuwait International Airport by Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, first deputy premier and foreign minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah other senior ministers, advisors and officials.

Mystery surrounds the fate of Prince Abdelaziz Bin Fahd (ABF), the controversial, youngest son of the late King Fahd Bin Abdelaziz, who was reported to have died while resisting arrest during a brief shoot-out with security forces in Riyadh during the wave of royal arrests. Since then, officials have insisted he is alive and well.

It has been an eventful year in the Gulf. Against a backdrop of wider regional turmoil – the civil war in Syria and the overthrow of Egypt’s Mohammed Morsi (GSN 951/1) – the six Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) states have been broadly stable, their political currents stirred but not redirected by events elsewhere. In Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah Bin Abdelaziz seemed keen to get his house in order, promoting several younger members of the Al-Saud, and delivering on a promise made in 2011 to appoint women to the Majlis Al-Shura (GSN 948/5, 946/6, 942/1, 941/1, 940/1, 939/20).