All Policy Analysis by Simon Henderson

The challenge for the kingdom’s Western allies is how to square Riyadh’s announcement with the CIA and UN conclusion that the crown prince himself sanctioned the crime.

New maritime and military agreements may pull Ankara into Libya’s civil war, adding yet another foreign actor to an already tortuous multilateral showdown.

Given the potential for sideline progress toward healing the rift and refocusing on Iran, this year’s diplomatic theater will be more closely watched than usual.

Amid Saudi stock sell-offs, Russian production limits, U.S. tariff showdowns, and a flurry of other factors, the potential impact of the cartel’s Vienna meetings is difficult to predict.

Bahrain’s prime minister, Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, has held his position since 1971, the year his country gained independence from Britain, but he is now eighty-four and evidently in uncertain health. Potential candidates to replace him include Crown Prince Salman or even a much younger nephew, Nasser bin Hamad, mirroring the generational handover in Qatar and Saudi Arabia. But the Khawalids, an influential, once-sidelined branch of the ruling family, also merit attention as Bahrain nears the end of an era.

The two countries still need to resolve longer-term questions about international export options and energy contracts with Jordan, but the latest step toward reopening the pipeline is encouraging.

A former correspondent in Tehran reflects on how the crisis set the stage for many of Washington’s current difficulties with the regime, and whether anything has really changed.

The long-anticipated stock selloff has finally been green-lit, but doubts remain about just how much it will help to economically transform the kingdom.

The steady weakening by Tehran of its international nuclear commitments will be the most immediate challenge for the next head of the world’s nuclear watchdog.

The first such gathering since the recent spate of Iranian attacks, the multinational meeting could help Washington build a coalition capable of preventing future flare-ups.

The Persian Gulf is more crucial in oil terms, but if hostilities expand to the Red Sea, Iran could gain extra leverage against its adversaries on energy and trade matters.

In a Gulf region experiencing sharp tensions, how might a leadership transition in Kuwait affect a much-needed node of stability?

The crown prince’s televised apologies and welcome domestic reforms are overshadowed by his government’s ongoing litany of human rights abuses.

Regardless of the Hormuz initiative's supposedly peaceful intent, foreign officials should be careful not to give Tehran any rights in the strategic waterway that don’t have to be given.

So far, Tehran appears to have judged quite well what it can get away with, a track record that will likely give Riyadh pause as it considers its response.

Riyadh’s hopes of raising money through a partial sell-off of Saudi Aramco depend on the price of oil, which failed to rise sufficiently under the previous minister.

Thus far, Britain’s willingness to stand firm in the Persian Gulf has been more consequential than Washington’s legal challenge in the Mediterranean Sea.

The relationship is being tested, and the knock-on effects could roil the region from the sands of Libya to the Strait of Hormuz.