Nawaf Obaid

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InternacionalEconomía

When Saudi Arabia, OPEC's de facto leader and most influential member, decided at its latest meeting in Vienna to break its recent strategic oil partnership with Russia and adopt a new policy to maximize production levels, oil prices crashed — posting their biggest slide since the Gulf war in 1991.

But even more importantly, this new policy recalibrated global oil markets, giving Saudi Arabia the long-term advantage. This move marks a big change for the world's largest oil exporter, which has in recent years attempted to manage the global oil markets by altering production levels, while garnering the difficult cooperation of Russia.…  Seguir leyendo »

La Mecque, en Arabie saoudite, est considérée comme la ville la plus sainte de l'islam. © Caren Firouz / Reuters

MundoOriente PróximoInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, ,

La fin de l’année 2017 a vu s’effondrer le «califat» de l’Etat islamique (EI), au terme d’offensives antidjihadistes d’envergure en Syrie et en Irak. Mais si l’EI a perdu presque tout contrôle territorial en Mésopotamie, ses adhérents terroristes restent à l’affût à travers le monde, et en Europe en particulier.

A la lumière de ces développements, les analystes tentent d’améliorer leur compréhension du groupe pour en finir avec lui. Pour certains d’entre eux, la source d’inspiration de l’organisation se trouve en Arabie saoudite. Néanmoins, avec un regard plus précis, nous pouvons affirmer que l’Etat islamique est engagé dans une guerre théologique avec l’établissement religieux saoudien, afin de déterminer lequel des deux épouse avec le plus de pureté les principes de l’islam sunnite.…  Seguir leyendo »

The myth of Saudi support for terrorism

MundoAméricaMundoOriente PróximoInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, , , ,

Last Friday, the infamous “28 pages” from the 2002 Congressional Joint Inquiry into the 9/11 attacks were declassified. For years, this final section of the report was kept from the public, which led some to believe that it contained evidence that the Saudi Arabian government was behind the attacks, either indirectly by financing al Qaeda or directly by providing support to the actual terrorists on the planes. Now that the pages have been released, the truth is out, and in the words of the 9/11 Commission: “[there is] no evidence that the Saudi government as an institution or senior Saudi officials individually funded [al Qaeda].”…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente PróximoInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional, ,

Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi deputy crown prince and minister of defense, announced last week the formation of a kingdom-led, 34-state Islamic coalition to combat terrorism.

The statement from Riyadh cited "a duty to protect the Islamic nation from the evils of all terrorist groups and organizations, whatever their sect and name, which wreak death and corruption on earth and aim to terrorize the innocent". The major allied partners in the group include Pakistan, Nigeria, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia and most of the Gulf Cooperation Council states.

This move is based upon some of the core tenets of the emerging Saudi Defense Doctrine, which has been developing over the last several years to address certain regional issues.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo, , ,

Convidar a Irán a ser parte de la próxima ronda de conversaciones sobre la crisis en Siria que se realizará en Viena, Austria (invitación que se reiteró la semana pasada) tiene consecuencias de largo alcance. De hecho, el actual gobierno iraní está intentando acabar con un equilibrio de poder que ha durado cerca de 1.400 años. Como cuna del mundo musulmán, Arabia Saudí no lo permitirá.

La brecha entre Irán y Arabia Saudí, respectivamente las potencias más prominentes del islamismo chií y suní de Oriente Próximo, tiene profundas raíces. Para comprender más allá de Siria lo que está pasando realmente hoy en la región, tenemos que considerar los orígenes del cisma entre ambas corrientes, la brecha entre los mundos árabe y persa y las luchas del pasado sobre el modo de gobernar el Islam.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

Just two months after the passing of King Abdullah, Saudi Arabia’s extensive intervention in Yemen on Thursday should serve notice to the world that a major generational shift underway in the kingdom is sure to have far-reaching geopolitical ramifications.

The new Saudi leadership — centered on a cadre of youthful, dynamic royals and technocrats — is developing a foreign policy doctrine to address long-standing regional tensions. This doctrine is based on the legitimacy of the Saudi monarchy and the centrality of the kingdom to the Muslim world. As the custodian of the holy mosques of Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia is uniquely positioned to rise above the fray of the past decade and begin bridging the considerable gaps dividing the main Sunni nations.…  Seguir leyendo »

InternacionalONUMundoOriente Próximo,

Last week, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Ministry announced that the kingdom would not join the U.N. Security Council until the council “reformed so it can effectively and practically perform its duties and discharge its responsibilities in maintaining international security and peace.” Although this decision stemmed from Saudi frustration over the council’s failure to end the civil war in Syria and to act on the issue of Palestinian statehood, there is more to the rejection. Saudi Arabia opting out of a temporary position in an international forum is a sign of things to come as the kingdom pursues a new, and assertive, foreign policy.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

The United States and its European allies appear unable or unwilling to intervene effectively and forcefully in Syria. Therefore it is time to consider a military solution under the auspices of the Arab League to protect Syrian civilians from further violence and ultimately dislodge the government of Bashar al-Assad.

Over the past two-and-a-half years, gut-wrenching images of unspeakable, indiscriminate violence against civilians in Syria have shocked the world. By the latest United Nations estimates, over 100,000 Syrians, including many children, have been killed as a result of the Assad regime’s criminal behavior.

Whether through the murder of peaceful protesters, the shelling of residential quarters with chemical weapons, or the execution of soldiers who refuse to open fire on their countrymen, the Syrian regime has systematically defied even the most basic international moral and legal standards.…  Seguir leyendo »

ReflexionesIslam y Mundo Árabe

La llamada “primavera árabe” produjo una oleada de esperanza entre quienes propugnan la democratización de los regímenes autoritarios del mundo árabe o luchan por ella. Ahora, a raíz de los cambios de dirigentes en Túnez, Egipto, Libia y el Yemen y con una brutal y encarnizada guerra civil en Siria y en medio de una situación cada vez más tensa en Bahrein, el Sudán, Jordania y el Iraq, se habla mucho de un cambio importante –y esperanza de mejora– en la naturaleza y las perspectivas del Estado árabe.

Pero la esperanza –“una cosa con plumas”, como dijo la poetisa americana Emily Dickinson– presenta con frecuencia pocas semejanzas con las realidades en el terreno.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo

A tectonic shift has occurred in the U.S.-Saudi relationship. Despite significant pressure from the Obama administration to remain on the sidelines, Saudi leaders sent troops into Manama in March to defend Bahrain’s monarchy and quell the unrest that has shaken that country since February. For more than 60 years, Saudi Arabia has been bound by an unwritten bargain: oil for security. Riyadh has often protested but ultimately acquiesced to what it saw as misguided U.S. policies. But American missteps in the region since Sept. 11, an ill-conceived response to the Arab protest movements and an unconscionable refusal to hold Israel accountable for its illegal settlement building have brought this arrangement to an end.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt have toppled their regimes. Unrest continues in Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, Iraq, Iran, Jordan, Algeria and Oman. Yet the host of the world's largest energy reserves and the birthplace of Islam, Saudi Arabia, remains conspicuously quiet.

Saudi Arabia shares some characteristics that have been causes for unrest - such as high unemployment among its youth and public-sector corruption - but the kingdom has strengths its neighbors lack. Its strong economy and weak opposition are clear. Less understood in the West is another critical element: a nationalism that has been fostered by and is strongly linked to the monarchy.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

In February 2003, a month before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, warned President Bush that he would be "solving one problem and creating five more" if he removed Saddam Hussein by force. Had Bush heeded his advice, Iraq would not now be on the brink of full-blown civil war and disintegration.

One hopes he won't make the same mistake again by ignoring the counsel of Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the United States, Prince Turki al-Faisal, who said in a speech last month that "since America came into Iraq uninvited, it should not leave Iraq uninvited."…  Seguir leyendo »