Press TV; IGA hosts Conference on Bahrain

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"The United States role vis-a-vis the brutal suppression by the al-Khalifa dynasty in Bahrain has led to increased criticism of its policies in that country. At the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, speakers discussed the U.S. alliance with the ruling Bahraini monarchy..."

How Saudi Arabia Thwarted Uprisings in Yemen and Bahrain

By Ali Al-Ahmed

Give the Saudi monarchy their dues. They are experts when it comes to manipulating political environment in their region to work in their favor—all by using soft power without attracting too much attention. Some would call that style stealthy and deadly.

This is exactly what the monarchy has been able to achieve in Yemen and Bahrain by propping up pro-Saudi rulers in these two countries to keep them in power despite massive protests that would have toppled the toughest regimes elsewhere...

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Ali Al-Ahmed is the founder and director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs

Saudi Bluff on the Bomb

By Joshua Jacbos

Saudi Arabia set off alarm bells in Western capitals earlier this week when transcripts of a speech Prince Turki al-Faisal gave to senior NATO military officials were released. Prince Turki stated that an Iranian nuclear weapons program “would compel Saudi Arabia to pursue policies which could lead to untold and possibly dramatic consequences;” or in other words a Saudi nuclear weapon. The West’s alarm reached a fever pitch when an undisclosed senior official in Riyadh elaborated by saying only that “If Iran develops a nuclear weapon, that will be unacceptable to us and we will have to follow suit.” Almost immediately, analysts scrambled to publish pieces on how such a feat could be accomplished, what the implications might be, and of course what the Western response would be. This atmosphere of acute fear is exactly the reaction Riyadh desires, because in reality they have absolutely no intention of beginning a nuclear weapons program...

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Joshua Jacobs is a Gulf Policy Analyst at the Institute for Gulf Affairs

Yemen, Sinking from All Sides

By Lev Yuriditsky

While the majority of the U.S. and Western world focuses on the Libyan Revolution and occasionally glances at Syria, a grave situation is developing in Yemen - A civil war, revolution, humanitarian crisis, and very real threat of a terrorist take-over in the south...

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