• OPINION

  Khashoggi and MBS's blunderers

  Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 03/03/2021

  » If Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, were a burglar, he wouldn't be George Clooney in Ocean's Eleven. He'd be a cartoon burglar in a carnival mask and a top with black-and-white horizontal stripes, carrying a sack labelled "SWAG".

• OPINION

  What will a post-oil Middle East look like?

  Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/11/2020

  » 'The only officials present were American and Saudi," tweeted the Saudi Arabian foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, but he was lying. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu really did fly in to Saudi Arabia to spend a few hours with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

• OPINION

  Shared delusions of Trump and the Saudi Crown Prince

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 23/11/2018

  » "It's a suffering tape, it's a terrible tape," the Snowflake-in-Chief told Fox News on Sunday, defending his refusal to listen to the recording of journalist Jamal Khashoggi being murdered and sawn into pieces in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul on Oct 2. "I know everything that went on in the tape without having to hear it. It was very violent, very vicious and terrible."

• OPINION

  Yemen: Saudi Arabia's even bigger lie

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 26/10/2018

  » While Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) frantically tries to scrub Jamal Khashoggi's blood off his hands like a Middle Eastern Lady Macbeth -- "Here's the smell of blood still. Not all the sweet perfumes of Arabia will sweeten this hand" -- could we have a word about his war in Yemen too?

• OPINION

  Gulf states order Qatar to do as they say, not as they did

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 05/07/2017

  » The deadline that Saudi Arabia and its allies set for Qatar to submit to their "non-negotiable" demands has been postponed from Monday to today. Since Qatar has already made it plain that it will not comply -- it says the demands are "reminiscent of the extreme and punitive conduct of 'bully' states that have historically resulted in war" -- the delay is a sure sign that the bullies don't know what to do next.

• OPINION

  3 wars, 2 truces: at least some hope out there

  Oped, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 07/04/2022

  » Two weeks ago, the three biggest wars in the world were in Ukraine, Ethiopia and Yemen. Now truces have silenced the guns and the air strikes in two of the three. They are only temporary truces so far, but there is a reasonable chance that they could grow into something more permanent.

• OPINION

  Saudi Arabia is a populist dictatorship

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 27/06/2018

  » Joy and pride among Saudi women who are at last allowed to drive. Delight in the car dealerships that anticipate a lot of new business. And dismay in the families of the 1.4 million chauffeurs, almost all from South Asia, who have been earning around US$1,000 (32,960 baht) a month driving Saudi women around. But it will take a lot more than this to change Saudi Arabia.

• OPINION

  Abdullah Saleh's good luck runs out

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 06/12/2017

  » Ali Abdullah Saleh seized power in Yemen in 1978, when he was only 36 years old. He lost it in 2012, when the "Arab Spring" was in full spate, and had been trying to get it back ever since. Thirty-four years was not enough. But on Monday, his truly astonishing ability to switch sides got him killed.

• OPINION

  Preposterous times for four long years

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 17/05/2017

  » All the talk of special prosecutors and the like will not bring the man to book. The soap opera will continue and no amount of dysfunction in the White House will make it stop until early 2019 at best. Even though a great deal of damage will have been done by then.

• OPINION

  Happy ending if US strikes Iran? Not a chance

  News, Gwynne Dyer, Published on 15/05/2019

  » US President Donald Trump is well known for his desire to cut American military commitments overseas. Indeed, it is one of his most attractive characteristics. But his attention span is short, he plays a lot of golf, and he does not have the knack of choosing good advisers.

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