APS Diplomat News Service articles from May 2006

APS Diplomat News Service archives from May 2006

Arab Banks Risk Major Crisis From Over-Exposure To Real Estate & Stock Prices.
May 1, 2006... *** Ahmadi-Nejad Now Has Become A World Celebrity; To IAEA's Report Of April 28, He Said Iran Did Not Give A Damn About UN Moves, 'Iran Has The Capacity To Become A World Super-Power. If We Believe In Ourselves...No Power On Earth Can Be...

Over-Borrowing.
May 1, 2006... When capital markets surge, most banks would treat margin lending and IPO financing as a mass product, in the process magnifying their exposure to the stock market. It has been estimated that about 50% of stock trading in 2005 was on borrowed...

Iran's Combat Capabilities Are Far Beneath What's On Show.
May 8, 2006... *** Top Hamas Man In Damascus Has Warned That Attempts To Bring Down The Palestine Govt. Could Provoke A Dissolution Of The PA & Lead To A New, More Violent Uprising *** 'In That Case, Israel Will Have To Assume Again Its Obligations As...

US-EU Split Over Iran.
May 8, 2006... The trans-Atlantic relationship between Europe and the US is on life-support, once again, this time over Iran's nuclear ambitions and the way to deal them and over other issues, such as Iraq, global warming, the International Criminal Court,...

Neo-Con Sees US Bombing Iran.
May 8, 2006... The following is a commentary by Joshua Muravchik, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington. The AEI is the main think tank for the neo-conservatives (neo-cons) who were behind plans to invade Iraq. "The...

Egypt Again Is Under A Law Allowing Mubarak To Rule With An Iron Fist; No Reforms.
May 15, 2006... *** Egypt's Grand Mufti Ali Gom'a Has Banned All Sculpture; Qatar-Based Shaikh Yousef Al-Qaradawi has Endorsed Gom'a's Fatwa And Prohibits The Trade Or Possession Of Statues; But This Country Is Dotted With Millenia Worth Of Pharaonic...

The Wider Jihadi Network.
May 15, 2006... When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, this group went there to fight along-side the mujahideen and were then backed by both the US and Saudi Arabia. Now they have small pockets in Egypt, Syria, Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries,...

GCC Spending $1 Trillion On Expansions; Saudi Aramco To Lead In World Oil Refining.
May 22, 2006... *** A MEED Survey On April 21, Put The Value Of GCC Projects At US$1.006 Trn: Over $294.55 Bn In The UAE, Over $211.38 Bn In Kuwait; Over $200.7 Bn In Saudi Arabia; Over $114.7 Bn In Qatar; Almost $33.2 Bn In Oman And $27.43 Bn In Bahrain ...

Downstream & Upstream Expansions.
May 22, 2006... Two major world petroleum conferences held in early May, one in Houston followed by one in Abu Dhabi, highlighted capacity expansions at both ends of the industry. In a speech to the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston, Saudi Aramco's...

2005 Saudi GDP Up 22.7%.
May 22, 2006... It was officially reported on May 3 that Saudi Arabia's GDP in 2005 rose 22.7% to reach SR1,152.6bn (US$307.4bn). Real GDP grew 6.3% to SR767.7bn ($204.7bn). The country continued on the strong record recorded in the previous years as it...

Saudis To Invest $4 Bn In Indonesian Refinery.
May 22, 2006... The state-owned petroleum firm Pertamina on May 3 said Saudi Aramco would invest about $4 bn in Indonesia for building an oil refinery with a capacity of 400,000 b/d. Saudi Aramco will supply the crude oil to be processed at the refinery, and...

Stock Crash Hits Saudis.
May 22, 2006... Reuters reported on May 3 that mass share-ownership had ended in tears for many ordinary Saudis, adding: "Hundreds of thousands got their fingers burned in a stock market crash since February that has sheared some 40% from the value of the Arab...

Kuwait To Boot Oil Output.
May 22, 2006... Jamal al-Nouri, head of International Marketing at the state-owned Kuwait Petroleum Corp. (KPC), recently told a petroleum conference in Abu Dhabi Kuwait's crude oil production capacity will be raised to more than 3m b/d by 2010 and to over 4m...

Naimi - World_Must Be Prepared For High Oil Prices.
May 22, 2006... Visiting Washington, Saudi Petroleum and Mineral Resources Minister Ali al-Naimi said: For long-term energy security, prices must be higher than consuming nations like the US would like, and lower than what oil-producing nations would ideally...

Saudi Aramco To Use New E&P Technology.
May 22, 2006... Speaking in Washington at an energy technology conference sponsored by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), Saudi Aramco's chief geophysicist Muhammad M. Al-Saggaf on May 1 said his state-owned company planned to use the...

GCC Ministers To Infiltrators From Iraq.
May 22, 2006... Arab Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) interior ministers will meet in Riyadh on May 23 to work out strategies to prevent a possible infiltration of Neo-Salafi or Shi'ite terrorists from Iraq into their area, in view of the deteriorating...

Iran War Games Suggest Tehran Anticipates US-Led Invasion; Odd Moves On Minorities.
May 29, 2006... *** The New Israeli Govt. Of Ehud Olmert Will Spend The Rest Of This Year Exhausting The Possibility Of Talks With The Palestinians Before Embarking On A Unilateral Programme Of Withdrawals From The West Bank; He Would Spend That Time Trying To...

Talks On Iraq.
May 29, 2006... On the other hand, officials say the US does want to talk to Iran, but about Iraq, not about Iran's nuclear programme. They say, though, that a firm decision to pursue such talks has not been made. The US and EU are trying to iron out...

Iran War Games Suggest Tehran Anticipates US-Led Invasion; Odd Moves On Minorities.
May 29, 2006... *** The New Israeli Govt. Of Ehud Olmert Will Spend The Rest Of This Year Exhausting The Possibility Of Talks With The Palestinians Before Embarking On A Unilateral Programme Of Withdrawals From The West Bank; He Would Spend That Time Trying To...

Iran's Restive Provinces.
May 29, 2006... One of Iranian President Ahmadi-Nejad's election promises was that he and his ministerial team would visit all of Iran's 30 provinces within their first year in office. The idea, wrote Iranian journalist Amir Taheri on May 27, was to settle...

Dress Code To Mark Religious Minorities.(Islamic Majlis)(Brief article)
May 29, 2006... In a press release dated May 24, journalist Taheri (of Benador Associates) said: "Regarding the dress code story it seems that my column was used as the basis for a number of reports that somehow jumped the gun. As far as my article is...