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Musharraf seeks permission to visit Saudi Arabia
1 day ago
KARACHI: Former president and army chief Pervez Musharraf has submitted a request to Interior Ministry to allow him visit to Saudi Arabia.The request has been submitted by his lawyer Faisal Chaudhry to the Ministry.
Musharraf in its application has wished that he wanted to visit Saudi Arabia to offer condolences to the Saudi royal family over death of King Abdullah.
The government has not responded on the application as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is on visit to Saudi Arabia to attend funeral prayer of King Abdullah.
His name was put on exit control list (ECL) by the government due to cases pending against him in country’s courts especially high treason trial.
Musharraf has been staying with his daughter in Karachi where he traveled for tests at a navy-run hospital in April last year. He has been banned from leaving the country as the government has put his name in the exit control list.
http://www.newsweek.com/saudi-arabia-constructing-600-mile-long-wall-keep-isis-out-299664
Saudi Arabia Constructing 600-Mile Wall To Keep Out ISIS
BY DAMIEN SHARKOV 1/15/15 AT 1:53 PM
A Saudi soldier stands guard in Jizan on the border with Yemen November 3, 2014. Gains by the Shi'ite Houthi rebel movement in Yemen are ringing alarm bells in Saudi Arabia, concerned for what it means for its vulnerable southern border, already the conduit for a constant flow of illicit activity. Picture taken November 3, 2014. FAISAL AL NASSER/REUTERS
Saudi Arabia is building a 600-mile long wall along its northern border with Iraq in order to keep ISIS at bay, the Telegraph newspaper reported today.
Once completed, the wall will consist of a ditch and a triple-layered steel fence, with 40 watchtowers spread out along it. Each watchtower will be equipped with high-tech surveillance radars that are capable of detecting low-flying helicopters and approaching vehicles, as well as being able to spot a human from the range of about 20km.
There will also be 38 separate communication towers in place and 32 military response stations, as well as 240 armed rapid response vehicles which will patrol the wall.
Try Newsweek for only $1.25 per week
Work on the wall was started in September 2014 but plans for the project were initially drafted in September 2006 at the height of the Iraqi civil war. ISIS’s advance across central and south-western Iraq has prompted fear in Riyadh of a violent overspill and the project was given the go ahead.
The wall will stretch from the northwest town of Turaif near Jordan, to the northeastern town of Hafar al-Batin near Kuwait, spanning virtually the entire length of Iraq’s border with Saudi Arabia.
It will not be the first time Saudi Arabia has enforced one of its borders. In 2013 it constructed a 1,100 mile barrier across its southern border with Yemen after a spate of intense sectarian fighting in the country led to a deterioration of security along the border.
A spokesperson for the Iraqi government declined to comment when Newsweek enquired if they were aware of these plans and if they had endorsed them.
Iraq’s defence forces have provided unreliable resistance to ISIS, with approximately 30,000 Iraqi servicemenabandoning stations in the country’s north over the summer leaving the city of Mosul to be overrun by ISIS in June.
According to a recent Newsweek investigation pro-Iranian Shia militias and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have proven a stiffer resistance to the jihadist group than the country’s armed forces.
Lina Khatib, director of the Lebanese-based think tank the Carnegie Middle East Centre, says that plans for projects like the wall reflect Saudi Arabia’s fear of ISIS advancing towards its borders.
Discussing an attack which occurred earlier this month in which three Saudi border guards were killed by masked militants who had advanced from Iraq, Khatib says: “As the attack on northern Saudi Arabia earlier this month showed, Saudi Arabia is under direct threat from ISIS, and will therefore be prepared to take extreme measures to defend itself against an ISIS advance.”
She adds: “Concerns about ISIS are pushing Saudi Arabia to try and revise its strategy on Syria and move it from focusing on supporting jihadist groups to empowering the moderate Syrian opposition, and to present the Kingdom as a champion of counter-radicalization in the Middle East.”
While ISIS’s roots are currently in Syria and Iraq, Saudi Arabia is considered a likely target for the group due in part to the fact that the country contains the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Saudi Arabia is currently backing US-led strikes on ISIS over Syria and Iraq.
WORLD SAUDI ARABIA
King Abdullah’s Death Shows Saudi Arabia’s Declining Clout
Jan. 23, 2015
King Abdullah, left, with then-Crown Prince Salman, right, in 2010.AP
The death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has momentarily grabbed the world’s attention, but the real story is that his kingdom matters less than it used to
MORE
The Saudi Transition Looks Smooth—For Now
Saudi Arabia’s Billionaire King to Be Buried in Unmarked Grave
Oil Prices Spike After Saudi King’s Death
Ten years ago, the death of a Saudi king would have sent shock waves through Washington. Today, as the Kingdom recovers from the death of King Abdullah yesterday, Saudis don’t carry the same clout. In part, that’s because the U.S. is much less dependent on Middle Eastern oil than it was a few years ago, as U.S. companies have reinvented the way oil and natural gas is produced. Hydraulic fracturing has opened access to liquid energy deposits locked inside once-impenetrable rock formations, and breakthroughs in horizontal drilling methods have made the technology more profitable.
By the end of this decade, the United States is expected to produce almost half the crude oil it consumes. More than 80% of its oil will come from North or South America. By 2020, the United States could become the world’s largest oil producer, and by 2035 the country could be almost entirely self-sufficient in energy. Relations with the Saudis are no longer a crucial feature of U.S. foreign policy, and the surge in global supply, which has helped force oil prices lower in recent months, ensures that others are less concerned with the Saudis as well.
In addition, outsiders are not worried that King Abdullah’s death will make the Kingdom unstable. Newly-crowned King Salman is plenty popular, and other key players—Crown Prince Muqrin, National Guard head Prince Miteab, and Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef—have pragmatic working relations with the new king and with one another. The succession process will appear uneventful from the outside, but Salman will spend the next several months consolidating his authority and building a stable balance of power among factions within the family and across the government.
Another reason the Saudis matter less: They’re now bogged down in the region. Saudi worries that Iran can make mischief even under harsh sanctions only raises fears should a deal be made with the West later this year over its nuclear program, which would ease those sanctions, Tehran would only become a more troublesome rival. But even if there is no deal and sanctions are tightened, Iran will probably become more aggressive to demonstrate its defiance, creating new headaches along Saudi borders.
King Salman is 79, and he’s been central to Saudi policymaking for 50 years. One day soon, we’ll see generational change in the Saudi leadership. When that happens, we might see a fresh approach to the Kingdom’s two biggest problems: Its inability to build a dynamic, modern economy to harness the energies of Saudi Arabia’s millions of young people and its growing marginalization as an international political and economic force.
That day has not yet come.
Foreign-affairs columnist Bremmer is the president of Eurasia Group, a political-risk consultancy. His next book, Superpower: Three Choices for America’s Role in the World, will be published in May
1 day ago
KARACHI: Former president and army chief Pervez Musharraf has submitted a request to Interior Ministry to allow him visit to Saudi Arabia.The request has been submitted by his lawyer Faisal Chaudhry to the Ministry.
Musharraf in its application has wished that he wanted to visit Saudi Arabia to offer condolences to the Saudi royal family over death of King Abdullah.
The government has not responded on the application as Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is on visit to Saudi Arabia to attend funeral prayer of King Abdullah.
His name was put on exit control list (ECL) by the government due to cases pending against him in country’s courts especially high treason trial.
Musharraf has been staying with his daughter in Karachi where he traveled for tests at a navy-run hospital in April last year. He has been banned from leaving the country as the government has put his name in the exit control list.
http://www.newsweek.com/saudi-arabia-constructing-600-mile-long-wall-keep-isis-out-299664
Saudi Arabia Constructing 600-Mile Wall To Keep Out ISIS
BY DAMIEN SHARKOV 1/15/15 AT 1:53 PM
A Saudi soldier stands guard in Jizan on the border with Yemen November 3, 2014. Gains by the Shi'ite Houthi rebel movement in Yemen are ringing alarm bells in Saudi Arabia, concerned for what it means for its vulnerable southern border, already the conduit for a constant flow of illicit activity. Picture taken November 3, 2014. FAISAL AL NASSER/REUTERS
Saudi Arabia is building a 600-mile long wall along its northern border with Iraq in order to keep ISIS at bay, the Telegraph newspaper reported today.
Once completed, the wall will consist of a ditch and a triple-layered steel fence, with 40 watchtowers spread out along it. Each watchtower will be equipped with high-tech surveillance radars that are capable of detecting low-flying helicopters and approaching vehicles, as well as being able to spot a human from the range of about 20km.
There will also be 38 separate communication towers in place and 32 military response stations, as well as 240 armed rapid response vehicles which will patrol the wall.
Try Newsweek for only $1.25 per week
Work on the wall was started in September 2014 but plans for the project were initially drafted in September 2006 at the height of the Iraqi civil war. ISIS’s advance across central and south-western Iraq has prompted fear in Riyadh of a violent overspill and the project was given the go ahead.
The wall will stretch from the northwest town of Turaif near Jordan, to the northeastern town of Hafar al-Batin near Kuwait, spanning virtually the entire length of Iraq’s border with Saudi Arabia.
It will not be the first time Saudi Arabia has enforced one of its borders. In 2013 it constructed a 1,100 mile barrier across its southern border with Yemen after a spate of intense sectarian fighting in the country led to a deterioration of security along the border.
A spokesperson for the Iraqi government declined to comment when Newsweek enquired if they were aware of these plans and if they had endorsed them.
Iraq’s defence forces have provided unreliable resistance to ISIS, with approximately 30,000 Iraqi servicemenabandoning stations in the country’s north over the summer leaving the city of Mosul to be overrun by ISIS in June.
According to a recent Newsweek investigation pro-Iranian Shia militias and Kurdish peshmerga fighters have proven a stiffer resistance to the jihadist group than the country’s armed forces.
Lina Khatib, director of the Lebanese-based think tank the Carnegie Middle East Centre, says that plans for projects like the wall reflect Saudi Arabia’s fear of ISIS advancing towards its borders.
Discussing an attack which occurred earlier this month in which three Saudi border guards were killed by masked militants who had advanced from Iraq, Khatib says: “As the attack on northern Saudi Arabia earlier this month showed, Saudi Arabia is under direct threat from ISIS, and will therefore be prepared to take extreme measures to defend itself against an ISIS advance.”
She adds: “Concerns about ISIS are pushing Saudi Arabia to try and revise its strategy on Syria and move it from focusing on supporting jihadist groups to empowering the moderate Syrian opposition, and to present the Kingdom as a champion of counter-radicalization in the Middle East.”
While ISIS’s roots are currently in Syria and Iraq, Saudi Arabia is considered a likely target for the group due in part to the fact that the country contains the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina.
Saudi Arabia is currently backing US-led strikes on ISIS over Syria and Iraq.
WORLD SAUDI ARABIA
King Abdullah’s Death Shows Saudi Arabia’s Declining Clout
Jan. 23, 2015
King Abdullah, left, with then-Crown Prince Salman, right, in 2010.AP
The death of Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has momentarily grabbed the world’s attention, but the real story is that his kingdom matters less than it used to
MORE
The Saudi Transition Looks Smooth—For Now
Saudi Arabia’s Billionaire King to Be Buried in Unmarked Grave
Oil Prices Spike After Saudi King’s Death
Ten years ago, the death of a Saudi king would have sent shock waves through Washington. Today, as the Kingdom recovers from the death of King Abdullah yesterday, Saudis don’t carry the same clout. In part, that’s because the U.S. is much less dependent on Middle Eastern oil than it was a few years ago, as U.S. companies have reinvented the way oil and natural gas is produced. Hydraulic fracturing has opened access to liquid energy deposits locked inside once-impenetrable rock formations, and breakthroughs in horizontal drilling methods have made the technology more profitable.
By the end of this decade, the United States is expected to produce almost half the crude oil it consumes. More than 80% of its oil will come from North or South America. By 2020, the United States could become the world’s largest oil producer, and by 2035 the country could be almost entirely self-sufficient in energy. Relations with the Saudis are no longer a crucial feature of U.S. foreign policy, and the surge in global supply, which has helped force oil prices lower in recent months, ensures that others are less concerned with the Saudis as well.
In addition, outsiders are not worried that King Abdullah’s death will make the Kingdom unstable. Newly-crowned King Salman is plenty popular, and other key players—Crown Prince Muqrin, National Guard head Prince Miteab, and Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef—have pragmatic working relations with the new king and with one another. The succession process will appear uneventful from the outside, but Salman will spend the next several months consolidating his authority and building a stable balance of power among factions within the family and across the government.
Another reason the Saudis matter less: They’re now bogged down in the region. Saudi worries that Iran can make mischief even under harsh sanctions only raises fears should a deal be made with the West later this year over its nuclear program, which would ease those sanctions, Tehran would only become a more troublesome rival. But even if there is no deal and sanctions are tightened, Iran will probably become more aggressive to demonstrate its defiance, creating new headaches along Saudi borders.
King Salman is 79, and he’s been central to Saudi policymaking for 50 years. One day soon, we’ll see generational change in the Saudi leadership. When that happens, we might see a fresh approach to the Kingdom’s two biggest problems: Its inability to build a dynamic, modern economy to harness the energies of Saudi Arabia’s millions of young people and its growing marginalization as an international political and economic force.
That day has not yet come.
Foreign-affairs columnist Bremmer is the president of Eurasia Group, a political-risk consultancy. His next book, Superpower: Three Choices for America’s Role in the World, will be published in May
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