The Muslim Brotherhood and Hezbollah, both from Kuwait, seek to isolate the country and antagonise the Gulf States and its Western allies, writes Ahmad Abdul-Rahman. On the eve of US President Joe Biden's recent visit to the Middle East, a statement was issued in Kuwait condemning it and rejecting peace talks with Israel. It also declined joining w...
New Zealand PM bows out
Here's an article from The Economist which, while talking about John Key's resignation, states that NZ is "one of the most successful countries in the world. While this is debatable, there is no doubt that Key has had successes- namely international recognition- along with failures, housing, immigration and the environment. We have yet to see whether the new Prime Minister, John English, will have the same success.
The nuclear agreement reflects the battle of political wills between the US and Iran, writes Ahmad Abdul-Rahman. The talks held between Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi and French President Emmanuel Macron about two months ago focused on the negative effects of the European Troika draft resolution adopted by the International Atomic Energy Agency (I...
On their international day, most unemployed in the Middle East are Arab youth. Ahmad Abdul-Rahman sheds light on recent figures from the ILO. Climate change, armed conflict and displacement are factors that clearly affect the economic performance of the economies in the Middle East. But so too does unemployment among Arab youth. On Augu...
Have negotiations with the IMF toppled the Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt? Ahmed Abdul-Rahman explains. The Governor of the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE), Tarek Amer, left his post after President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi accepted his resignation. He has now assumed the role of advisor to the president on Wednesday, August 17, according to an offi...
The World Tourism Organization shows that international tourism to the region increased by 157 per cent in the first five months of 2022. Ahmad Abdul-Rahman explains. The flow of tourism to the Middle East may recover 70 per cent of its pre-Covid pandemic levels by the end of this year, if new global economic and geopolitical crises do n...
The ghost of the past still haunts the writer who refuses to label himself a "geopolitical entity" writes Ahmad Abdul-Rahman. Salman Rushdie is a multi-talented writer, novelist, speaker and performer. He is mobile of heart, as he has been married four times and has two sons. But what he is most known for dates back to 1989, five months after the p...
The World Tourism Organization, shows that the flow of international tourism to the region increased by 157 per cent in the first five months of 2022. Amad Abdul-Rahman writes. The flow of tourism to the Middle East may recover 70 percent of its pre-Corona levels by the end of this year, if global economic and geopolitical crises enter do not enter...
Ahmad Abdul-Rahman writes about the importance of foreign remittances to Egypt and explains the figures. Egypt is reliant on remittances for foreign exchange and remittances from Egyptians working abroad continue to be one of the most important sources of foreign exchange resources for Egypt. These have witnessed steady growth in recent years,...
Egypt plans to increase its exports to Africa and targets USD10 billion by 2025, writes Ahmad Abdul-Rahman. Egypt plans to to enhance trade with Africa, especially the countries of the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). The plan, which will be implemented by Egypt's Ministry of Industry and Trade, in cooperation with all minist...
Who was Ayman Al-Zawahiri, the Egyptian eye surgeon and the leader of Al-Qaeda, who wanted to rule the world ? Ahmad Abdul-Rahman explains. The killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of the terrorist al-Qaeda organisation in Afghanistan, in an operation carried out by the US in Afghanistan, marked the end of a stage in the history of this organis...
Egypt goes beyond the scope of its traditional emphasis on regional relations to expanding its relations internationally, writes Ahmad Abdul-Rahman. Egypt has expanded its diplomatic ties in recent years, based on mutual cooperation. The tripartite cooperation agreement signed with Greece and Cyprus is one such deal. This was achieved through what ...
Since the Ukrainian war, Moscow is inventing new ways to please Tehran and Ankara. Last February, the 15th round of the Astana negotiations was held in the Russian city of Sochi, which took place with the participation of delegations from the United Nations and the guarantor countries Russia, Iran, Turkey, and the delegations of the Syrian governme...
The dress code for Muslim women in the Middle East - namely the hijab and the abaya- are often seen as symbols of oppression by women in the West. The oppressiveness of women in Iran is often compared with the oppressiveness of those in Saudi Arabia. One regime is not more oppressive than the other, however. I found it difficult in Saudi Arabia, es...
The Jeddah summit reflects an Arab-American consensus on curbing the Iranian nuclear programme, writes Ahmad Abdel-Rahman. On July 16, the Jeddah Summit for Security and Development concluded in Saudi Arabia. The US President Joe Biden participated in the summit on the last leg of his Middle East tour, his first since taking office. Several other A...
Ahmad Abdul-Rahman explains what the Iranian government is doing to help the country manage the shortage of wheat and grain. To overcome the current wheat crisis, and prevent a large amount of food being wasted, Iran, which is subject to Western sanctions, has changed the way in which its currency is allocated to producers and consumers. The govern...
Ahmad Abdul-Rahman writes why the Gulf countries are experiencing higher inflation as a result of the war in Ukraine. Although oil, whose prices have witnessed record highs during the past few months, constitutes a main source of income for the economies of the Gulf States, it has not saved them from inflation. Foodstuffs have been at the forefront...
The gender pay gap around the world remains wide. Unfortunately, the Middle East and North Africa has one of the widest gaps. With an average population-weighted score of 63.4%, Middle East and North Africa has the second-largest gender gap yet to close, after South Asia, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF). "The region's progress remains s...
Egypt's huge projects has ensured the country's economic growth, despite global economic turmoil, writes Ahmad Abdel-Rahman. Mega projects, bold legislation, and raising the efficiency of infrastructure in Egypt has helped to ensure positive growth during the first phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. Positive growth continued despite the uncertainty th...
How the Middle East deals with climate change varies from country to country. Ahmad Abdul-Rahman gives an update of what is happening in the region. The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) issued a report on climate change in 2021, which showed a clear and dangerous deterioration in a number of important indicators used in assessing the global ...
I was interested to read the recent survey which told of the reluctance of the Arab world (excluding the GCC States) to embrace democracy. Perhaps that is not surprising in light of the fact that democracy in some of the wealthy economies, such as the US and the UK, has proved to be ineffective. But was the so-called Arab Spring been totally unsucc...