Okay, every topic that has even remotely to do with the middle east keeps getting more general news put into it which removes focus from the original topic.
As such, I'm creating this thread as a general middle east and north africa topic. That means anything to do with the Arab Spring or Israel and Palestine should be kept to those threads and anything to do with more generic news (for example, new Saudi regulations on the number of foreign workers or the Lebanese elections next year, etc.) should be posted here.
I hope the mods will find this a clear enough statement of intent to open the thread.
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
Five months. It took the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Justice's bureaucracy five months to finish processing the letter of attorney that had been already in effect by late October, that we had filed in order to be able to search for a missing relative in Europe on behalf of his father.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present you just one example of the usual performance level of our most esteemed government, since some had expressed curiosity sometime ago about the subject.
Fucking hell, I thought someone (e.g. my Archnemesis Dad) is falsely assuming my identity when I got an SMS message on my phone about "my" letter of attorney being finally processed. (Turns out it's because the SIM chip is in my mom's name rather than mine.)
edited 2nd Feb '18 2:11:09 PM by MarqFJA
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Oh, bother.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
...Shit. Five months...
edited 2nd Feb '18 2:12:06 PM by M84
Disgusted, but not surprised
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
Did I mention that we already had the document in our hands five months ago, and it was perfectly in effect since then? Because that's rather important.
Wow, just... Wow.
edited 2nd Feb '18 2:40:36 PM by MarqFJA
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
That's bad, especially considering the nature of the case (human safety, emotional wellbeing, possible diplomatic implications). That said, massive delays and failure to properly communicate occur in Western bureaucracies all the time.
At least in your case, the government didn't get the details wrong (blaming the sender) and tell you to restart the process. Had that happen (in far less severe situations) to friends and family before.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Beware the Crazy Man.
Then there is the Indian bureaucracy, which is just legendary in how inept, slow, or obtrusive they can be, depending on the Ministry....
Final Fantasy, Foreign Policy, and Bollywood. Helluva combo, that...
United Earth
I thought the Empire had imprinted the very model of a modern Major Generaladministrative power into its ex-colony?
edited 3rd Feb '18 3:07:28 PM by TheHandle
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
The law in the night
Syrian rebels claim they downed and killed a Russian pilot.
Oh boy, here we go.
Inter arma enim silent leges
Oh yeah, I think the Russians did an air strike in the area after that killing 30 (according to them).
edited 4th Feb '18 7:24:21 AM by TerminusEst
Si Vis Pacem, Para Perkele
A procrastination in of itself
X3 Watch some Yes Minister, that I think there’s a good argument to be made that we succeeded to much.
Morocco is severing diplomatic ties with Iran, after the latter was caught support a Western Sahara independence group.
Politics is the skilled use of blunt objects.
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
Nasty...
——
Breaking news from the UAE:
Shiekha Latifa was reported to be last seen heading to India after a suppossd video of her surfaces.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
In other news, of the literally-can't-make-this-shit-up variety, Saudi Arabia is looking to build a canal to physically separate Qatar from the rest of the peninsula and turn it into an island.
... Yeah. Really. Gotta hand it to them, they know how to enact grade S spite at least.
Reminds me of this Bugs Bunny scene:
Iran, take it away!
Organized Canine Bureau Special Agent
https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20180918_28/
With new laws passed in the Diet that allows the JSDF to be in non-UN-mandated PKOs, Japan is considering to send JGSDF officers there in the MFO contingent in Sinai.
On the side, I'm browsing to the MFO site to look for jobs now.
"Exit muna si Polgas. Ang kailangan dito ay si Dobermaxx!"
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
This somehow didn't show up on my radar until I bothered to look it up.
The Public Investment Fund had sought to raise billions of dollars through the initial public offering of Saudi Aramco - dubbed as potentially the world's biggest stock sale - to finance the kingdom's transformation from a petro-state to a tech-focused economy.
But with the flotation indefinitely postponed, the PIF is taking radical steps to boost its treasure chest with much-needed cash to finance a slew of non-oil investments - from risky hi-tech startups to a new mega city.
"Much of the ambitious economic and social plan to diversify the Saudi economy, jump-start its private sector and create jobs for young people relies on the PIF as an orchestrator of economic growth," said Karen Young of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington.
"In fact, the PIF is so central to the government's growth strategy that finding resources to feed the PIF has become a national economic priority," she wrote in a report for the institute.
Pivoting the desert kingdom's economy away from oil, akin to what observers describe as turning around a large, lumbering ship, is a key priority for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
When the Aramco IPO was proposed in 2016, Saudi officials had expected it would raise up to $100 billion to fund his reform agenda, based on a $2 trillion valuation of the state-owned giant that many experts said was unrealistic.
With IPO efforts floundering, the once-torpid PIF, which aims to raise its assets from roughly $230 billion to more than $2 trillion by 2030, is aggressively pushing a host of big-ticket investments - from Uber to the planned $500 billion NEOM mega city on the Red Sea coast.
The fund has also invested in British tycoon Richard Branson's space tourism company Virgin Galactic and pledged tens of billions of dollars to funds run by Soft Bank and Blackstone.
'Spend to grow'
Some analysts have voiced concern over the PIF's "spend to grow" strategy as it pursues what are seen as flashy deals rather than long-term investments that deliver secure returns and generate jobs as unemployment soars."The PIF's pattern of investment very much resembles that of a venture capital fund and that is concerning for a fund that will, by necessity, have to generate steady returns in the long run," said Ellen Wald, author of the book 'Saudi Inc'.
Since 2016, the PIF has made external investment commitments worth 360 billion riyals ($95 billion), according to the International Monetary Fund, including stakes in high-risk tech firms such as electric car company Tesla.
"Investments in technology companies will not transform Saudi Arabia's economy nor will they diversify the economy's sources of revenue away from oil," said Wald.
The PIF did not respond to requests for comment.
Meanwhile, the postponement of the Aramco IPO is seen as a reflection of the kingdom's stronger fiscal position following a recent rise in oil prices but also dimming optimism over reforms.
"The postponement of the IPO implies that the economic diversification envisaged by the government will either need to be scaled back or financed by higher direct or indirect public-sector debt issuance," ratings agency Moody's said on Monday.
Moody's noted that significant reliance on debt would increase liability risks and exert negative pressure on Saudi Arabia's credit profile.
Raising cash
The PIF last month raised an $11 billion loan from international banks, its first commercial advance, in order to finance the kingdom's transformation plans, the Riyadh-based Al Rajhi Capital said this week."If the PIF is to fulfil its ambitious plans in the coming years, it will need additional financing," the IMF said in a recent report.
It added that for some investments, the government may need to draw from its reserves at the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority, which stand at just over $500 billion.
To raise money, the PIF is mulling the sale of a "strategic stake" in Saudi petrochemicals giant SABIC to Aramco, a potential deal that Young described as "accounting gymnastics".
SABIC, the world's fourth largest petrochemicals company with a market value of over $100 billion, is 70 percent-owned by the PIF.
Further complicating PIF's ambitions is nervousness from foreign investors after a diplomatic row over Canada's criticism of the jailing of Saudi rights activists and the arrest of high-profile businessmen at Riyadh's Ritz-Carlton last year.
The moves, experts say, have heightened concerns over Prince Mohammed's increasingly assertive policy and the impact it would have on foreign direct investment, which a UN body said plunged last year to a 14-year low.
Saudi Arabia is preparing to admit that "rogue operatives" killed Khashoggi during a botched interrogation, and then dismembered the body for removal from the Consulate and presumably disposed of it afterwards.
https://www.cnn.com/middleeast/live-news/saudi-journalist-jamal-khashoggi-missing/index.html
It's always 'rogue operatives' when shit goes bad...
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
Breaking news on an Arabic channel:
- The Saudi Arabian government admits that Khashoggi was killed... because of an argument that turned violent within the consulate.
- At least two high-level officials in the Saudi Arabian government have been fired, including the deputy minister of the Saudi Arabian intelligence agency.
Beware the Crazy Man.
Going back to something I said yesterday in the Arab Spring thread on this subject, it seems Crown Prince Mohammad is being reeled in by King Salman. According to Reuters anyway.
and I’m sure the bone saw was a complete coincidence as well?
Edited by megaeliz on Oct 20th 2018 at 11:58:48 AM
Doesn't everybody have one of those in the closet? You know, right next to that weird polish you rarely use because its the one that smells weird and was a mistaken purchase, anyway. 
Edited by Euodiachloris on Oct 20th 2018 at 5:02:22 PM
Here’s a bit of a hunch I have about this.
Probably the most interesting part of this one New York Times article from a few days ago was this:
Mr. Kushner has argued that the crown prince can survive the outrage just as he has weathered past criticism.
Now, why would Jared advise trump to stick by him, even after they murdered a US resident and Journalist?
If you do some digging into Kushner and Saudi Arabia, you might come across this, right in the middle or an old WaPo article:
On Aug. 21, the same day Trump created four of the Jiddah companies, he told a rally crowd in Alabama: “Saudi Arabia, I get along with all of them. They buy apartments from me. They spend $40 million, $50 million. Am I supposed to dislike them? I like them very much.”
In January, a few months after the Jiddah companies were created, Trump told Fox News that he “would want to protect Saudi Arabia” from a potential Iranian threat but added that “Saudi Arabia is going to have to help us economically” and referenced the billions of dollars the Arab kingdom has made off the oil trade.
Trump also tweeted this:
I think how Trump and especially Kushners business interests in the Middle East have played into this are worth looking into.
Edited by megaeliz on Oct 20th 2018 at 12:24:37 PM
Some hard hitting journalism from the New York Times about the Saudi economic Warfare in Yemen.
The pictures are hard to look at, but necessary, I think.
Edited by megaeliz on Oct 26th 2018 at 9:21:10 AM
The Cosmopolitan Fictioneer
... I have a hard time believing that the Sauds are doing this just to get back at the Houthis. It's like they have a huge, murderous grudge against the Yemeni people themselves for some reason.
Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.
Perhaps its a statement of intent, and they're laying the foundations. The article reads like it has to start with internal tourism too.
Look with century eyes... With our backs to the arch And the wreck of our kind We will stare straight ahead For the rest of our lives