Saudi Arabia

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Saudi Arabia’s massive oil deposits and its 9.53 million barrels per day (bpd) of petroleum production make it an enormous carbon polluter and the foremost enemy of climate science and of electric vehicles. Some 38% of Saudi power plants use petroleum and 62% of electricity generation is done by domestically […]

Featured

Saudi Arabia in Modern History

Marc Martorell Junyent

Book Review – David Commins, “Saudi Arabia: A Modern History” (Yale University Press: New Haven and London, 2025). Munich (Special to Informed Comment; Feature) – The rise of Saudi power in the eighteenth century is not easy to explain. There are few sources, and most of them are highly partisan, remarks David Commins, a professor […]

Authoritarianism

Saudi Arabia: Executions Surge in bid to Crush Dissent (HRW)

Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch – (Beirut) – Saudi authorities have been carrying out an unprecedented surge in executions in 2025 without apparent due process, Human Rights Watch and the Middle East Democracy Center said today. The June 14 execution of Turki al-Jasser, a journalist known for exposing corruption within the Saudi royal family, raises concerns that the […]

Donald Trump

Is Trump’s Axis of the Plutocrats Marginalizing Israel?

Juan Cole

( Tomdispatch.com ) – Colorful career criminal Willie Sutton once may (or may not) have been asked why he robbed banks. “Because that is where the money is,” he supposedly replied. A similar principle may explain the first foreign trip of President Donald J. Trump’s second term, which was not to a traditional U.S. ally […]

Donald Trump

For all Trump’s new Mideast Contracts, Two Big Deals Elude Him

Shahram Akbarzadeh

By Shahram Akbarzadeh, Deakin University (The Conversation) – US President Donald Trump’s visit to Arab states in the Middle East this week generated plenty of multibillion-dollar deals. He said more than US$1 trillion (A$1.5 trillion) worth of deals had been signed with Saudi Arabia alone, though the real total is likely much lower than that. […]

GCC

GCC Energy stands as the ‘Superman’ of Global Energy Markets

Middle East Monitor

by Dr Elif Selin Calik The energy sector of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries represents the ‘Superman’ of global energy markets according to both analysts and diplomats. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries now represent a unique combination of stability and transformation in a world where energy security continues to intersect with geopolitical tensions […]

Saudi Arabia

Middle Eastern Monarchies in Sudan’s War: what’s driving their Interests

The Conversation

By Federico Donelli, University of Trieste (The Conversation) – The civil war in Sudan that began in April 2023 involves several external actors. The conflict pits the Sudanese Armed Forces against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces in a quest for political and economic power. The situation has created one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. […]

Donald Trump

Saudi Arabia, Rehabilitated, is Mediator in Ukraine War, and maybe with Iran

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen

By Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Rice University (The Conversation) – Saudi Arabia is 2,000 miles from Ukraine and even more politically distant, so at first glance it might seem like it has nothing to do with the ongoing war there. But the Gulf state has emerged as a key intermediary in the most serious ceasefire negotiations […]

Iran

Why Is Saudi Arabia Seeking To Mediate A Deal Between U.S. And Iran?

Radio Free Europe Radio Liberty

By By Kian Sharifi ( RFE/RL ) – After facilitating the first high-level talks between U.S. and Russian officials since the Ukraine war began, Saudi Arabia is now reportedly positioning itself as a mediator in another high-stakes negotiation — this time between the United States and Iran. CNN, which first broke the story, reports that […]