Tag Archives: Qatar

With so few issues apparently actually resolved, it’s little wonder that it took just days for new signs of tension to reappear after the agreement.

As the US prepares to withdraw from Afghanistan, the regional powers of the Middle East will have a chance to expand their spheres of influence to the war-torn country. Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates will soon take their competition to the next level.

The US hostilities are likely to not only derail the Afghan peace process but also, possibly turn western Afghanistan into another battleground for the US-Iran proxy war.

If even Saudi Arabia is ready to move away from its reliance on petroleum, we're indeed entering a new world — one in which the titans of oil production will no longer hold sway over our lives.

As the first anniversary of the Saudi decision, to let the oil market determine oil prices approaches, it would be reasonable for OPEC outsiders to interpret Saudi policy shift as designed to serve its interests and those of its Gulf Arab allies rather than their interests and those of OPEC in general. The damage the Saudi decision has inflicted on itself provides reasons for the Saudis to change course.

Weapons are pouring out of Africa's most oil-rich country while extremist fighters tumble in. The toxic legacy of Gaddafi’s divisive and authoritarian regime, which pitted Libya’s diverse factions against one another, has plagued the prospects for any central authority gaining widespread legitimacy in the war-torn country.

Growing demand for food and fuel has put pressure on the world’s agricultural lands to produce more. Now, a trend in “land grabbing” has emerged, as wealthy countries lease or buy farms and agribusiness in poorer countries to ensure their own future supplies.

How vulnerable are the Gulf economies to low oil prices and how will they cope if the current slump continues?

Pakistan’s powerful aviation mafia consisting of both public and private sector interest has pushed the country’s national flag carrier to the brink. But one analyst believes Pakistan will succeed in making the Pakistan International Airlines a profitable entity only if appointments are made on merit in PIA and and the civil aviation administration.

The unspeakable abuse of foreign laborers in the Gulf underscores a dark underside to the modern, glossy exterior the GCC states like to showcase to the world. In the absence of a powerful labor movement in the Gulf, the GCC’s millions of suffering foreign laborers will have to hope that their home countries can protect them abroad, even if they couldn’t provide jobs at home.