Newsletter Archive
Below are all the Arab Digest newsletters going back to 17 June 2013
King Salman, his sons and Airbus
Summary: a historic bribery case involving Saudi Arabia and an Airbus subsidiary comes before a UK court threatening a much more recent Airbus deal masterminded by MbS.
Bahrain: the crown prince strikes
Summary: a major overhaul of the government, with key hardliners in the ruling family being sacked, signals that Crown Prince Salman is back in the driver’s seat.
Sheikh Jarrah and the Goethe Institute
Summary: the Goethe Institute’s decision to remove the young Sheikh Jarrah poet of resistance Mohammed el-Kurd from a panel discussion raises further questions about free speech and the ways it is silenced.
Kuwait’s al-Barrak – Back to the Future?
Summary: a fiery opposition leader builds momentum as Kuwait’s parliamentary system staggers on from one crisis to the next.
A convergence of interests in the Mediterranean
Summary: Italy, Algeria and Tunisia share an energy nexus of interest that has the potential to alter the economic landscape for all three as Europe scrambles to free itself from its dependency on Russian oil and gas.
Sisi and the zero sum game
Summary: a big hike in interest rates as inflation gallops ahead shows that the economic model Egypt’s president is using is in danger of running out of road with grievous implications both for the country’s poor and an increasingly beleaguered middle class already slipping into poverty.
The Wagner Group: busy in the Sahel
Summary: while the world’s attention is focussed on Vladimir Putin’s war in the Ukraine his efforts to expand Russian influence in Africa continue at a pace that is causing disquiet in the Mauritanian capital of Nouakchott.
The Ukraine war and Iran’s gains in Syria
Summary: Iran sees opportunities as stiff Ukrainian opposition blunts Putin’s war efforts and forces him to scale back Russian military presence in Syria.
Lafarge and a charge of crimes against humanity
Summary: a landmark decision by a French court confirms the charge of complicity of the world’s largest cement manufacturer in crimes against humanity over its dealings with the Islamic State in Syria.
Yemen: a solution in sight for the environmental threat of the FSO Safer
Summary: with time running out and autumn storms ahead action is finally happening to offload more than 1 million barrels of crude from a derelict ship moored in the Red Sea but big oil needs to step up and use their recent massive windfall profits to cover a donor shortfall.
What to make of Lebanon’s future
Summary: May’s parliamentary elections saw candidates for change emerge as winners and Hezbollah and its allies sustain significant losses so could this be the signal that the country’s long descent into economic chaos may finally be coming to a close?
Captagon’s ever-expanding Middle East footprint
Summary: as the captagon trade continues to boom in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf, its security and geopolitical implications have become harder to ignore.