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  • With customs union, GCC edges toward closer economic ties
     

    Saudi Arabia, the biggest Arab economy, is leading moves toward political and economic cooperation, which it believes would give the mostly Sunni-led monarchies of the Gulf more power to withstand any confrontation with Shi’ite Iran. Closer business ties within the GCC, which consists of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain and has […]

     
  • Saudi Arabia wins oil battle against Iran
     

    It seems that the first round in the series of the ferocious battles between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the two giant oil-exporting countries, was settled in favor of the latter. The Kingdom continued to produce oil regardless of the Iranian threats warning the Kingdom against filling the shortage in oil supplies that might result from […]

     
  • The Middle East fights the Flame, but virus spreads anyway
     

    Two years ago there was Stuxnet, a virus that targeted Iranian uranium-enrichment infrastructure. Now Flame, a mutating piece of malware, is continuing to spread, infecting more than 1,000 Windows-powered computers across the Middle East. It’s centered on Iran, but has also spread to Israel and Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and even Sudan. Flame is a huge virus — 20 megabytes […]

     
  • The Gulf Military Balance in 2012
     

    The Burke Chair at CSIS is issuing a new report called the Gulf Military Balance in 2012. The report shows that the Gulf military balance is dominated by five major groups of military forces: the Southern Gulf states, Iran, Iraq, outside powers like the US, and non-state actors like the various elements of Al Qa’ida, the […]

     
  • Saudi Perspective on the Middle East: Obaid
     

    In this SUSRIS exclusive presentation, the “Saudi Perspective on the Middle East: The View from Riyadh” assessment provides: the background and context for Saudi diplomacy — assets and characteristics; economic and energy data; sources of regional instability; the “New Gulf Union”; profile of Gulf defense configurations; the Kingdom’s role in regional stabilization and its political and […]

     
  • A Nuclear Iran: CNN
     

    What do we really know about the Iranian nuclear threat?  Iran says it wants the right to have its peaceful nuclear program formally recognized.  But from the outside, Iran has long given the impression it has something to hide.  And fear that Iran may soon have the capability to build a nuclear weapon, has spurred […]

     
  • The Menu of Options in the Iranian Nuclear Talks
     

    For the first time in more than a year and a half, negotiators from Iran and the so-called P5+1 countries – the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, the U.S., Russia, China, France and England, plus Germany – will sit down with their Iranian counterparts this Friday in Istanbul to talk about […]

     
  • Hillary Clinton: Time running out for diplomacy with Iran
     

    U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton made clear Saturday that time is running out for diplomacy over Iran’s nuclear program and said talks aimed at preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon would resume in mid-April. With speculation over a possible U.S. or Israel military attack adding urgency to the next round of discussions […]

     
  • American Public Opposes Israel Striking Iran
     

    A new poll finds that only one in four Americans favors Israel conducting a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program. Seven in ten (69%) favor the US and other major powers continuing to pursue negotiations with Iran, a position that is supported by majorities of Republicans (58%), Democrats (79%) and Independents (67%).

     

MUST-READS

  • Iran Economy Minister in Jeddah to revive trade ties with Saudi Arabia

    It is the first official visit by an Iranian Minister, who also serves as a government spokesman, to Saudi Arabia since the two countries agreed to resume diplomatic relations under a deal brokered by China in March.

  • Iran still smuggling weapons to Yemen despite Saudi deal, US says

    In recent months, the US and allied naval forces have intercepted a number of arms shipments along maritime routes they say are used for smuggling weapons from Iran to Yemen in violation of a United Nations arms embargo imposed in 2015. In a first-of-its-kind seizure, the US Navy in November intercepted a vessel in the Gulf of Oman with enough aluminum perchlorate onboard to fuel more than a dozen medium-range ballistic missiles.

  • Iran Economy Minister in Jeddah to revive trade ties with Saudi Arabia

    Iran's Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs arrived in Jeddah, a Saudi Arabian port city on the Red Sea, on Thursday, in the first visit to the Kingdom by a senior Iranian official since the restoration of diplomatic relations, Anadolu News Agency reports. Ehsan Khandouzi is leading a high-level economic delegation to Saudi Arabia, according to state media, as the two countries move to rejuvenate economic ties.

  • Iran islanders hope to cash in on Gulf’s shifting geopolitics

    Off Iran's southern coast, some 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the United Arab Emirates' commercial hub of Dubai, Qeshm's merchants have been closely watching regional shifts since Tehran's landmark rapprochement with Saudi Arabia in March. "The main thing in life is to have good relations with your neighbours," said 50-year-old retailer Mohammad Bazmandegan, who imports electric appliances from Dubai. He has been following the diplomatic developments since his government resumed ties with Riyadh after a seven-year freeze, a shift affecting the entire Gulf region.

  • ‘Tragic mistake’: Top Biden advisor laments Trump withdrawal from Iran nuclear pact

    But with efforts to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) at a prolonged standstill, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan suggested that near term, the United States was communicating warnings to Iran to stay within certain nuclear limits, while indicating that in the longer term, it seeks a diplomatic deal to put Iran’s nuclear program back in the box.

  • Iran executes two men convicted of blasphemy

    Iran has executed two men who were convicted of "burning the Quran" and "insulting the Prophet of Islam", the country's judiciary says. Yousef Mehrad and Sadrollah Fazeli-Zare ran dozens of social media accounts "dedicated to atheism and desecration of the sanctities", the judiciary's Mizan news agency reported. Mr Mehdad's lawyer had insisted that he was innocent and his sentence unjust. A rights group called their executions "a cruel act by a medieval regime".

  • US Planning More ‘Robots at Sea’ in Middle East Amid Iran, China Tensions

    The US, which leads two international maritime coalitions out of Bahrain, wants to have more than 100 unmanned surface vehicles  — sometimes called robots at sea — in operation by the end of the summer, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, who commands the coalitions and the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, said in an interview. An initial target of 50 was met in February and the technology delivers a cost-effective and efficient way of deepening US partnerships, he said.

  • US Planning More ‘Robots at Sea’ in Middle East Amid Iran, China Tensions

    The US, which leads two international maritime coalitions out of Bahrain, wants to have more than 100 unmanned surface vehicles  — sometimes called robots at sea — in operation by the end of the summer, Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, who commands the coalitions and the Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, said in an interview. An initial target of 50 was met in February and the technology delivers a cost-effective and efficient way of deepening US partnerships, he said.

  • Iran’s Revolutionary Guard seizes tanker in Strait of Hormuz

    The taking of the oil tanker Niovi renewed concerns about Iran threatening maritime traffic in the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude passes. It also comes amid the disappearance of a crude oil tanker in Southeast Asia believed to be carrying Iranian crude oil amid reports it may have been seized by the United States.

  • Perspective: Why the Saudi–Iran agreement doesn’t herald an active role for China in the Gulf

    China’s participation was like its earlier efforts at regional conflict management. Between 2004–07 it tried to bridge the gap between the international community and the Sudanese regime during the Darfur crisis. Beijing then did something similar in 2013–15 between the West and Iran over the Iranian nuclear program, culminating in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. In both cases, Chinese involvement was helped by a pre-established framework of dialogue and the willingness of each side to involve Beijing.