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Al Arabiya English Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to become the Prime Minister of Israel for the third time. He has until December 21 to form a government before taking office. In a wide-ranging interview with a group of print and television journalists at Al Arabiya, Mr. Netanyahu discussed Israel’s relations with Arab states, the US alliance structure in the Middle East, unrest in Iran, Israel’s new hard-right government, the future of the US-brokered maritime border agreement with Lebanon, and the Russia-Ukraine war. Mr. Netanyahu reiterated the paramount importance of normalization with Saudi Arabia, which would be a “quantum leap” toward...

Ever since the international community aimed to punish the Iranian regime for its illicit nuclear activities and its support of global terrorism and regional warmongering, Tehran has tried to find ways to sidestep the sanctions regime through money laundering, smuggling and hostage taking. In March 2021, in his new year’s address and three months before installing Ebrahim Raisi as the new president, the Iranian regime’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei gave instructions about how to steer the regime away from being vulnerable to sanctions. “Our emphatic advice to the officials of our country, whether those who are now in office or...

The Biden administration debacle in Afghanistan has convinced America’s enemies of the administration’s weakness and vulnerability. The timing of Vladimir Putin’s march on Ukraine is undoubtedly connected to the perception in Moscow of Washington’s lack of will to engage in a confrontation. Communist China is astutely waiting for the right time to seize Taiwan. Should Moscow achieve its objectives, Xi Jinping, China’s dictator would follow Putin’s example and act, knowing full well that the Biden administration would pay lip service to the violation of Taiwanese sovereignty, and perhaps demand UN sanctions, but ultimately, Washington would live with the new...

The United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s recent cancelation of its plan to buy 50 Lockheed F-35 fighter jets worth $23 billion from the United States showed that the close trading partnership between the UAE and China could be playing a role. The cancelation means that the UAE has chosen Huawei’s 5G technology over the F-35, which is used by the US as a “favor” to form military alliances with other countries. At the US request, the UAE previously agreed to halt the construction of a logistic port that is being built by China. But this time, strong US pressure has failed...

Answering questions from his audience on Zoom at a Likud event on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke of two reasons four Arab states normalized ties with Israel in the past year, and more want to join them: the economic advantages of cooperating, and shared security aims. Netanyahu referred to his 2015 speech before both houses of the US Congress against the Iran deal: “During the speech, during the live broadcast, senior people from the Arab world called my people – I was still speaking – and they said: ‘We cannot believe what we are seeing... the daring of the...

A spokesperson for the EU responded today (Thursday) to the report according to which the European Union links aid to PA to financial ties with Israel. According to the report, European Union leaders told the Palestinian Authority that they will refuse to provide financial aid as long as it refuses to accept tax revenues collected by Israel. "The EU and its Member States are and continue to be the largest international financial supporter of Palestinians. The EU is a firm supporter of the Palestinian Authority", the spokesperson said to Arutz Sheva. "The EU and many partners in the international community...

The oil giant released a valuation target ranging from $1.6 trillion to $1.7 trillion. The figures fall short of the $2 trillion target Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been fixed on for more than two years. The difference in value illustrates the operational, geopolitical and governance risks that investors face betting on the offering, writes Ben Dummett. The IPO still has potential to be the world's biggest by surpassing the $25 billion Alibaba raised in 2014. But the stock listing is beginning to reveal a set of dueling interests for Saudi Arabia. Saudi leadership wants the stock offering...

(Riyadh) Gulf states traded public barbs on Saturday, showing little sign of resolving the region's deepest rift in years, five days after Arab nations severed diplomatic, trade and transport ties with the tiny Gulf kingdom of Qatar. {snip} Qatar's foreign minister fired back that there was "no clarity" in such accusations, speaking in an interview with RT Arabic in Moscow after emerging from talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. [nL8N1J708I] "Qatar is accused of having a hidden relationship with Iran, but its relations with Iran are clear, transparent and time-tested," said Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, noting that the...

The election of Donald Trump has led to unease in the Middle East over threats to peace in the region and any war would lead to the destruction of Israel and the Gulf states, Iran’s Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan warned Sunday. His remarks came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier Sunday that he would work with Trump to dismantle the nuclear agreement with Iran, signed last year over Israel’s fierce criticism of the pact. Trump said during the campaign he would tear up the nuclear deal, calling it a “disastrous” and one of the worst agreements in history...

While many writers in the Saudi and Gulf media reacted to the election of Donald Trump for U.S. president with mixed emotions, expressing hopes for cooperation with him but also concern because of his hostile statements regarding Muslims,[1] Turki Al-Dakhil, the general manager of Al-Arabiya's news channel, took a much less ambivalent position, stressing the possible benefit of Trump's election for Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states. In a November 13, 2016 article titled "On Trump-Phobia," he wrote that Trump's statements against African Americans, Latinos and Muslims had been mere propaganda aimed at achieving electoral gains, and that now that...

JERUSALEM [MENL] -- Israel has determined that the United States was trying to block relations with the Gulf Cooperation Council. A senior official responsible for relations with the Arab world said the administration of President Barack Obama was not encouraging GCC interest in ties with the Jewish state. Deputy Regional Cooperation Minister Ayoub Kara said Washington was not interested in Israel-GCC ties, fueled by the threat from Iran. "It [Israel] could have cooperation with the threatened countries around us, but the United States does not want this to happen, is interfering with it and continues to push us toward the...

Dozens of Islamist Saudi Arabian clerics have called on Arab and Muslim countries to "give all moral, material, political and military" support to what they term a jihad, or holy war, against Syria's government and its Iranian and Russian backers. Although the clerics who signed the online statement are not affiliated with the government, their strong sectarian and anti-Christian language reflects mounting anger among many Saudis over Russian and Iranian involvement in Syria's civil war. Russia last week started airstrikes against Syrian opposition targets that it describes as aimed at weakening the jihadist Islamic State group, a move Riyadh has...

While the US has certainly made some epic strategic blunders in Syria that raise serious questions about just how “intelligent” US intelligence actually is, there’s little doubt that if one were to look behind all of the media parroting, the Pentagon and Langley understand all too well what’s going on in the Middle East. That is, the significance of the Russia-Iran “nexus” in Syria isn’t lost on anyone in the US military and you can bet there have been quite a few high level discussions over the past 72 hours about the best way to counter Moscow and Tehran’s powerplay...

Russian fighter jets launched from a new airbase in Syria have persuaded western critics to mute their demands for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad, but another group of his opponents sees Moscow’s intervention as more provocative than decisive. Regional powers have quietly, but effectively, channelled funds, weapons and other support to rebel groups making the biggest inroads against the forces from Damascus. In doing so, they are investing heavily in a conflict which they see as part of a wider regional struggle for influence with bitter rival Iran. In a week when Russia made dozens of bombing raids, those...

Russian fighter jets launched from a new airbase in Syria have persuaded western critics to mute their demands for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad, but another group of his opponents sees Moscow’s intervention as more provocative than decisive. Regional powers have quietly, but effectively, channelled funds, weapons and other support to rebel groups making the biggest inroads against the forces from Damascus. In doing so, they are investing heavily in a conflict which they see as part of a wider regional struggle for influence with bitter rival Iran. In a week when Russia made dozens of bombing raids, those...

President Barack Obama pledged America’s “ironclad commitment” to anxious Persian Gulf nations Thursday to help protect their security, pointedly mentioning the potential use of military force and offering assurances that a potential nuclear agreement with Iran would not leave them more vulnerable. At the close of a rare summit at the presidential retreat at Camp David, Obama said the U.S. would join the Gulf Cooperation Council nations “to deter and confront an external threat to any GCC state’s territorial integrity.” The U.S. pledged to bolster its security cooperation with the Gulf on counterterrorism, maritime security, cybersecurity and ballistic missile defense....

Four rulers of a six-member alliance of Persian Gulf states will likely be absent from a summit hosted by President Obama this week at Camp David. In a statement Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Thursday's summit coincides with a humanitarian cease-fire in Yemen, where a Saudi-led coalition is fighting Shiite rebels known as Houthis. He said Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, who is also interior minister, would lead the Saudi delegation and the king's son, Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is defense minister, will also attend. Obama had planned to meet Salman one-on-one a day before...

"I will conclude by saying the following: Since Obama is the godfather of the prefabricated revolutions in the Arab world, and since he is the ally of political Islam, [which is] the caring mother of [all] the terrorist organizations, and since he is working to sign an agreement with Iran that will come at the expense of the U.S.'s longtime allies in the Gulf, I am very glad of Netanyahu's firm stance and [his decision] to speak against the nuclear agreement at the American Congress despite the Obama administration's anger and fury. I believe that Netanyahu's conduct will serve our...

The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council said on Tuesday that it will create a regional police force based out of the United Arab Emirates’ capital of Abu Dhabi, and a joint naval force based out of Bahrain. The creation of the police force, known as GCC-POL, and the naval force, was announced at the conclusion of the Gulf bloc’s annual summit in Qatar. It comes amid a sharp tumble in oil prices that is likely to impact the energy-rich states, and their reconciliation from a spat linked to Doha’s support for Islamist groups throughout the region. […] The Arab Gulf countries...

CAIRO (AP) — U.S. Arab allies Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait are discussing the creation of a military pact to take on Islamic militants, with the possibility of a joint force to intervene around the Middle East, The Associated Press has learned. The alliance would also serve as a show of strength to counterbalance their traditional rival, Shiite-dominated, Iran. Two countries are seen as potential theaters for the alliance to act, senior Egyptian military officials said: Libya, where Islamic militants have taken over several cities, and Yemen, where Shiite rebels suspected of links to Iran have...