Home » Posts tagged 'gulf cooperation council'

Tag Archives: gulf cooperation council

Olduvai
Click on image to purchase

Olduvai III: Catacylsm
Click on image to purchase

Post categories

Post Archives by Category

Putin: In a Nuclear Holocaust “We Will Be Martyrs, They Will Drop Dead”

October 22, 2018

Putin: In a Nuclear Holocaust “We Will Be Martyrs, They Will Drop Dead”

Ever since the Euromaidan color revolution in Ukraine, the threat of a thermonuclear confrontation between Russia and the United States has been steadily growing. With the United States and NATO forces having pushed their proxy fighters literally to the border with Russia, the world’s second superpower finally became directly involved in Syria, saving the country from the impending defeat by the Gulf Cooperation Council, NATO, Israel, and American terrorists being funded, trained, and armed for the purpose of destroying the secular government of Syria.

This provided two war fronts where American and Russian soldiers could potentially engage in a direct military clash with one another that itself could potentially escalate to a nuclear war if taken to its logical conclusion.

While Western media promoted each act of war on the part of the West as a valiant fight for freedom and every Russian response as aggression, alt media, MSM, and social media were all nonetheless alight with the stark reality that WW3 could very well have broken out at any minute if the Americans pushed too far or if the Russians failed to respond with their typically cool heads.

MSM, of course, took every chance it could to portray the Russians as aggressive, bent on world domination and the domination of American elections and, thus, if a world war did take place, America would be on the right side of history, even if the earth was uninhabitable.

Recently, however, there have been more rumblings of WW3, with warnings from Russia and concerns from American servicemen and women who are worried that the US is rushing headlong into a world-ending confrontation. Oddly enough, those concerns and worries have not been receiving as much attention in the world press as they have in the past.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Middle East Tensions Near Boiling Point

December 7, 2017

Middle East Tensions Near Boiling Point

GCC meeting

The 38th Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit resulted in a showdown between Qatar and its Saud-led alliance counterparts.

Saudi King Salman decided to send a lower diplomatic delegation in his place, chipping away at the stability in the region. Additionally, in an unexpected move, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced that the two countries have formed a new economic and military partnership, separate from the GCC. Arab analysts have already indicated that this could deal a deadly blow to the role of the GCC.

Officially, the decision made by UAE’s ruler Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nayhan and the Saudi King is not linked to the ongoing Qatar crisis. However, the symbiosis currently showing between Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman and Abu Dhabi’s crown prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed is the main force behind this bilateral cooperation agreement.

The direct impact wasn’t clear within the first few hours of the GCC meeting. Analysts speculated how the news of the fresh Saudi-Emirati military and economic cooperation would impact the six-member GCC meeting. Until the new alliance was announced, the media was primarily focused on the ongoing Qatar crisis, especially due to the fact that the Qatari Emir was in attendance. Insiders, however, already expected that the new agreement would have a detrimental effect on the GCC meeting, given the impact of the council’s two main supporters decided to create their own military, political, and economic alliance.

Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have clearly been paving the way for a confrontation with Iran and Qatar for several months, while also setting up major economic projects in their own countries as they coordinate military operations in Yemen, Syria and Libya. Two weeks ago, Emirati analysts indicated that the UAE would take a primary role in regional conflicts, which has now come to the surface more clearly.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Another Gulf Crisis: Dinar Devaluation Looms As Bahrain Begs Neighbors For Bailout

November 1, 2017

Another Gulf Crisis: Dinar Devaluation Looms As Bahrain Begs Neighbors For Bailout 

Despite the recent rise in oil prices, all is not well among the allies in the Gulf. The ‘pegged-to-the-dollar’ Bharaini Dinar has tumbled in the last few days as Bloomberg reports the nation has asked Gulf Arab allies for financial assistance as it seeks to replenish its foreign-exchange reserves and avert a currency devaluation – which could spread contagiously through MidEast markets.

Bloomber notes that the slump in oil prices has battered the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council, at times raising questions over whether a dollar peg seen as a bedrock for economic stability for more than three decades was sustainable. And while bets against the region’s currencies have subsided this year, a devaluation of a GCC member would risk shifting the attention to others. Gulf central banks, including Bahrain’s, have repeatedly brushed aside talk of abandoning their exchange-rate regimes.

But Bahrain has seen its central bank’s foreign reserves collapse over 75% from 2014 highs as they have defended the currency peg.

And so, as Bloomberg reports, according to people with knowledge of the talks, Bahrain has asked for a bailout.

The request was made to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two of the people said.

A third person said Kuwait was also asked.

The countries responded by requesting the island kingdom do more to bring its finances under control in return for the money, the people said on condition of anonymity because the discussions were private.

The talks are at an early stage, one person said.

It appears the FX markets are not convinced as the Dinar tumbled…

The IMF estimates that Bahrain needs oil prices at $99 a barrel to balance its budget this year, compared with $73.1 a barrel for Saudi Arabia, which is overhauling its economy.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

It’s A “Geopolitical Earthquake”: A Stunned World Responds After Saudi Alliance Cuts All Ties With Qatar

June 5, 2017

It’s A “Geopolitical Earthquake”: A Stunned World Responds After Saudi Alliance Cuts All Ties With Qatar

Virtually nobody saw it coming.

Late on Sunday night, the Saudi-led alliance of Gulf Arab states, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain including Egypt, shocked the world when they announced they had severed ties and closed borders with one of the Gulf’s wealthiest, if smallest, neighbors Qatar, a (now former) member of the Gulf Cooperation Council in what we called a “geopolitical earthquake” and what Bloomberg dubbed “an unprecedented move designed to punish one of the region’s financial superpowers for its ties with Iran and Islamist groups in the region.”

As we noted first last night, just days after president Trump left the region, a “geopolitical earthquake” took place in the Middle East as the rift between Qatar and other members of the Gulf Cooperation Council exploded with Bahrain, UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt cutting all diplomatic ties with Qatar accusing it of “spreading chaos,” by funding terrorism and supporting Iran. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt all said they will suspend air and sea travel to and from the Gulf emirate. Saudi Arabia will also shut land crossings with its neighbor, potentially depriving the emirate of imports through its only land border.

It was not immediately clear when the proposed measures would be implemented. Saudi Arabia said it would “begin immediate legal measures with friendly, sisterly countries and international companies to implement that measure as quickly as possible for all types of transit from and to the state of Qatar.”

Saudi Arabia cited Qatar’s support of “terrorist groups aiming to destabilize the region,” including the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State and al-Qaeda. It accused Qatar of supporting “Iranian-backed terrorist groups” operating in the kingdom’s eastern province as well as Bahrain.  Saudi Arabia, along with Bahrain and the U.A.E., gave Qatari diplomats 48 hours to leave.


Donald Trump meets Qatar’s ruler Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani in Riyadh in May

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Gulf States Not Willing To Cut Production Despite Asset Depletion

February 24, 2016

Gulf States Not Willing To Cut Production Despite Asset Depletion

The oil exporting countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) are likely to report twin deficits due to the downturn in oil prices and a supply glut that could expand, but even as assets are being depleted at an alarming rate none is in enough trouble to cut production.

According to the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD)’s 2016 Global Investment Outlook, the region faces “significant asset depletion” as it will have to further adjust to low oil prices, which the report estimates will remain between $25 and $45 for the remainder of the year.

At the end of 2014, the countries of the GCC—which includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain and Oman—had about $3 trillion in net foreign assets. But by the end of 2015, they had divested some $210 billion in those assets, and the bank is predicting another loss of $180 billion in assets by the end of this year.

The UAE has reduced energy subsidies and put non-critical projects on hold, and is also considering value-added tax (VAT), income and corporate taxes, privatizations and bond sales to add to government coffers.

The UAE is faring better than others, according to NBAD because of its high financial reserves and its move to diversify away from oil and gas to some extent. Oil revenue makes up some 65 percent of the UAE’s government income. And while countries that rely on oil exports alone for revenue will be further hit by the flooding of the market with Iranian oil, the UAE’s diversified economy will benefit to some extent from renewed bilateral trade with Iran.

The UAE’s budget deficit is even expected to improve 4 percent this year. But the bank warns that UAE equities could be oversold, and “cheap in terms of valuation”, and the UAE currency, the dirham, might be overvalued by as much as 25 percent.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

An Introduction to Yemen’s Emergency

March 28, 2015

An Introduction to Yemen’s Emergency

By Helen Lacker, who has worked in all parts of Yemen since the 1970s and lived there for close to 15 years.  She has written about the country’s political economy as well as social and economic issues.  She works as a freelance rural development consultant in Yemen and elsewhere and is currently also engaged in research on hydro politics in Yemen. Her latest book as editor:  – Why Yemen Matters,Saqi books 2014. This piece first appeared at Open Democracy on January 25, 2015.

The determination of the mass street demonstrations and occupations throughout the country in 2011 were insufficient to firmly exclude the former ruler from future involvement in Yemeni politics. Although Ali Abdullah Saleh was forced to abandon the presidency in November 2011 under pressure from the Gulf Cooperation Council  (GCC) and the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), neither the GCC, the UNSC nor indeed the Yemeni people were able to force him out of the country. He remained in Yemen as a major force subverting the transitional process.

Hadi, the rock and the hard place

His successor, former Vice President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, surprised many by not acting as a mere puppet to Saleh, but was unfortunately unable to manage the political transition towards a new Yemen. While most of the commitments included in the GCC agreement were formally implemented,  in practice the transitional regime was unable to make the fundamental changes which were essential to bring about a ‘new’ Yemen and transfer power away from the previous elite groups. In addition to the points below, this was largely because the GCC/UNSC sponsored deal remained firmly within the confines of neoliberal policies and did not clearly and explicitly support a fundamental transformation and democratization of the country, which would challenge its existing elites.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

 

Olduvai IV: Courage
Click on image to read excerpts

Olduvai II: Exodus
Click on image to purchase

Click on image to purchase @ FriesenPress