Tag: Saudi Arabia
The Iran War Is No Vietnam. But It May Become An Economic Quagmire For The Gulf.
The Vietnam comparisons to the Iran war miss the real parallel. It isn’t political. It’s economic, and it lands on the Gulf with five costs compounding across the region: energy, reconstruction, tourism, capital, uncertainty…
Private Capital And The GCC Infrastructure Inflection
With sovereign funding under pressure, Saudi Arabia must meet institutional investors’ expectations to unlock private capital for infrastructure…
Trump’s Iran Ultimatum Raises Questions He Can’t Answer
Donald Trump’s ultimatum to Iran reflects an aggressive but unclear strategy, with shifting demands around nuclear concessions and military pressure that lack a coherent endgame…
Syria Is Not Libya, But It Could Become One If The World Looks Away
While Syria’s conflict differs from Libya’s in origins and structure, it faces similar risks of fragmentation, weak governance, and competing armed factions if international engagement fades…
Smarter Finance Needed To Rebuild Post-Conflict Middle East
Traditional model — grand pledging conferences followed by sluggish bilateral transfers — is obsolete and must be left behind…
Middle East Debt Deals Hang in Limbo as Washington Sets the Clock
Gulf stock markets rallied in September, following the Federal Reserve’s rate cut and renewed optimism that further rate cuts were to come. Behind the cheer lies a more complicated reality: debt issuance across the Middle East — sovereign, corporate and family-owned — is being delayed, restructured or burdened by high U.S.-imported borrowing costs…
Islamic Equity Investors Face A Difficult Choice
Islamic finance has made much progress over the past two decades across banking, asset management and capital markets. There are now some $5tn of Islamic finance assets in an industry grounded in faith-based principles, according to estimates from the LSEG’s Islamic Finance Development Indicator. But Islamic finance — and in particular equity investing — needs further conversation about how to balance ethical integrity with the financial complexity of today’s world…
Under The Mountain: What Israel Needs And Trump Must Decide
As Israel escalates its confrontation with Iran, Donald Trump faces a defining foreign policy test. The choice before him is not between diplomacy and war. Diplomacy has largely been exhausted; war, in some form, is already underway. The real question is more consequential and more concrete: should the United States supply Israel with its most formidable non-nuclear weapon, the 30,000-pound bunker buster, which only America has the air power capability to deliver…
Sukuk Finance’s New Framework Risks Disruption
The global sukuk market for Islamic finance faces a pivotal moment. A new framework from the Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) threatens to destabilise a $1tn market that has become a vital funding source for sovereigns and corporates across the Middle East, Asia and beyond. The spiritual imperative behind proposed changes to AAOIFI’s Shariah Standard 62 is deeply respected. They seek to make sukuk debt appear less like debt with charged interest, something that is prohibited under Islamic law. However, the real-world effects could fracture a market that has flourished precisely because of its consistency and investor confidence. The stakes for global Islamic finance could not be higher…
