Commentary

This marks the start of a new weekly feature in which Omar Al Ubaydli answers questions on economics. Is Aramco’s IPO a good idea? In early 2016, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the deputy crown prince of Saudi Arabia, declared that the Saudi government was considering an initial public offering (IPO) for a minority of Aramco’s...

Anger in some parts of the Arabian Gulf over a new US law, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (­Jasta), is understandable. But the energy being squandered complaining would be much better spent on the lively prospects for finding a solution. Jasta allows Americans to sue foreign governments over the deaths of Americans killed...

The G20 summit got underway in China’s eastern city of Hangzhou on September 5, where the focus is expected to be on global economics and finance. While policymakers and central bank governors from the world’s 20-largest economies – Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia,...

The following is a transcript of the eighty-fifth in a series of Capitol Hill conferences convened by the Middle East Policy Council. The meeting was held at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington DC, on July 12, 2016, with Richard J. Schmierer, chairman of the board of directors of the Middle East Policy Council,...

Saudi Arabia has a long and mixed track record of involvement in Yemen’s numerous political conflicts, dating back to the early 1960s. Until last year, the kingdom’s inclination was to either use its extensive contacts with political and tribal elements to forge negotiated settlements or to choose a side in the conflict, assist it financially—occasionally...

Saudi Arabia’s decision to limit the authority of the Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (CPVPV)—barring it from chasing, arresting, or interrogating suspects—was positively welcomed by commentators as an attempt “to respond to [public] grievances.” In response to gross violations committed by members of CPVPV, locals have called repeatedly to...

Just one week after Russian bombers began flying missions over Syria out of an Iranian air base in Hamadan, Tehran has revoked its permission for Moscow to use the base. These missions never would have begun if Tehran had not agreed that they could take place. But Russia’s public declaration that they were occurring had a negative...

In 2011, the UAE dramatically reformed its kafala system by allowing migrant workers with expiring contracts to change employers without the initial sponsor’s permission. The government wisely worked with a team of experts to evaluate the results. Five years on, an interesting analogy with traditional labour union activity has emerged, in which the interests of...