Saudi Arabia borrows more as fiscal, security problems multiply
Saudi Arabia is borrowing more from international markets to meet fiscal shortfalls caused by the halving of the crude oil price, additional unbudgeted expenses prosecuting the war on Yemen and enhanced security needs. In July the kingdom issued its first sovereign bonds since 2007 to raise about $4 billion from local banks. It’s also been dipping into sovereign fund reserves and now plans to raise another $27 billion, a figure...
Turkey complicates the fight against ISIL
Turkish diplomatic and military moves are complicating the fight against Daesh aka Islamic State, ISIL or ISIS. Today (28 July 2015) Turkey is hoping to widen European/NATO support for its military offensive in Syria whose ultimate aim remains far from clear. The Turkish attacks in Syria are seen in the West as helping the fight against ISIL. From Kurdish standpoints these attacks are aimed at crushing the Kurds. Are the Turkish hits...
Iraq Kurds appeal on genocidal attacks
Iraq’s Kurdish regional administration has launched an international appeal for action to stop genocidal attacks, most of them traced to armed groups known as Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) or IS, on diverse communities in the country. Attacks on communities, variously identified as ethnic cleansing and genocide of specific cultural groups in Iraq, have been endemic since before the Baathist rule (1968-2003) and after...
Germany sees ISIS menacing ‘entire’ MENA region
ISIS has become an existential threat to Iraq and the entire Middle East region, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said (13 August 2014). He made the comment in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on the attacks by the so-called ‘Islamic State’ terrorist group in Iraq (12 August): “ISIS has become an existential threat to Iraq and the entire Middle East region,” Steinmeier said. “To us in...