Search results

AL-MAKTOUM: Milan rumours, Manal Bint Mohammed Nin Rashid: Award

MBZ: Meets Moroccan king in Fes, Mohammed Bin Khalifa: US Treasury talks, Al -Nahyan: Big wedding, Issa Bin Zayed: German estate

The collapse of energy export revenues is piling further pressure on President Ali Abdullah Saleh as the tribal and post-socialist wings of the southern campaign unite around a figurehead, Ali Salem Al-Baydh, who talked exclusively to GSN about the evolving crisis.

Widening their scope of operations, Somali pirates are posing an ever greater challenge to regional governments. While energy producers are rethinking their export strategies, governments are concerned that the Horn of Africa’s instability will encroach on the Gulf region’s southern flank. Yemen is especially vulnerable as the collapse of export revenues piles further pressure on President Saleh. GSN analyses developments in the Gulf of Aden, Somalia and Yemen, and talks exclusively to the Southern Movement’s new figurehead Ali Salem Al-Baydh.

Somali pirates are said to have earned at least $30m last year, although some estimates are much higher. This compares with the unrecognised Republic of Puntland's formal budget of around $20m/yr, with revenues gleaned from customs, airport and land revenues. Many pirates are said to be based in Puntland, which GSN's Nadine Marroushi visited last year, on terms which demanded a heavy security complement. Somalia's ruling Transitional Federal Government (TFG) Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdulahi Omar has said pirates can earn as much as $150m/yr from ransoms.

Sheikh Fahd Bin Jassim: Car crash kills fast-rising minister,Emir Sheikh Hamad : Milford Haven, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Ahmed: Free trade hypocrisy

Sultan Bin Abdelaziz: Back in Morocco, King Abdullah: No Peres meeting, Maha Bint Fahd: Al-Turki princess dies, Talal Bin Abdelaziz: Another political reform call, Turki Bin Abdullah: Turkmenistan visit,Sattam Bin Abdelaziz: US mayors come to town

As it focuses on what many in Washington view as Iran’s uncomfortable rise up the international pecking order, US analysts are reappraising old ideas about detaching Syria from the so-called Shia Crescent linking Iran and Hizbollah in Lebanon. This so-called ‘Wedge Theory’ argued that a strategic deal with Syria, most likely involving peace with Israel and international rehabilitation, could be used to induce Damascus to end its strategic alliance with Iran and cut off one avenue of support for Hizbollah and Hamas.

Policy-makers are looking at Somalia’s politics to tackle the root causes of the problem, in a fractured state where there have been 15 attempts to create a viable national government since the 1992 overthrow of late dictator Siad Barre. 

Considerable speculation persists about the government reshuffle announced by federal Prime Minister and Vice President, and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum (MBR) on 11 May.

Southern Movement chief sets out his agenda

Engagement without marriage: Beltway pessimistic as Obama's team prepares to tackle Iran

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.

While Western governments have been fretting over Yemen’s jihadist threat, Ali Abdullah Saleh is confronted by other challenges. Overt opposition from the influential Sheikh Tareq Bin Nasser Al-Fadhli is accelerating a gathering confrontation between the Sanaa regime and an embittered and neglected southern population – which holds the risk of a disastrous new conflict splitting the troubled

Tensions are clearly rising in southern Yemen. The late April demonstration in Mukalla spilled over into minor violence, and although no one died, the seriousness of these events