Institutions, no less than individuals, benefit from the opportunity anniversaries offer to reflect on progress made in pursuit of our goals: how far we’ve come, and how much farther we have to go. As the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington prepares to celebrate the third anniversary of its debut, such reflection seems particularly appropriate. From my position as board chair, I have watched closely as AGSIW has developed its voice and expanded its reach, carving out a niche for itself in the very crowded confines of the Washington foreign-policy community.
Yemen’s Houthis marked the third anniversary of the Saudi-led coalition’s intervention in the war in Yemen by launching multiple missiles at the Saudi cities of Riyadh, Khamis Mushait, and Jizan. Saudi Arabia’s Air Defense Forces claimed that they intercepted all seven missiles launched with their U.S.-supplied Patriot missiles. Immediately after this announcement, the internet lit up with videos showing Patriot missiles launching and hitting their targets over Riyadh.
كانت زيارة ولي عهد السعودية الأمير محمد بن سلمان إلى واشنطن، فرصة ليس فقط لمراجعة مختلف القضايا الثنائية، بل لبحث مجمل السياسة الأمريكية تجاه منطقة الشرق الأوسط، بنزاعاتها العسكرية المستعرة، وتوتراتها السياسية والإثنية والمذهبية، والتجاذب المستمر داخل مجلس التعاون الخليجي، والتنافس المتنامي بين الرياض وحلفائها من جهة، وإيران وحلفاؤها من دول وميليشيات من جهة أخرى، بما في ذلك "ليلة الصواريخ" حين أطلق المتمردون الحوثيون من اليمن سبعة صواريخ ضد أهداف سعودية، ما يعني تقويض أي فرص لوساطة عمانية مدعومة من قبل واشنطن، على الأقل في المستقبل المنظور
When an entire people and many of their political leaders conclude they have nothing left to lose, all hell can break loose. Such despair and desperation was on full display in Gaza yesterday when thousands of Palestinians protested at the border with Israel and at least 16 demonstrators were killed by Israeli troops. In the coming weeks it's going to be extremely difficult to contain the fallout and prevent violence spiraling out of control.
The three-year Yemeni civil war has caused fundamental shifts in political power, after decades of centralized rule by the regime in the capital Sana’a. New and evolving ‘facts on the ground’ are likely to define its politics and governance for decades to come. Yemen has become a ‘chaos state’ – a territory in which the central state has either collapsed or lost control of large segments of the territory over which it is nominally sovereign, and where a political economy has emerged in which groups with varying degrees of legitimacy cooperate and compete with one another. [Peter Salisbury is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.] Read more
Speaking with The National, Senior Resident Scholar Karen E. Young commented on the changing nature of business investment in Saudi Arabia. Speaking with Al Arabiya, Young discussed Saudi Crown Price Mohammed bin Salman's visits to Washington and Seattle. Senior Resident Scholar Hussein Ibish spoke about the crown prince's trip to New York and his efforts to attract U.S. investors with Al Arabiya and BBC World Service.
For Haaretz, Ibish discussed incentives for Gulf Arab states' relations with Israel, though he noted the limitations of their influence on an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. Additionally, Ibish's commentary for The National on the clashes in Gaza was quoted by The Washington Post and, with France 24, he discussed the regional implications of the violence in Gaza.
Al-Monitor cited Non-Resident Fellow DB Des Roches' Bridge post, which discussed the recent missile attack on Saudi Arabia and stressed the need for a settlement to the Yemen conflict. For The National, Non-Resident Fellow Peter Salisbury discussed the implications of the attack for back channel negotiations.
