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Across The Region, News, Data & Analysis: Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Yemen
It will probably not be until early 2002 that the committee appointed by Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani to prepare a draft constitution finally produces its report. But certain principles are clear already. There will be an elected national assembly to replace the long-standing appointed Majlis Al-Shura, and Qatari women will have the vote and the right to stand for elected office — a principle already established with the present elected municipal councils.
Investigators are working overtime in Yemen to find those responsible for the USS Cole bombing, while the Taliban in Afghanistan are expecting a U.S. cruise missile any day. GSN examines Yemen’s Islamists, the “Bin Laden connection” and President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s delicate balancing act.
The Arab-Israeli conflict has again impacted on domestic Gulf politics, even if incidents including the U.S.S. Cole bombing and the hijacking of a Saudia airliner were not directly linked to the Middle East crisis. Demonstrations at the actions of Israeli security forces have set nerves
Iran’s reformers have consolidated their disparate political factions into a single parliamentary bloc. The Second Khordad Front could eventually command more than 200
Arms deals are in the air, with several contracts for the U.K.’s BAe Systems. Bahrain’s new deal was signed at Farnborough; Algeria is buying British equipment through Qatar; and there is speculation that BAe may be negotiating a new-style agreement with Saudi Arabia.
Following the imposition of sanctions and other UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions on Iraq, extra-regional actors’ attitudes towards Baghdad have become central to Iraq’s international rehabilitation. Whilst the inter-state community and international organisations can work to build a humanitarian agenda for economic rehabilitation, it is the permanent members
As well as bringing disaster to Kuwait, the August 1990 Iraqi invasion has become synonymous to many Arabs with a decline in the political fortunes of the Arab world and the onset of paralysis in Arab regional organisations. Arab media and inter-Arab diplomacy focuses on two recurrent themes –
This is the first of three articles which will look at the changed and changing political imperatives that have come into place in the Gulf region since Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. The second and third articles will look at attitudes towards Iraq from within the region and the wider world community respectively.
With the sole exception of Oman, which has resolved all of its border disputes, each of the GCC states has been active in attempting to settle its territorial claims during recent weeks. These disputes have ranged from the highly visible International Court of Justice (ICJ) arbitration over the claims and counterclaims forwarded by Qatar and
Tracking the innocuous air defence war over Iraq is not an activity that many journalists stick with for long. To the short-term observer nothing much changes and little of value can be confirmed. Just occasionally, however, the conflict offers fruitful insights into the political dimension of the ongoing conflict with Iraq. In
