UAE

Syria, Yemen, Libya: For the First Time since Versailles, will Rival Powers redraw the Middle East’s Borders?

By Muhammad Hussein | – This New Year will mark a century since the historic Treaty of Versailles was put into effect, creating the borders of much of the contemporary world and enabling the European colonial powers to seize the Middle Eastern territories of the defunct Ottoman Empire. The consequences of that treaty and other […]

Featured

That’s not Good. Popular ToTok App is Emirates Spyware

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – ( Lily Hay Newman at Wired explores the implications of the revelation that the ToTok app is actually spyware for the United Arab Emirates. The app is fiendishly clever in the sense that there is nothing virus-like about it. It is just a communications application that wants to know who […]

Houthi

World’s Worst War: Can South Yemen’s Warring Factions Make Peace amid Saudi-Emirates Rivalry?

Middle East Monitor

By Stasa Salacanin | – At the beginning of November, warring parties from Yemen’s south reached a power-sharing deal which aimed not only to defuse tensions among Arab alliances in South Yemen but was also seen to as a step closer towards ending the war in the country. The tensions between the Saudi-backed Hadi government […]

Government surveillance

How the Emirates Weaponized ex-NSA Spying Expertise against Democracy Activists

Middle East Monitor

US officials and former NSA employees build UAE secret surveillance unit

Brazil

Beef and Oil: Are Brazil’s Bolsonaro and Saudi’s MBS a Match Made in Heaven?

Tori Avila

By Vitoria Avila Fioravanti | – Sao Paulo (Special to Informed Comment) – Beef, oil and veiling and a murdered journalist have catapulted the burgeoning relationship between Brazil and the controversial Kingdom of Saudi Arabia into the headlines for the first time this fall, though the two countries have had formal diplomatic relations since 1968. […]

Featured

Saudis Riposted to drive Houthis from Najran, after Defeat of Saudi-Backed Yemeni Nationalists

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – The details of the alleged Houthi operation against Saudi Arabia are still murky, and Saudi Arabia has so far declined to provide its side of the story. Al Jazeera Arabic on Sunday rounded up the details provided by the Houthis and by its Yemeni sources. First of all, Al Jazeera […]

Featured

Yemen’s Houthis Say they Invaded Saudi Arabia, Captured Thousands of Troops in Najran

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Update 9/30: The Houthi military operation appears to have been against Saudi-backed nationalist bases in the far north of Yemen, and the POWs taken seem to be mostly Yemeni nationalists, along with some Saudi officers and troops. There may have been Houthi infiltration of Najran and Jizan as well, but […]

Saudi Arabia

The Saudi-United Arab Emirates Game of Thrones in Yemen

Middle East Monitor

By Mareb Al-Ward | – Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are exchanging roles in Yemen. While the former pretends to be completely biased in favour of the legitimacy, which requested its interference, the latter has adopted a clear position in favour of its military militias in the south. It is true that there is a difference […]