عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
Features

Threats to Maritime Navigation Prompt Saudi Boosting of Regional Alliances

The commander of the Saudi Royal Navy floats the first corvette from the Sarawat project in 2019(SPA)
The commander of the Saudi Royal Navy floats the first corvette from the Sarawat project in 2019(SPA)
TT
TT

Threats to Maritime Navigation Prompt Saudi Boosting of Regional Alliances

The commander of the Saudi Royal Navy floats the first corvette from the Sarawat project in 2019(SPA)
The commander of the Saudi Royal Navy floats the first corvette from the Sarawat project in 2019(SPA)

Need for more international cooperation and coordination to deter threats facing the safety of waterways in the Arab region is increasing, especially for countries bordering exposed maritime corridors.

Safeguarding maritime navigation is geopolitically vital for the global economy.

Saudi Arabia, for example, oversees two important maritime routes in the Arabian Gulf and the Red Sea, with its coasts stretching for about 3,400 kilometers and its kingdom including 1,300 islands.

This has prompted the Saudi Defense Ministry to make building high combat capabilities for its military forces part and parcel of its strategy to meet regional challenges and threats.

The Kingdom has also strengthened its naval military capabilities through implementing qualitative projects that included signing deals for ships and aircraft and participating in naval drills with various other countries.

More so, political and military alliances were formed to protect maritime navigation.

It is worth noting that Saudi Arabia, which has one of the world’s largest military budgets, is looking to localize some 50% of its military spending by 2030.

Maritime navigation in the Arab Gulf has come under frequent attacks, mostly staged by Iranian proxies.

Iran-backed Houthi militias have been responsible for numerous terrorist hits that threatened navigation in Red Sea waters.

Houthis rely heavily on planting Iran-made naval mines.

The Saudi-led Arab Coalition has said it has found and destroyed five Iranian-made “Sadaf” naval mines during the past 24 hours, according to a statement published on Monday.

The coalition said it has seen an increase in the Houthi militia’s activity in planting naval mines in the southern parts of the Red Sea and the Bab al-Mandab strait in recent weeks.

There is an estimated 160 arbitrarily planted naval mines threatening Yemeni waters at the moment.

Houthis also use remote-controlled explosive vessels to threaten trade ships and civilian institutions in the Red Sea.

Royal Saudi Naval Forces (RSNF) Commander Vice Adm. Fahad Abdullah Al-Ghofaily, speaking at a recent event in Riyadh, recounted attacks that targeted three oil tankers and over three commercial ships sailing the region’s waters.

Commenting on finding solutions for those threats, writer and political researcher Abdullah al-Junaid argues that the source of danger must be first defined and the partial political cover given to some regional players, such as Iran and Turkey, must be lifted.

On the political and military alliances and blocs, Junaid noted that the maritime leadership of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is one of the regional examples of political and military alliances formed to secure navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

It was established to safeguard navigation based on common interests and the stability of energy markets.

The Peninsula Shield Force, which is the military arm of the GCC, must be viewed from the scope of future challenges it will meet, added Junaid.

Threats facing Saudi Arabia also prompted the formation of naval military alliances designed to raise readiness levels, enhance maritime security in the Arabian Gulf, and protect vital and strategic interests.

Early in 2020, the Council of Arab and African States Bordering the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden was created as a mechanism for improving the security of regional waterways. This new Arab-African alliance has eight members: Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Jordan and Yemen.

In November 2019, a multinational maritime security initiative, Coalition Task Force (CTF) Sentinel, composed of Australia, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the UK, Albania and the United States, was also established with the aim to protect commercial vessels in the Arabian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and Bab Al-Mandeb.

As for the steps Saudi Arabia has taken to modernize its naval forces, the kingdom witnessed in July 2018 the state-owned Saudi Arabian Military Industries (SAMI) signing a contract with Spanish shipbuilding company Navantia to build five Avante 2200 corvettes for the RSNF.

The deal is set to be completed by 2022. In addition to the Avante 2200 corvettes, the contract includes setting out a plan for the creation of a naval construction center in Saudi Arabia. According to SAMI the agreement would “localize more than 60 percent of ships combat systems works,” including installation and integration in the Saudi market.

Riyadh has sought partnerships in the past few years with international suppliers to boost its domestic manufacturing capacity.

Regarding the localization of military manufactures, Saudi Arabia has succeeded in establishing joint cooperation with French builder CMN for the production and export of 39 HSI32 Inceptors.

The vessels are among the most modern speedboats and will contribute to raising combat readiness of the maritime units and help protect the strategic interests of the kingdom.

Most Viewed

 
 
Features

Satellite Images Show Bedrock and Glacier Collapsed on Nepal-China Border, Then Rivers Flooded

This satellite image provided by Vantor shows destruction at Syapru Besi, Nepal on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Satellite image ©2026 Vantor via AP)
This satellite image provided by Vantor shows destruction at Syapru Besi, Nepal on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Satellite image ©2026 Vantor via AP)
TT
TT

Satellite Images Show Bedrock and Glacier Collapsed on Nepal-China Border, Then Rivers Flooded

This satellite image provided by Vantor shows destruction at Syapru Besi, Nepal on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Satellite image ©2026 Vantor via AP)
This satellite image provided by Vantor shows destruction at Syapru Besi, Nepal on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Satellite image ©2026 Vantor via AP)

As rescue teams searched for missing people following catastrophic flooding along the Nepal-China border, Earth scientists reviewed satellite imagery for clues to the cause and assessed the devastation.

The flooding Wednesday killed hundreds of people in Nepal and Tibet, and hundreds more are missing, including foreigners and pilgrims.

Geomorphologists Kristen Cook and Dan Shugar said initial images from Nepal were obscured by clouds and dust from the debris, so they could only see that part of a glacier had broken off from Langtang Lirung peak, near the border with Tibet. In clearer images from Thursday, they said they could see that the bedrock underneath the glacier had collapsed, taking the massive chunk of ice down with it and sending boulders and ice into the valley.

“It shows the whole area without anything hidden, and we could see that, yes, it looked like there was not only this glacier that had failed, but a much larger chunk of the bedrock of the mountainside itself that had given way,” said Shugar, associate professor at the University of Calgary. “You have this big bedrock failure that took part of the glacier with it.”

This satellite image provided by Vantor shows Syapru Besi, Nepal on Oct. 18, 2023. (Satellite image ©2026 Vantor via AP)

Shugar said it’s heart-wrenching to look downstream from there on the images, to where people were living, and see how the debris has buried villages.

After slamming to the valley floor, the debris maintained its momentum through the steep, narrow valley as ice melted, said Cook, at the Université Grenoble Alpes in France. Water and mud several stories high swept through communities.

The Trishuli River surged during the flooding. Before and after satellite images of the Kolpurtar, Betrawati and Syapru Besi areas of Nepal show that the river is now much wider, and brown and black, because it overtopped its banks in some areas and filled with debris in others. The change in the color of the water shows how much sediment the flow was carrying, turning from greenish to very brown because it's full of mud, Cook said.

Towns and villages that were devastated along the river banks are submerged in debris and mud. They appear as areas of brown. Some houses are still poking through in an image of the Betrawati area.

The flooding toppled and swept away buildings in Syapru Besi, a popular tourist spot where a famous trek to Langtang begins. In before and after images, a side river is now wider too, because the flow was so powerful it pushed upstream.

The flooding “left a wasteland in its wake” that will take many years to recover from, said Alton Byers, a mountain geographer at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Byers lived in Nepal and now returns there yearly to study glacial hazards and work with communities to prepare. This is the largest glacier flood he has seen, by far.

This satellite image provided by Vantor shows destruction at Syapru Besi, Nepal on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (Satellite image ©2026 Vantor via AP)

Byers, faculty research scientist at the university's Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research, said he thinks Wednesday's flooding is related to climate change. The Earth's warming is melting glaciers and permafrost, causing instability and the breakage of massive amounts of snow and ice at high altitudes. That can be a catalyst for a series of cascading events, he said.

“All the indicators, to me, point to the impacts of warming trends,” he said. “In this case, the permafrost that for millennia has helped to hold together high-altitude rock and ice and soil and glaciers is now weakening and becoming unstable."

Cook and Shugar said that at this point, they can't say for sure there's a direct link to climate change. Slopes fail and landslides happen, Cook said, though permafrost is melting and that is destabilizing mountainsides.

“While we cannot at this point directly link this collapse to climate change, it is not unexpected to see more events of this type with a warming climate,” Cook said. “Not this big, hopefully not this big.”

Features

China's Help Critical, But Unlikely, for US to Choke off Iran

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out plans this week to strangle Iran's economy. Kent NISHIMURA / AFP
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out plans this week to strangle Iran's economy. Kent NISHIMURA / AFP
TT
TT

China's Help Critical, But Unlikely, for US to Choke off Iran

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out plans this week to strangle Iran's economy. Kent NISHIMURA / AFP
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent laid out plans this week to strangle Iran's economy. Kent NISHIMURA / AFP

The United States has threatened the "economic asphyxiation" of Iran, but analysts say that a successful chokehold would require unlikely cooperation from China.

Almost six months into the Middle East war, Washington this week laid out plans to expand sanctions against Iran, warning that any nation which continued to enable Tehran would become a "global pariah".

China is among countries whose entities have already been hit by the sweeping US plan, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent telling Beijing to "get with the program".

But Beijing instead has defended its cooperation with Tehran and vowed to safeguard its interests.

The apparent impasse is likely to further strain ties between Beijing and Washington, ahead of an expected visit by China's President Xi Jinping to the US capital in September.

- Oil 'central lever' -

Iran has weathered sanctions for decades, using complex international financial networks to evade restrictions.

Cutting off Iran "would certainly require China's help", said political scientist Dylan Loh of Singapore's Nanyang Technological University.

Beijing is a key customer for Iranian oil, while "a good amount of their trade also relies on (the Chinese currency) renminbi, which can be outside the reach of US sanctions", Loh told AFP.

Before the war, Tehran exported millions of barrels of oil a day, mostly to China.

"Oil is the central economic lever," said Nino Lezhava, a fellow at the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis.

Although most ship traffic in the vital Strait of Hormuz is still blocked, China is not totally cut off from Iran's crude thanks to the highways and railways of Central Asia, said Sun Degang, a professor of political science at Shanghai's Fudan University.

Despite Chinese purchases being lower than before, they remain an important source of revenue.

"Simply continuing to... maintain commercial channels and provide alternative payment mechanisms can substantially reduce the effectiveness of economic isolation," said Lezhava.

- 'Economic sovereignty' -

The United States is well aware of this.

Bessent said "no one is above the reach of US sanctions" when asked if Washington would target Chinese banks that do business with Iran.

However, while its sanctions announced on Monday targeted some Chinese entities accused of helping Tehran procure "critical technology", Washington has so far held back from punishing major Chinese financial institutions.

The United States "can't expect to obtain China's support if it continues to implement sanctions on Chinese companies", said Fudan University's Sun.

"Sino-Iranian trade relations are legitimate and China will safeguard its economic sovereignty."

China is already feeling some consequences from the Strait of Hormuz disruption, adding to economic strain from persistently sluggish domestic consumption.

Cutting off Iran would exacerbate that, as well as implicate Beijing in a messy conflict that has already weakened its strategic rival Washington.

Overall, China has "little reason" to cooperate with the United States on sanctions, said Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore.

- 'Push back' -

On Tuesday, China's foreign ministry said its cooperation with Iran has "always been conducted within the framework of international law and should not be interfered with or disrupted".

Chong said that "Beijing seems highly confident of its ability to push back successfully against the US", were it pressured.

China has expanded its capacities to deal "precisely with such scenarios", said Loh.

"China has its own tools to respond to protect its own interest as we have seen in the tit-for-tat export controls," he added.

China and the United States spent much of last year embroiled in an escalating trade war but reached a fragile truce when the two presidents met last October.

A successful global campaign against Iran may require Washington "to provide incentives" to Beijing to join it, said Lim Tai Wei, a professor and East Asia expert at Japan's Soka University.

China would only cooperate "if the costs of supporting Iran became significantly higher than the strategic and economic benefits", said Lezhava.

Features

Ould Cheikh Ahmed: From Mediation to OIC Leadership

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed arrives in Jeddah with firsthand experience of some of the region’s most complex crises. (Organization of Islamic Cooperation)
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed arrives in Jeddah with firsthand experience of some of the region’s most complex crises. (Organization of Islamic Cooperation)
TT
TT

Ould Cheikh Ahmed: From Mediation to OIC Leadership

Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed arrives in Jeddah with firsthand experience of some of the region’s most complex crises. (Organization of Islamic Cooperation)
Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed arrives in Jeddah with firsthand experience of some of the region’s most complex crises. (Organization of Islamic Cooperation)

After more than three decades in UN posts and crisis zones, Mauritanian diplomat Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed is set to take the helm of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation.

 

The organization’s foreign ministers elected him Thursday to succeed Chadian Hissein Brahim Taha, whose term ends in November.

 

Born in 1960, Ould Cheikh Ahmed holds a degree in economics from France’s University of Montpellier, a master’s degree in human resources development from Britain’s University of Manchester and an advanced certificate in economics and social policy analysis from the Maastricht Graduate School of Governance.

 

He spent most of his career within the United Nations system, moving between development work, humanitarian operations and crisis management. At the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, he held several senior posts, including director of change management in New York, deputy regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa and representative in Georgia.

 

But it was the Middle East that shaped the most prominent chapter of his career.

 

From 2008 to 2012, Ould Cheikh Ahmed served in Syria as the UN resident coordinator, humanitarian coordinator and resident representative of the United Nations Development Programme. He moved to Yemen in 2012 to take on similar UN roles until 2014, before being appointed deputy special representative of the UN secretary-general and deputy head of the United Nations Support Mission in Libya.

 

In January 2015, he took charge of the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response as the health crisis posed a major international challenge.

 

Yemen, however, remains the defining political assignment of his career.

 

Then-UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Ould Cheikh Ahmed special envoy for Yemen on April 25, 2015, succeeding Jamal Benomar. His mandate was to work with the Security Council, Gulf states, regional governments and the Yemeni parties to pursue a political settlement.

 

He later led Yemen peace talks in Kuwait in 2016, bringing the Yemeni government, the General People’s Congress and the Houthis together for direct negotiations. The talks explored ways to halt the fighting and establish security and political arrangements.

 

They ended without a final agreement but placed the Mauritanian diplomat at the center of one of the region’s most complex conflicts.

 

After his assignment in Yemen, Ould Cheikh Ahmed returned to Nouakchott and entered national diplomacy. He served as Mauritania’s minister of foreign affairs and cooperation from 2018 until early 2022, before becoming the director of the cabinet of President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani in June that year.

 

His career has spanned humanitarian work, international mediation, and state diplomacy. That record now brings him to a different mission in Jeddah, home to the OIC General Secretariat, with direct experience of some of the region’s most difficult crises.

 

Crisis management has been a constant throughout his career: bringing Yemen’s warring parties closer together, working in Syria and Libya under the UN umbrella, and representing his country’s foreign policy.

 

As the organization’s new secretary-general, Ould Cheikh Ahmed will face a broader test, moving from managing mediation efforts to forging consensus among 57 member states.

 

The OIC Charter does not limit the secretary-general’s role to diplomatic representation. It tasks him with following up on resolutions adopted by Islamic summits and meetings of the Council of Foreign Ministers, coordinating the work of the organization’s bodies, and raising issues that could advance or impede its objectives.