Showing results for "2 march"

What Tillerson’s exit means for efforts to resolve GCC crisis

  • The firing earlier this week of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson happened just ahead of three official visits to Washington, during which the Qatar-centered diplomatic crisis will top the administration’s agenda. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is due to arrive on Monday, followed at the end...
·

Wasting time won’t stop the ticking of the Brexit clock

  • ​This time next year the UK is expected to pack its bags, depart the EU and start life anew, returning to its state of splendid isolation. Goodbye to being part of the world’s largest single market, the world’s biggest exporter of manufactured goods and services, and the biggest import market for...
·

Four decades that changed a company and a country

  • Last week marked 38 years since Saudi Arabia took full control of Aramco. It was another eight years before the company’s registration was moved from the United States to Saudi Arabia and the name was changed to Saudi Aramco, but on March 9, 1980, the American oil companies relinquished all...
·

Another Trump surprise, and it’s bad news for Iran

  • Since the beginning of his presidency, Donald Trump has surprised the world — and the American people — on many occasions. His executive orders restricting travel to the US, changing key aides and officials in his administration, recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, none of this was...
·

Trump’s Nowruz ‘gift’ to Tehran: John Bolton

  • Iranians began celebrating Nowruz on March 21, and while the country is on holiday, not many people feel happy and relaxed as the news signals stormy days ahead. The fact that US President Donald Trump’s current focus is on Iran has not escaped the Iranian public, who are keeping an anxious eye...
·

Turkey and Europe stuck with one another

  • Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently met, among others, EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, EU Council President Donald Tusk and Bulgarian President Boyko Borisov in Varna, Bulgaria. Turkey called it a summit, while Germany and the other EU nations termed it a leaders’ meeting...
·

Florida sunshine for Abe, but storm clouds gather in Asia

  • When Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe visited US President Donald Trump last week, he desperately needed a win. Abe faces elections in September and his poll ratings are at their lowest since 2012. Trump, on the other hand, could afford to play it cool; relations with Japan will have no impac...
·

Saudi cinema goes back to the past... and 1979 is gone with the wind

  • ‘A Fistful of Dollars’ is a movie title that is engraved in my memory for one simple reason — I watched that film in a movie theater in Riyadh 40 years ago! I watched it before cinemas were banned after the ‘1979 revolution’ in Iran, and their doors closed; closing with them a complete social...
·

They’re tempting, but no one really wins a trade war

  • Trade wars, on the face of it, sound harmless; no one shoots anyone, no blood is spilled, no destruction appears to take place. And as Donald Trump tweeted: “Trade wars are good, and easy to win.” Well, not that easily. Trade wars are rarely won. In fact, negotiations and agreements that break ...
·

If you think Trump trusts Putin, you’re not paying attention

  • It is no secret that much of the Republican foreign policy establishment was alarmed by President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on transatlantic security and Russia during the 2016 presidential campaign. At one point on the campaign trail, Trump questioned continued US involvement in NATO, and even...
·

Pages