This backgrounder provides an overview of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional political and economic alliance comprising six states in the Arabian Peninsula: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
The US-Iran standoff over the Strait of Hormuz — disruptive to global trade and energy flows, and devastating for debt-burdened economies — has handed Pakistan an unexpected geoeconomic opportunity, one that may persist even if the framework agreement announced on June 14 results in a lasting peace and permanent reopening of the strait. But seizing it will have interlocking consequences for Islamabad’s ties with Tehran, Washington, and the Gulf states.
As the US and Iran move to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, the war’s real lesson lies in how Gulf states rapidly adapted — building pipelines, ports, and rail to bypass the chokepoint. Washington should seize this momentum, pursuing a “long game” of regional connectivity that serves shared security and economic interests.
The presidents of Iran, Russia and Turkey will hold a trilateral meeting on Syria next week.
With ISIS on the brink of defeat, Tehran and Damascus say the next phase of the conflict in Syria is for the “resistance forces” to confront the U.S. military and its local allies, particularly the Syrian Democratic Force (S.D.F.). They have dialed up anti-American propaganda and warn that a “direct confrontation” with the U.S. will be necessary if Washington decides to keep its troops in Syria for the long haul.
Seizure of Abu Kamal
The war in Yemen is reshaping the armed forces of Arab Gulf states. It is the first time that Emirati and Saudi elite units are leading a war effort in their bid to counter Yemeni Houthi rebels and forces loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh, as well as a counterterrorism campaign against jihadi groups, mainly Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).
The Bahraini government’s claim that Iran was directly involved in an oil pipeline explosion near the Bahraini capital of Manama is the latest sign of heightening tension in the Gulf region. Bahrain’s Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah al-Khalifa said the blast was the latest example of a “terrorist act” under instructions from Tehran, the state-run Bahrain News Agency reported.
Ali Akbar Velayati, a top aide to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, said Tuesday that Tehran hopes Saad Hariri will return from Saudi Arabia and resume his position as Lebanon’s prime minister. “We support the unity between the March 8 and March 14 [alliances], which reached an agreement to form a government after a long time, and acted in unison to make Lebanon one of the region’s peaceful countries. This is the result of the understanding and logic of the [Lebanese] people and Islamic resistance.
When the chief of the Pakistani Army visited Tehran last week, he told the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) that Pakistan is interested in learning from Iran’s experience of creating the Basij Organization and using “popular forces” to counter enemy threats, according to the Iran
November 13, 2017 – The crisis between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon and the resignation of Prime Minister Saad Hariri appears to be largely about Yemen, says Paul Salem, Sr. Vice President for Policy Analysis, Research, and Programs at the Middle East Institute.
In this week’s Monday Briefing, contributors Paul Salem, Eran Etzion, Alex Vatanka, and Bilal Saab provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including the rising tension between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon over Hezbollah’s presence in Yemen, rumors that an Israeli attack on Lebanon is imminent, the Saudis’ latest attempt to round up collective action against Iran, and the new phase in the Saudi-Iran proxy war following the recent explosion of a pipeline in Bahrain.
Last weekend’s arrests of prominent Saudi government officials and leading businessmen on charges of corruption has sent shockwaves through Saudi society as well as global center of finance and commerce. The developments also impacted Lebanon, with Prime Minister Saad Hariri announcing his resignation from the Saudi capital of Riyadh. MEI experts Gerald Feierstein, Jean-Francois Seznec, and Randa Slim join Paul Salem to discuss these developments.
Read the full op-ed on The New York Times.
For decades, Saudi Arabia was a stable and reliable economic and strategic partner of the United States. That country no longer exists.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif met with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rahmon today in the capital city of Dushanbe to discuss ways to improve economic and trade relations between the two countries and coordinate their counterterrorism efforts in the region. The Iranian foreign minister arrived in Dushanbe on Wednesday and held meetings with his Tajik counterpart and participated in the inauguration ceremony of Iran’s new embassy building in the Tajik capital.
Yesterday’s edition of Jameeh-ye Farda, a reformist Iranian outlet, was published without an article written by its lead columnist Morteza Simiyari. The article, “Are We Hearing the Echo of the War? Russia, Instigator of War between Iran and Saudi Arabia,” was censored by the government, but it later surfaced on Gooya News, an independent news outlet in the Netherlands.
The top Iranian nuclear official has warned that Washington wants to “annihilate” the nuclear deal and blame Iran for it, the Iranian media reported.
The outgoing commander of the Iranian Navy hailed the expanding presence of the country’s naval forces in international waters and said the Navy plans to send fleets to open seas between Europe and Americas.
The oldest peer-reviewed publication dedicated to the study of the modern Middle East, MEI’s flagship journal covers politics, society, and culture in the region.
