Gulf States

On October 20, 2007, Stephen Grummon, Ahmad Rafat, Kassem Jaafar, and Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt addressed The Washington Institute's Weinberg Founders Conference. Mr. Grummon heads Greentree Enterprises, an international research and training firm, and is former director of the Office of Middle East Analysis in the State Department's Bureau of

Vice President Dick Cheney departed today on a trip to the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan. A bland statement issued from his office on May 3 said he was asked to travel by President Bush and would be having "discussions with the leaders of these countries on

On February 14, 2007, Institute senior fellow and director of the Project on the Middle East Peace Process David Makovsky testified before the House International Relations Committee Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia. The following is a synopsis of his testimony. Read the complete text of David Makovsky's

On January 16, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Kuwait for a meeting with the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)—the oil-producing states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman. The final stop on Rice’s Middle East tour, the visit

Prince Turki al-Faisal, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., has resigned. The prince reportedly flew out of Washington after informing Condoleezza Rice, and his own staff, that he was leaving, just 15 months after arriving. The Saudi Embassy told the Associated Press that he was "going home to spend more

For many long years it was fair to describe the development of Saudi Arabia's foreign policy in terms of the "dynamics of inaction." The Wahhabi royal house followed an essentially cautious, awkward, defensive path of diplomacy, rarely taking the initiative, and prefering to remain in the shadowy realm of influence

On October 20, 2006, eighty-three-year-old King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia announced changes to the kingdom's "Basic Law" -- effectively its constitution -- that appear to formalize procedures for the selection of future kings. However, it is difficult to know how much the current system of succession will actually change. For

On September 20, amid reports of al-Qaeda plots against local American targets, the people of the strategically important but impoverished Arabian Peninsula state of Yemen go to the polls to elect a president. The president will not be new -- the incumbent Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has been in power

On June 8, 2006, Patrick Clawson testified before the House Armed Services Committee’s hearing on U.S. policy options toward Iran. The following is the prepared text of his remarks. The United States will almost certainly have to deter and contain Iran for the foreseeable future -- almost like the Cold