All Policy Analysis by Simon Henderson

The formal succession has been smooth so far, but many questions remain about how the ruling family will handle major regional decisionmaking in practice.

British prime minister Tony Blair arrives in Washington on November 11 -- the first foreign leader to visit following President George W. Bush's reelection. The visit confirms Britain's status as America's most supportive ally and Blair's status as the president's closest foreign confidant. But the British leader is likely to

Municipal elections in Saudi Arabia, scheduled to begin in November, have been postponed until 2005. Given that these will be the first public political elections ever to take place in the kingdom, their introduction has been keenly watched, both domestically and from abroad. The latest delay, the second since the

Rapidly growing Chinese oil demand was one of the key factors influencing discussions at this week's meeting of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), convened in Vienna by ministers from OPEC member states. During the first eight months of 2004, Chinese oil imports surged by 40 percent compared with

Relations between the U.S. and Pakistan are an emotional roller-coaster ride. In January of this year,Washington was concerned that President Pervez Musharraf had just narrowly survived two assassination attempts within one month. In February, President Musharraf was balancing relations with Washington and his own domestic political popularity by publicly condemning

As everyone knows, Saudis, if not Saudi Arabia, were central to the horrific events of September 11, 2001. Fifteen out of 19 hijackers were Saudi, plus the Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, (from whom the kingdom withdrew citizenship in the 1990s). What is perhaps surprising therefore is that Saudi Arabia is

As a result of the 2001 U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, the al-Qaeda network now consists of small, local, and autonomous affiliate groups that attack domestic and Western targets alike. Ties between affiliate groups and the former al-Qaeda core is largely informal. For example, recent attacks have been claimed by affiliates

After several days of diplomatic tension between London and Tehran, eight British military personnel who had been captured by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were released and flown out of Iran on June 24. The men, who served with the coalition forces in Iraq, had been in three boats

Three Americans murdered in Saudi capital, Riyadh, in just two weeks. Two of them beheaded, gruesomely hacked off with a knife rather than severed with an axe. There can be few surer ways of attracting the attention of the American public. But then the leader of the gang of Islamic

On June 10-13, elections were held throughout Europe for the European Parliament (EP), the institution that represents the peoples of the twenty-five member states of the European Union (EU). The results indicated a mixture of uninterest (as evidenced by low voter turnout) and a pattern of electorates punishing their incumbent

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is meeting this week in Beirut, where the cartel is expected to confirm a higher production ceiling that should lead to a decrease in international oil prices. Nevertheless, the sharp price hikes seen during the past few weeks have rekindled questions about OPEC's

The implications of the assault on al-Khobar are huge. It confirms that there has been a significant shift in the pattern of terror attacks in Saudi Arabia; the battle between Osama bin Laden and the royal House of Saud is shifting gear. Although the casualties are far fewer than those

The fiery death of the leader of Iraq's governing council in a car-bomb explosion in Baghdad was a ghastly reminder of the problems facing the country. It's dangerous. We don't know who is causing the violence. And we don't know much about the political leadership that the US occupation forces

Over the past week, oil prices have exceeded $40 per barrel for the first time since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, and gasoline prices in parts of the United States are now more $2 per gallon. Contributing to this increase were heightened concerns about supply, particularly in the wake

Despite the recent chaos in Iraq and the uncertain future of the country, it is clear that the post-Saddam Hussein Middle East is a very different place. There might not be peace yet between Israelis and Palestinians, but Libya's decision to give up weapons of mass destruction is an indication

Tomorrow's meeting in Washington, D.C., between President George W. Bush and visiting British prime minister Tony Blair was scheduled before the recent outbreaks of violence in Iraq and before Wednesday's announcement of U.S. support for Israel's plan to unilaterally withdraw from Gaza. But both subjects will top the agenda of

The next few days will be crucial. Yesterday saw the first armed confrontations between coalition forces and the gunmen who support the young Shia Muslim firebrand, Moqtada al-Sadr. Today the Americans are hitting back with Apache helicopters. The action is across the whole of the Shia south, the area that

On March 25, British prime minister Tony Blair will meet with Col. Muammar Qadhafi in Libya, marking an important moment in the process of bringing Libya back into the international community. The March 23 meeting between Qadhafi and U.S. assistant secretary of state William Burns suggests that the United States

Three days after the terrorist bombings in Madrid, the pro-American, conservative Spanish government was defeated in general elections, to the surprise of many observers. Although officials have not yet confirmed that the al-Qaeda terrorist network was responsible for the attacks, the polling result was immediately interpreted as reflecting electorate anger

As shocking as today's attacks on worshipping Iraqi Shia Muslims are, they were entirely predictable. For weeks the American and British occupation forces had been fearing violence during the festival of Ashura. I know. I was told so several times when I was in Baghdad a month ago. For the