SUSTG.com / Research

Discover stories, topics, and more about Saudi Arebia faster.

Recent stories from sustg

  • Incredible Photos from North Dakota’s Oil Boom
     

    For fans of high quality photographs, Alan Taylor’s In Focus blog hosted at TheAtlantic.com is worth following. Taylor regularly compiles stunning images on a wide range of subjects, and most recently had excellent posts on the conflict in Mali, the do-it-yourself weapons of Syrian rebels, one man’s journey to Iran, and many others. The blog’s latest collection […]

     
  • Lockheed Nets $253 Million Training Contract
     

    US-based Lockheed Martin will provide Virtual Training Technologies in support of Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA Modernization Program. The news comes on the heels of a recent announcement that the company had set up a branch in Riyadh on February 8th.  — According to a Press Release, Lockheed Martin, the Bethesda, Maryland-based aerospace company, has received a contract […]

     
  • Instagramming Riyadh
     

    Riyadh, Saudi Arabia is a beautiful city – one that is growing and changing at an impressive speed. Yet much of the Kingdom’s capital remains as it has for years. Traditional style housing and buildings, most of which are no higher than two stories, still dominate this sprawling city, but the gargantuan and glitzy new […]

     
  • Islam and science: The road to renewal
     

    The tide of money is bearing a fleet of results. In the 2000 to 2009 period Turkey’s output of scientific papers rose from barely 5,000 to 22,000; with less cash, Iran’s went up 1,300, to nearly 15,000. Quantity does not imply quality, but the papers are getting better, too. Scientific journals, and not just the […]

     
  • Oil Exports, Politics and Propaganda
     

    Last month, the US mainstream media barraged us with simplistic reports about how the US will soon be producing more oil than Saudi Arabia—making America the world’s top producer. Left out of this story was the fact that the math was a bit skewed: the US may end up producing more total hydrocarbons than Saudi […]

     
  • US Election Note: Middle East Policy after 2012
     

    The Middle East will be a significant challenge to US foreign policy-makers during the next administration – whether with regard to further transitions of the Arab Spring, Iran’s appetite for nuclear weapons, Israel’s posture towards Palestine and other Arab powers in its neighbourhood, or the rise of political Islam. Despite the US tilt to Asia, […]

     
  • Saudi oil sales to U.S. robust despite refinery upsets
     

    Saudi Arabia appears to be keeping its pledge to ensure global markets are well supplied with oil, barely letting up in shipments to the United States even after two of its biggest refining customers suffered crippling glitches. A Reuters analysis of U.S. import data shows sales to the world’s top oil consumer have dipped less […]

     
  • President Obama’s Envoy to Mecca Islamic Summit Shares Views
     

    A little known detail about last month’s Extraordinary Islamic Solidarity Summit in Mecca was the presence of an American diplomat representing President Barack Obama to the 56-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). The special summit, which met on August 14-15, 2012, was called by King Abdullah to take up crises, conflicts and serious issues affecting […]

     
  • The Secret History of America’s Thirty-Year Conflict with Iran
     

    A new book on the long confrontation between the US and Iran blames the George W. Bush administration for squandering opportunities to improve relations with Tehran and invading Iraq in 2003 without recognizing that Iran would wind up being the power broker in that country. These criticisms are remarkable given their source: David Crist, author […]

     
  • Graph of the Day – Saudi Oil Production Since 2008
     

    Jadwa Investment’s recently released Chartbook for the month of August 2012 found that  the Saudi Arabian economy overall remained “robust.” Included in that report is a look at the oil sector in Saudi Arabia. Oil prices “climbed in July because of renewed political tensions with Iran and rising global stock markets,” Jadwa noted.

     

MUST-READS

  • Israeli officials expected to visit White House for talks on Iran, Saudi Arabia

    Israeli Minister for Strategic Affairs Ron Dermer and national security adviser Tzachi Hanegbi are expected in Washington next week for talks at the White House as concerns grow over advances in Iran's nuclear program and as the U.S. seeks to push for an Israel-Saudi Arabia peace deal, four Israeli and U.S. officials told Axios.

  • Iran says it has successfully test-launched ballistic missile

    Iran successfully test-launched a ballistic missile with a potential 2,000-km range on Thursday, state media said, two days after the chief of Israel's armed forces raised the prospect of "action" against Tehran over its nuclear programme. Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programmes in the Middle East, says its weapons are capable of reaching the bases of arch-foes Israel and the United States in the region.

  • Top Israeli general says ‘action’ is on horizon over Iran nuclear work

    The top Israeli general raised the prospect of "action" against Iran on Tuesday even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's national security adviser played down any immediate threat posed by a new underground nuclear facility being dug by Tehran. World powers' efforts to negotiate new curbs to Iranian uranium enrichment and other projects with bomb-making potential have been fruitless so far, fanning long-bruited threats by Israel to resort to force if it deems diplomacy a dead end.

  • Iran Dismisses Ali Shamkhani, Top National Security Official

    Ali Shamkhani was one of the most powerful men in Iran, but it was not enough to insulate him after a close associate was accused of selling information to Britain.

  • Is Iran preparing for ‘flexibility’ to break deadlock over nuclear deal?

    In a speech before Iran’s diplomatic corps, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has addressed the merits of "flexibility" in foreign policy—arguing that it does not have to contradict one's principles. Khamenei's remarks come amid reports that Oman's Sultan Haytham bin Tareq Al Said will travel to Tehran, possibly to help jumpstart indirect talks between Iran and the US to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.

  • Iran names new NSC chief

    Former IRGC Joint Staff chief and member of Iran’s Expediency Council (and dentist) Ali Akbar Ahmadian succeeds Ali Shamkhani as SNSC secretary. Iran names ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

  • View from Israel: Could Netanyahu attack Iran’s nuclear program? It’s not so easy

    But when it comes to Iran’s nuclear program and how to confront it, there is not a huge gap between the current Israeli government and the opposition. The only significant difference between them is in how to manage relations and differences with the United States over a nuclear Iran. In the past, the Netanyahu government has acted confrontationally with the US, especially during the Obama administration.

  • Iran And Russia Discuss Joint Development Of Oil And Gas Fields

    Iran and Russia are considering the joint development of as many as 10 oil and gas fields in Iran, media have reported following a meeting between Iranian officials and a Russian delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. The proposal has come from the Iranian side amid talks about the development of other oil and gas resources in the country.

  • U.S. proposed conducting joint military planning with Israel on Iran

    Israeli officials have so far treated the proposal with suspicion, fearing it is an attempt to “tie Israel's hands” from taking action against Iran — especially its nuclear facilities — if the U.S. objects.

  • In Iran, what women wear has long been both personal and political

    The continuing crackdown coincides with a record number of executions in Iran, many for unrelated matters such as drug offenses. The high number of executions is meant to be a deterrent, a fear factor, like the recent execution of two people convicted of apostasy