Free Republic

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has projected a whopping $500 billion loss in revenue for the Gulf nations in 2016, which is 30 percent more than the $390 billion lost in 2015. The massive shortfall has crippled the gulf economies, which are facing record budget deficits and seeking external funding to overcome it. Many experts believe that $100 per barrel oil prices are history, and we might not revisit those prices for more than a decade. It implies that the recent crisis will not end as quickly as the downturn in 2007-2009. The oil-dependent nations will have to figure out...

As Vladimir Putin orders airstrikes against rebels of all stripes fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime, there are important strategic economic goals behind Russia’s actions in Syria. The short term goal is easy to discern: prevent Assad’s collapse as no alternative suitable to Russian interests exists, preserve Russia’s only naval base in the Middle East at Tartus, and promote Russia both at home and abroad as a world power that counterbalances American hegemony. Much of the media has focused on Putin as a personal driver of Russian behavior. While forays into Georgia and Ukraine have accomplished the tactical goals of preventing increased...

New gas fields add more heat to already simmering Mediterranean CAIRO — Some observers speculate that gas exploration activities in the Mediterranean will create a new axis of conflict in the region. The conflict over gas reserves in the Mediterranean has pushed Cairo to rush to find solutions to the demarcation of the overlapping maritime border between Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Greece and Cyprus. Summary The recent gas discoveries in the eastern Mediterranean Sea have given the concerned countries, mainly Egypt, Turkey and Israel, a new urgency in settling their maritime border disputes. Author Walaa Hussein...

<p>Contrary to the principles of American foreign policy of the last 70 years, President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry tacitly invited Russia to "help" monitor things in the Middle East. Now they are learning that there are lots of Middle East scenarios far worse than the relative quiet Iraq that the Obama administration inherited in January 2009 -- and soon abandoned.</p>

What amount of money will now have to be offered to non-Muslims to live and work in Muslim countries, and especially in the oil and gas facilities that are such obvious targets for Muslim terrorists? Perhaps it won't be possible to find enough foreigners willing, whatever the price, to work at such places. After all,there is great suspicion that the attack on the Algerian plant had inside help, among the Muslims working there, and it won't be possible -- or would it? -- to banish all Muslims from oil and gas plants all over the Muslim world? Wouldn't it be...