Watching the news about Afghanistan and horrific images the of thousands of people scrambling to get on rescue flights so that they can flee the Taliban, brings me to tears. The situation also reminds me of the documentary I made in 2014/15 when the Hazara Afghans (Shiites) fled the country 15 years ago, some of them arriving in Christchurch, New Z...
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.
Will the protests and the Corona pandemic precipitate fundamental economic reforms in Oman? This is the question Ahmad Abdul-Rahman asks. In the last week of May 2021, a number of provinces of the Sultanate of Oman witnessed mass gatherings and protests, most of which were peaceful. The main demand was for job opportunities. These protests resulted...
The Yemeni Civil War rages on. Initially, it was anticipated that it would end after a few days but countries such as Saudi Arabia and the UAE, which have entered Yemen, have learnt that assessment was wide of the mark. Now, has been raging for four years. The US has recently announced that it will donate USD165 million in aid to Yemen. The human t...
Energy strategist, Mohamad Kharkan, discusses the issues that effect the Middle East energy market. This is the final article in the series. Syria is involved and is directly linked to the religious wars and conflicts between Shiites and Sunnis, primarily with the Nabucco and South Stream schemes mentioned in the previous article. In 2011, a projec...
Energy strategist, Mohamad Kharkan, discusses the issues that effect the Middle East energy market. This is the third part of the energy series. One more article will follow. As the war in Syria continues, the mainstream media, which has relentlessly suppressed the Syrian government, continues to forget the fundamental aspect of the war, the energy...
The Old Quarter in Amman, Jordan (Adobe) The Egypt, Jordan, Iraq alliance seeks to deal with shifts in the strategic balance of power in the Middle East, writes Ahmad Abdul-Rahman. The Iraqi capital, Baghdad, witnessed the fourth tripartite summit between the leaders of Egypt, Iraq and Jordan on June 27. This was part of the tripartite cooperation ...
In this article Ahmad Abdul-Rahman looks at the rise of Ebraham Raisi to the Iranian presidency and Iran's expected role in Iraq. The victory of the conservative candidate in the recent Iranian presidential elections, Ebrahim Raisi, sparked mixed reactions about the nature of the expected Iranian role in Iraq. The two countries have always been clo...
In this article, energy strategist, Mohamed Kharkan, looks at the relationship Iran and Central Asia has to oil. This follows the previous article he penned. There will be more articles to follow. The legal issue of the Caspian Sea had to be resolved so that Russia, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan could exploit its oil and gas resources. Europe r...
In this article Mohammed Al Kharkan, an energy strategist, looks at how oil and gas supplies has shaped the geopolitics of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. This is the first part of four articles on the subject. The former Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan to transport its gas resources from Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Chechnya and Russi...
A high level of youth unemployment, mounting government debt, corruption and the impact of COVID- 19 have combined to spur unrest in Tunisia- the birthplace of the Arab Spring in December 2010. Like many countries in the Middle East, economic reforms did not materialize, even though it cast off its authoritarian president, c North Africa and the Mi...
I read this story with interest. Why has it taken so long for a story to be written about "cloud seeding". This has been going on for years in Dubai, UAE. When I first arrived in the city state in September 2005, "cloud seeding", as it was termed, was just starting. I was shocked. Initially. I didn't see any rain for three years, and coming from th...
In this article Ahmad Abdul-Rahman looks at why the Maghreb region is strategically important to the rest of the world. The location of the Maghreb is considered to be strategic geographically. The bloc is also similar in terms of the countries' proximity to one another, their topography, culture, language, religion, history and ambition. As well a...
In this article Ahmed Abdul-Rahman explains how the World Bank has reacted to Egypt's post-pandemic economic recovery. The coronavirus pandemic has led to a severe economic recession in most countries. Such is the downturn, it has now become the worst economic crisis the world has experienced since the Great Depression of 1929-1933. The recent find...
Saudi Arabia is launching an airline, alongside existing airline Saudia, to rival Emirates and Qatar Airways. Will they manage to compete with these airlines? Both have very established routes crossing East to West, which they dominate. Arguably, Dubai and Doha are now well-known transit points and holiday destinations because of these a...
There's a lot of upset among the journalism fraternity that many journalists have been spied on, with Israeli spyware no less. This spying extends to news organisations such as CNN and AP. The journalists who work there thought they were immune to such intimation. Only people who worked for "less reputable" Middle Eastern organisations were s...
In this article, Ahmad Abdul-Rahman explains the geo-strategic importance of the Horn of Africa. The Horn of Africa is of great importance because it is one of the world's main sea-lanes both regionally and internationally. Sea-lanes are one of the most important elements of power because of their strategic and security role in maintaining the secu...
Ahmad Abdul-Rahman explains how the Syrian conflict has drawn in Western powers that have helped to reshape the geopolitics of the Middle East. The Syrian Spring has reached its 10 th year with a terrifying outcome from the conflict, as the number of victims reaches the thousands and the number of refugees has reached millions, according to a repor...
Lebanon is a mess, economically and socially. Much of the population (at least 55% according to recent reports) is struggling to survive. The value of the currency continues to fall (the local currency has depreciated by 90%) and the country is suffering from hyper-inflation. The country also has a political system that tries to appease all the par...
There's been a lot going on in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) in the last few weeks. There's been elections in Iran; an increased number of attacks in Iraq by Iran; the replacement of Israel's former prime minister and longest-serving, Benjamin Netanayhu with Naftali Bennett; and trouble between Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt with the pr...
The current changes in international geopolitics makes achieving unity between Egypt and the rest of the Arab countries an inevitable necessity. Ahmad Abdul-Rahman discusses the issues. When we talk about the importance of a strong Arab and regional order, we are talking about the need to restore the Arab ability to maintain regional and str...