Category Archives: GCC

Arabian Peninsula, environment, GCC, Pakistan

One Rich Oil Prince as an Environmental Disaster……

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“A Saudi Arabian prince did some serious damage on a recent hunting expedition, managing during a 21-day killing spree to put a vulnerable species a few thousand deaths closer to extinction. The Saudi royal’s trip to Chagai, Balochistan this past January landed him 1,977 rare houbara bustards, reports Dawn, Pakistan’s English-language newspaper. Other members of his party managed to bag 123 more. According to a report prepared by the Balochistan Forest and Wildlife Department – ”Visit of Prince Fahd bin Sultan bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud regarding hunting of houbara bustard” — “the prince hunted the birds for 15 days in the reserved and protected areas, poached birds in other areas for six days and took rest for two days.” Pakistan’s come under fire for issuing special permits to Arab rulers allowing them to hunt the birds, which are off-limits to Pakistani citizens……………..”

Just a few decades ago, they did not need to travel that far for hunting hubara and other birds and animals. The Gulf and Peninsula region had an abundance, given the sparse population.

The princes and potentates have long since depleted the Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf from many of its once-native birds and animals. These native creatures (I don’t mean the potentates) became rare, and some of them have vanished from the region. Then the potentates started seeking easier hunting grounds.

Years ago they started on the fauna of the Indian Subcontinent (mainly Pakistan and to a lesser extent Bangladesh) and North Africa (mainly Morocco). This has gone on since the days of the military dictator Zia Ulhaq (before he was incinerated in a helicopter “accident”). This has continued under other regimes, especially the Sharif brothers (Nawaz and Whatishisname) who seem to alternate power with the Bhuttos and have been very close to the Al Saud princes. 
The princes have not yet acquired the East Asian craze for Rhino horns or elephant butts as alleged aphrodisiacs. Apparently not yet.
GCC, Iran, Oman, Persian Gulf

Oman-Iran Gas Deal: of Revolutionary Guards and Neighborly Tanks………

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter


“Oman’s plan to build a $1 billion natural-gas pipeline from Iran is the latest sign that Saudi Arabia is failing to bind its smaller Gulf neighbors into a tighter bloc united in hostility to the Islamic Republic. The accord was signed during Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Oman last month, and marks the first such deal between Iran and a Gulf Cooperation Council state in more than a decade. Oman is in good standing with the U.S. too: a $2.1 billion purchase of air-defense systems from Raytheon Inc. was announced during a visit by Secretary of State John Kerry last year. Oman, led by 73-year-old Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said, hosted secret talks between the U.S. and Iran in the run-up to November’s Geneva agreement..………..”


I have never been able to satisfactorily answer one important question: why are the Omanis not seeing Iranian (and Hezbollah) plots under every bed as the Saudis and their Bahraini stooges claim they do (as do some Washington Post columnists)? Does the Sultan Qaboos Bin Said not worry about the scowling mullahs sweeping across the Gulf, skirting the mighty U.S. Navy and other Western armadas and Jordanian mercenaries in order to take over his country? Come to think of it: why don’t the Qataris seem worried about this? I have tried in the past to think it through, in my older posts here. 

This is no doubt partly related to the fact that Omanis know how the Wahhabis look at their (the Omani) version of the Islamic faith. They fear neighborly hegemony, as do many others in the Gulf GCC states. They all know that Iranian Revolutionary Guards would have to cross the sea and pass by the U.S Navy in the unlikely event that they go irrationally as mad as mad dogs and try to attack Oman (or Ras Al Khaimah or Um El Qewain). They all also know that Saudi tanks can just drive in as they did in Bahrain. 
It is also related to history, where the Omanis have always looked away from the Peninsula and across the seas. That is how they have forged their relations in the past: across the Gulf and across the Indian Ocean.

Iranian Pakistani Omani Hezbollah Naval Exercises, General Salami is no Baloney

GCC Rifts amid Arab Unrest: Wild Attempts at Gulf Hegemony, Swallowing a Bone

Disinformation about Secret American-Iranian Negotiations

GCC Summit: a Salafi Tribal Dream Team, Taqiyya and a Real Existential Threat

Qatar and Oman: Is Iran Cracking the GCC Front?

Corruption, GCC, Qatar, Sports

From the Gulf through Asia: More on FIFA World Cup Corruption and GCC Rifts……

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“The account of a 10-year-old daughter of a FIFA executive was pumped with $3.4 million, according to a report by The Telegraph on Friday, raising more questions over the finances of the officials who awarded Russia and Qatar the 2018 and 2022 tournaments. Antonia Wigand Teixeira, the daughter of the Brazilian representative of the FIFA executive committee, had reportedly received the money in 2011. Her father Ricardo, part of the committee which helped select the World Cup host nation………… A statement issued by lawyers acting for the Qatar bid said the payment from Mr. Rosell to Mr. Teixeira had nothing to do with the country’s bid for the 2022 World Cup…………”

Saudi semi-official Alarabiya network is headlining this one, which tells me Saudi-Qatari relations have not improved as much as recent reports claimed. GCC media yesterday headlined reports about healing the rift between the ruling potentates of the two countrie: these were apparently just wishful thinking by Saudi allies. Which tells me something else: even if they manage to patch the holes temporarily with chewing gum, the dam will leak and burst again.

Apparently corruption and international sports go closely together. From the Salt Lake City (Utah) Winter Olympics to the Formula One Grand Prix in Bahrain to the FIFA World Cup games in Qatar (and maybe Russia and beyond). Then there were the selection of the leaders of Asian Sports Federations. The president of the Asian Football (Soccer) Confederation used to be a Qatari and is now a Bahraini shaikh named Salman Al Khalifa, of course. Now I wonder how many millions was paid by each country to corrupt Asian Confederation officials in order to secure the position to their potentate. 

Silly me, I had thought these countries won such exalted positions on merit, even if they had never won championships. I suspect this has been going on for decades, but the scale has grown too heavy to be kept a secret. Before the era of petroleum oligarchs and petroleum potentates in the Middle East and other places maybe the amounts of money were small, too small to be decisive. Now, many millions can be spent on buying international sports decisions.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Africa, Algeria, Arab League, Arab Politics, Arab Revolutions, Egypt, GCC, Syria

Life Terms: from Algiers to Cairo and Damascus and on to Pakalingding……….

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

“Algeria’s President Abdelaziz Bouteflika appeared set to win re-election for another five years on Friday after a vote opponents dismissed as a stage-managed fraud to keep the ailing leader in power. Sitting a wheelchair, Bouteflika cast his vote on Thursday in a rare public appearance since suffering a stroke last year that has raised doubts about whether, after 15 years in power, he is fit enough to govern the North African oil state. Official results were scheduled to be released later on Friday by the interior ministry, but Bouteflika’s allies on Thursday were already claiming a landslide victory……………………”

 

So, it has been three plus years on since the Arab uprisings started in Tunisia in December of 2010 and spread eastward. Let us look at the situation now:

  • In Algeria, president Bouteflika (father of teflika, wtf that be) ‘wins’ a fourth or fifth term of presidency today. At this rate he will be in power when he becomes eligible for a place in the Egyptian Museum at Cairo or in a basement corner of the Louvre where the mummies are kept.

  • Abd Rabbuh Hadi bin Zombie of Yemen won 98% of the vote last time in an election that the GCC potentates declared was clean and free and democratic. He may be getting ready to run again, unless a U.S. drone mistakes him for an Al Aqaeda zombie. Meanwhile the allegedly deposed Ali Abdallah Saleh is not far from the center of power, very likely plotting something or another.

  • Egypt is getting ready to “elect”, by the usual landslide, Generalisimo Field Marshal Sisi bin Mubarak Al Saud. Interim non-leader Adly Mansour Al Zombie will vanish; he will go back into the vast caverns of Mr. Mubarak’s everlasting bureaucracy.

  • Bashar Al Assad will apparently ‘win’ another term later this year in Syria. Before you start guffawing think of this: given the sorry state of the opposition Jihadis and the divisive fear they have sown inside Syria he actually might win an election by a plurality (probably not by a majority). Quite a feat given the bloody mess his country is in.

  • Nouri Al Maliki of Iraq may win yet another term as prime minister, unfortunately. That depends on parliamentary election results and how the leaders of the various factions and the Kurds feel. Ayad Allawi will again be the favorite candidate of the Baathists and the neighboring Arab potentates. But as I have fawtad years ago: he will never become prime minister of Iraq.

  • A gaggle of Lebanese right-wing generals and warlords are fighting for the ceremonial presidency of that country. What is at stake? The figurehead president gets to name a couple of minor cabinet members and he gets a fat Saudi check to help him pick sides. 

  • On the Gulf. The would-be tribal liberators and bearers of democracy to Syria hold tight to absolute power at home, with a little help from their oligarch friends. From Riyadh to Abu Dhabi and Manama, they cling to every morsel of power. Even the unloved prime minister of Bahrain who has been in power for some 42 years. One of my suspect sources tells me he has vowed to leave office the old fashioned way: feet first and straight to Boot Hill. 

  • No need to go over the besotted Sudan, whose president of some 27 years in power is usually wanted by some international criminal court or another but is traveling across the Middle East quite freely. 

  • Then there are the other two bulwarks of the Arab League, Mauretania and Somalia. Frankly I have no idea WTF is going on over there. I assume each of these two countries has a president or a wazir or sublime port or someone like that who rules or pretends to. 

  • I forgot about the Comoros, but maybe next year, after I pay a visit to Moroni. 

  • On the bright side, there are rumors that Gambia may be the next country to join the Arab League and the Gulf GCC. They would need a Saudi invitation for both (even the French would need a Saudi invitation for that). Which has me wondering what is happening in Banjul or even in Pakalinding nowadays. 

Bahrain, Donkeys and Asses, GCC, History, Humor, Jackasses, Kuwait, Persian Gulf

GCC Migration of Equus Asinus: Former Plain Donkeys become Leading Jackasses………

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter


“I don’t know if there’s already a designated creature, which holds the title of National Animal of Bahrain, but to my mind none would be more deserving than Equus asinus – the donkey. No other animal has toiled more for the people of Bahrain, nor contributed more to the country’s prosperity than this humble creature. Before the widespread use of motor vehicles, donkeys were the main means of transport. Every village, and central Manama itself, was teeming with donkeys. They were used to transport sweet water and kerosene around the neighbourhoods; they took goods to and from the market place; they pulled the municipal rubbish carts; they collected fish from the seashore; and, before air transport, they were used to bring ashore passengers from boats during low tide. It is thought that all domestic donkeys originated from the Nubian wild ass (Equus asinus africanus), and the first domesticated donkeys were probably imported into Bahrain during the Dilmun era, when the inhabitants of the islands practised a flourishing trade in the import/export business. Donkey bones dating from the third and second millennium BC have been unearthed at various archaeological sites around Bahrain, providing historical evidence of the close association between people and donkeys in Bahrain……………..”



The writer says that he does not know if “there’s already a designated creature, which holds the title of National Animal of Bahrain”. I got news for her (or him): the people have already chosen the national animal of Bahrain, and they all seem to agree that it is the ass (or donkey or jackass). Or maybe I should say Al-Ass (or Al-Donkey or Al-Jackass). Why do you think they have been rebelling for three years?

That article was written in 2007, before the people rebelled against all them long-eared Als. It was published by a daily that calls itself “The Voice of Bahrain”.

It says here that Nubian asses were imported into Bahrain centuries ago, but that was probably on a small scale. I was told by sources in Bahrain and Kuwait that most donkeys of Bahrain seem to have migrated to the island with the Al-Khalifa clan. When the clan moved through Kuwait to Bahrain about a couple of centuries ago, suddenly the number of asses in Bahrain increased dramatically, while the number of donkeys in my native Kuwait decreased dramatically. I wonder if there is a connection between the dramatic shift in asinine demographics. That this is how the Equus asinus became the Equus asinus Bahrainicus.

I was also told by someone who claims she is knowledgeable that, immediately after that migration, the average intelligence of a resident of Kuwait skyrocketed, even before I was born in the Sharq district. At the same time the average intelligence of a resident of Bahrain dropped sharply with the new arrivals. Street crime also increased on the island, eventually aided and abetted by Western advisers and weapons and imported foreign mercenaries. Looting and thievery on a grand scale, especially of land, also increased at that time and continues to be extremely high.

I think this requires further study, and perhaps some deep thinking. More on this soon, stay tuned.

(FYI: this is a newly altered version of an older post. It is one of those posts that I enjoy going back and reading again, and revising. It is one of the posts I like to share every once in a while. I have made some slight changes on this current post).
Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Arabian Peninsula, GCC, Morocco, Saudi Arabia

Is Prince Bandar Really Back? The Road from Morocco to Riyadh……..

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter


“Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan will return to the kingdom within days after spending around two months abroad for surgery and retake his position as intelligence chief, including control of the Syrian dossier, said Saudi security officials late Sunday. The Saudi officials said that during Prince Bandar’s absence, Saudi Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef was put in charge of the Syrian file and of the intelligence agency. The three security officials said the 65 year-old prince was seeking medical attention in the U.S. and resting in Morocco after surgery on his shoulder. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media……… The officials said that Bandar held a number of official meetings while in Morocco, including with Saudi deputy defense minister Salman bin Sultan. The deputy defense minister briefed Bandar on his official visits to Washington and Paris last month, they added, also saying that Bandar met Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan while in Marrakech……………..”

Bandar is back in from the cold! Is Bandar back yet once again? That would make a good title for a Saudi film, except that there are no theaters to show it over there; verboten. This is another chapter in the saga of Bandar Bin Sultan Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. He has become like a Saudi Jack in the Box, in and out, and back in. But all this is also part of the continuing Saudi turf war and jockeying for position among the various competing princes.
Something about Morocco and Saudi princes (or is it all Gulf potentates now)? Older Saudi princes usually go there after serious surgery in the West, they go to Morocco to recuperate or die or both. Sometimes they recuperate before returning home and dying quickly. Younger ones go there to enjoy the kind of relaxed life they deny their own peoples at home. Now apparently other princes and shaikhs from the among the Persian Gulf’s ruling families, and even many of their oligarchy allies among the merchant classes, have discovered the joy or R&R in Morocco. No wonder the Saudi King tried to add that kingdom to the Gulf GCC: he associates it with good times, sort of.
Oddly, or maybe not so oddly, it is all a stag party in Old Maroc. Apparently all princes, but no princesses. The royal chicks still prefer the perfumed feminine shopping galleries of Europe to blow their oil revenues.

Here is a list of just a few of many posts on this topic:

Saudi Prince Bandar Joins Waldo: But Where Are They?

Bandar Goes to Washington, May Seek Syrian Presidency

Syria’s Opposition Fractures More: General Idriss Refuses to be Fired, About Prince Bandar

Bribe, Baby, Bribe: the United Kingdom of Arabia and BAE Systems

Lockerbie in Perspective: Retaliations and “Bribe, Britannia, and Rule the Trade”

Saudis to Bandar: Baby Come Back, Baggage and All

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

GCC, Russia, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy

After Crimea: Will a Lonely Star Opt to Live with Mexico? How about the GCC?………

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter


“This wouldn’t be the first time Crimea has changed hands, though. The peninsula became part of Ukraine only in 1954, and before that it had a bewildering number of owners, including the ancient Greeks, the Scythian Empire, Rome, the Goths, the Huns, the Byzantine and Ottoman empires, Venice, Genoa, Imperial Russia, Soviet Russia, and, briefly, Nazi Germany. Still, for the last 60 years it has been part of Ukraine, and having it ripped away would be quite shocking…………. Like Crimea, Texas has been part of many other nations and was once its own sovereign republic — the six flags at the famous Texas-based amusement park represent those various countries: Spain, France, Mexico, the U.S., the Confederate States of America, and of course the Republic of Texas. And although 97 percent of Texans wouldn’t vote to secede from the U.S. today, the Lone Star State has a sizable separatist movement. Texas and Crimea are also both situated at the bottom middle of their respective nations, and in similar proportion.………..”

The Mexicans are unlikely to do a Putin and storm across the Río Bravo del Norte to reclaim Texas. At least not in the same way. Although the governor of Texas has been threatening secession, again, and the history of Texas tells us the Lonely Star state would be seeking another domestic partner to shack up with again. And who is there in a convenient location to open their arms (not weapons) and welcome it back? The Mexican oligarchs and ruling classes may not want that. They probably know they’ll screw it up just as they have their other states from Chiapas to Baja California: soon Austin may look like Tijuana.

Speaking of a partner to shack up with: the Saudi king is perennially seeking new additions to the Gulf GCC. If he ever got wind of the restlessness of Texas, the potential of a Lonely Star, he might come a-courting. Seeking to get it to join the Gulf GCC (not the Gulf of Mexico, that other Gulf).

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Arab Politics, Egypt, GCC, Jordan, Morocco

GCC Expansion or Contraction? From the Deserts of Jordan through Tahrir Square to Lido de Paris………

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

They are raising the issue of GCC confederation and expansion again. Bahrain shaikhs and elites, their country already almost annexed by Saudi occupation forces and having nothing to lose, are also pushing for it publicly and on social media. Wahhabi liberals on the Persian Gulf, who look to the absolute Saudi princes for Liberté et Egalité et Fraternité, are as excited about it as they probably can get excited about anything (save perhaps for one other thing). But as I have been saying since 2011 the Saudi idea ploy of confederation has always been DOA.
 
There is even a revival of the idea of expansion, even as some claim the original GCC may be unraveling, well maybe at least weakening. At least the long-existing differences cannot be swept under the rug anymore. Just as a couple of GCC countries seem ready to bolt out of the stifling Saudi embrace. Yet there is new absurd talk of Egypt being asked to join: the media told us Al Sisi and a gaggle of Al Nahayans had some sort of joint Jane Fonda military exercises last week.
 
We know that the Saudi princes have been seeking pliable partners to expand the Gulf GCC. Except that there are no more pliable partners left. They have tried with Jordan in 2011, but then King Abdul in Amman called one of his funny but humorless elections, and the princes don’t cotton up to elections, even funny humorless elections in Jordan. Some GCC potentates quickly and untruthfully claimed they were postponing Jordanian accession until after Ramadan (of 2011). They also invited faraway Morocco to apply for membership, but that was before the King of Morocco called elections which were won by what passes for the Moroccan branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. Alas, Morocco has no Generalisimo Field Marshal Al Sisi who can set things right after undesirable election results.

Now rumors have it that the princes have been toying with reliably counter-revolutionary Egypt as a possible member, initially that was on the table in 2012 as a ploy to keep the Muslim Brotherhood from winning the last election. Some wags have even claimed that since Crimea voted for secession the princes had thought that maybe they can get that region to join the GCC, but Vladimir Putin quickly beat them to it with this annexation thing.
 
Back to the drawing board. Morocco and Jordan and Egypt may still look good as targets of Saudi wooing. But speaking of wooing: the Saudi princes are notorious polygamists, much more so than any Westerner, even a French president like Francois Hollande. Polygamy can be added as their middle name: Polygamous Kingdom of Saudi Arabia sounds correct while “Polygamous French Republic” sounds so wrong even if true, especially in French.
I suspect, nay I know, that all of these one-night-stand candidates have less chance of joining the GCC than Turkey has of joining the European Union. Less chance now than the State of Mississippi has of joining the Organization of Islamic Countries. All of them together have about as much chance of becoming GCC members as I have of becoming the next Mufti of Saudi Arabia (or a mufti of anywhere else for that matter).

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

Arab Revolutions, GCC, Syria

Syrian Elections: Free World and Free Saudi Arabia and Free Qatar and a Future President Assad…….

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter

Ahmad Al Jarba, the Saudi-appointed head of the Syrian National Coalition, has insisted that the “free world” provide the Syrian opposition with the means to fight Bashar al Assad. But the “free world” is already supporting his coalition. Saudi Arabia and Qatar and a few other democratic members of the “free world” have been pouring money, weapons, and Salafi Jihadis into Syria for three years. You can’t get any freer than the princes and potentates. They are “free” to do whatever they want in their countries. They are free to loot whatever they want. They are free to silence, shut up, anyone they want, and they do.
How can Mr. Al Jarba claim that the “free world” does not support him and his allied groups and militias?
Meanwhile Mr. Al Assad, fresh from a new military victory at Yabroud, is reportedly getting ready to run for a third term as president this year. This no doubt will complicate things. And I am guessing he can win at least as many votes as Al Jarba can, actually much more. As I have written before, Syrians are divided. Anyway, tribal type candidates are not likely to win many votes in the major cities and in Western Syria in general.
Personally, I believe if an Assad must run, it should not be Bashar. Too much bloodshed during his reign, although some of it was spilled by the opposition as well. Little Hafez Al Assad (petit-fils) is probably too young to run. Which leaves Asma Akhras Al Assad as the only plausible candidate. I know she has no goatee (saksooka) and hence will not be easily acceptable to the Saudis. Why else do you think they repress their women so much?……….

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]

GCC, Russia, US Foreign Policy

A Russian Gas Station? Senator Unwittingly Disses Sputnik and Many OPEC Countries………

      

 Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter


““Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country,” McCain told Candy Crowley on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It’s kleptocracy, it’s corruption, it’s a nation that’s really only dependent upon oil and gas for their economy.”………………..”

I must admit it is a great sound bite. He is right about the corruption and kleptocracy and the funny political game that keeps Putin and his sidekick Medvedev in power forever. But, ah, Senator McCain, suppose next time you fly into Riyadh or Doha or a couple of other cities in our region and you are asked about this funny statement? I mean especially about that oil and gas station and the corruption and kleptocracy?

“Masquerading as a country”? Which reminds me of a long history, of a few dead gentlemen and ladies like Peter the Great and Catherine the Great and Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and Pushkin and Turgenyev and Borodin and Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov and Sputnik and Yuri Gagarin (look him up) and Valentina Tereshkova (look her up), and some others. And a few places that probably suffered more than any other places in the last century: Stalingrad, Leningrad, Crimea (when it was Russian), Smolensk, etc, etc.……..
And then there were the soldiers who liberated Auschwitz: they were not from the EU (many of those were helping round up the victims) or from France or Saudi Arabia.
Then there was the Okhrana and the Gulag. And there was Stalin, but he was not Russian, he was a Georgian. No, not Dixie or CSA, the other Georgia, the one Senator McCain said “We are all Georgians” about.

Cheers
mhg

[email protected]