Saudi crown prince’s Bahrain visit puts a time-tested relationship in the limelight

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with Bahrain’s ruler King Hamad on the fourth leg of his tour of Gulf countries aimed at bolstering relations. (Saudi Press Agency)
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Updated 13 December 2021
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Saudi crown prince’s Bahrain visit puts a time-tested relationship in the limelight

  • Saudi Arabia imported Bahraini goods worth $140m in Oct. 2021, making it the island kingdom’s biggest export customer
  • Reopening of King Fahd Causeway and launch of COVID-19 ‘health passports’ have aided trade and tourism recovery

RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Bahrain, his latest stop on a tour of the Gulf states, is expected to cement ties between the two kingdoms, with both witnessing strong reciprocal trade and a burgeoning tourism sector.

Ahead of the visit, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman sent a written message to Bahrain’s King Hamad regarding bilateral relations, and ways to support and enhance ties between the two kingdoms, Saudi Press Agency reported on Sunday.

The message was delivered by Prince Faisal bin Farhan, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, during a meeting with his Bahraini counterpart, Dr. Abdullatif Al-Zayani, in the capital, Manama.




Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Bahrain’s ruler King review historical and fraternal relations between the two countries and ways of enhancing cooperation. (Saudi Press Agency)

During the meeting, Prince Faisal conveyed King Salman’s greetings to King Hamad, and his wishes for continued progress and prosperity for the kingdom and the Bahraini people.

Saudi Arabia, the largest GCC market, is just 40 minutes from Bahrain via the King Fahd Causeway, and has long ranked first among countries receiving Bahraini exports, importing goods worth $140 million in October 2021 alone.

The UAE was second that month, with $98 million, and the US third, with $87 million, according to the foreign trade report from Bahrain’s Information and eGovernment Authority.

The King Fahd Causeway is among the most significant construction achievements in the region. Since its opening in 1986, it has helped to strengthen relations between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. Around 390 million users have traveled along the causeway since it opened.

The two kingdoms have long enjoyed fruitful economic ties. Tourism and trade links between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia grew 43 percent year-on-year in the third quarter of 2020. And the reopening of the causeway in March 2021, following its lengthy closure at the height of the global pandemic, has given the two economies a significant boost.

Forecasts suggest the reopening of the causeway has contributed $2.9 billion to Bahrain’s economy this year, based on average tourism spending in 2019, according to the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

Bahrain attracted nearly 11 million visitors, including 9 million tourists, in 2019. Saudis accounted for 88 percent of Bahrain’s visitors, with most traveling via the causeway. 

Although trade between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia has continued throughout the pandemic, tourism has been severely affected. To aid the post-pandemic recovery, the two kingdoms closed ranks in the fight against COVID-19.

In November, the Information and eGovernment Authority and the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority signed a memorandum of understanding to launch a “health passport,” which ensures that citizens and residents traveling between Bahrain and Saudi Arabia meet criteria set by both countries to combat the virus.

The pandemic response is not the only example of the two countries working together. They routinely coordinate their actions under the umbrella of the GCC in accordance with the bloc’s common visions and strategic goals, with a view to achieving integration between member states in different fields.

A similar cooperative spirit informs their roles at the Arab League, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the UN and various international bodies.

After a period of turbulence, Bahrain’s economy has vastly improved in recent months thanks to a package of fiscal reforms aimed at improving non-oil revenues, and cutting state spending and support from its regional allies. In November, S&P Global Ratings revised Bahrain’s outlook to “stable” from “negative.”




Bahrain’s Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad, left, with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and his delegation during a meeting in the capital on Dec. 9, 2021. (Bahrain News Agency via AFP)

Bahrain’s public debt climbed to 133 percent of gross domestic product last year from 102 percent in 2019, according to the International Monetary Fund. S&P forecasts Bahrain’s budget deficit, which was 16.8 percent of GDP last year, to average 5 percent between 2021 and 2024, excluding the impact of a possible hike in value-added tax.

Rated below investment grade in 2018 owing to a credit crunch, Bahrain received a combined package of $10 billion from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE.

That money was linked to a set of fiscal reforms, but after the COVID-19 crisis strained its finances, Bahrain in September postponed plans to balance its budget by two years and announced plans to increase a value-added tax.

“The Bahraini government recently announced additional fiscal reforms to strengthen non-oil revenue and rationalize expenditure. These measures, along with the more supportive oil price environment, should improve the sovereign’s fiscal position,” S&P said in a statement.

The agency said it expects the government to benefit from additional financial support from its Gulf allies, if needed.

In numbers

• Saudis make up 88 percent of Bahrain’s visitors

• Bahrain attracted 9m tourists in 2019

Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE recently reiterated their support for Bahrain’s plans to balance its budget, a move expected to help the country in the debt capital markets despite delays in plans to fix its heavily indebted finances.

This does not mean Bahrain has lowered its ambitions. In November, it announced plans to invest $30 billion in over 20 new projects, with the construction of five new offshore cities, according to Bahrain News Agency.

The strategic project plan will see infrastructure development, including a new causeway connecting Bahrain to Saudi Arabia. Bahrain will also establish a 109 km metro system, the 22.5 km Northern Road. The strategy is designed to create jobs and boost economic growth in Bahrain.

Bahrain also aims to increase oil refining capacity from 267,000 to 380,000 barrels per day through its Bapco Modernization Program, the largest industrial project in the kingdom’s history.


Israel minister warns of more Lebanon strikes if Hezbollah not disarmed

Updated 06 June 2025
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Israel minister warns of more Lebanon strikes if Hezbollah not disarmed

  • ‘There will be no calm in Beirut, and no order or stability in Lebanon, without security for the State of Israel’
  • Iran meanwhile condemns Israeli ‘aggression’ against

JERUSALEM: Defense Minister Israel Katz warned Friday that Israel will keep striking Lebanon until it disarms Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah, a day after Israeli air strikes hit Beirut’s southern suburbs.

“There will be no calm in Beirut, and no order or stability in Lebanon, without security for the State of Israel. Agreements must be honored and if you do not do what is required, we will continue to act, and with great force,” Katz said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Iran has condemned the Israeli “aggression” against Lebanon on Friday.

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei described the Thursday evening strikes “as a blatant act of aggression against Lebanon’s territorial integrity and sovereignty.”


WHO urges ‘urgent protection’ of key Gaza hospitals

Updated 06 June 2025
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WHO urges ‘urgent protection’ of key Gaza hospitals

  • The WHO said both hospitals are already operating “above their capacity,” with patients suffering life-threatening injuries arriving amid a “dire shortage of essential medicines and medical supplies”

GENEVA: The World Health Organization on Thursday called for the “urgent protection” of two of the last hospitals remaining in the Gaza Strip, warning that the territory’s health system is “collapsing.”
The WHO said the Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Amal Hospital risk becoming “non-functional” because of restrictions on aid and access routes, further damaging a health system already battered by months of war.
“There are already no hospitals functioning in the north of Gaza. Nasser and Amal are the last two functioning public hospitals in Khan Younis, where currently most of the population is living,” the UN agency said in a statement on X.
“Without them, people will lose access to critical health services,” it said.
The WHO added that closure of the two hospitals would eliminate 490 beds and reduce Gaza’s hospital capacity to less than 1,400 beds — 40 percent below pre-war levels — for a population of two million people.
The WHO said the hospitals have not been told to evacuate but lie within or just outside an Israeli-declared evacuation zone announced on June 2.
Israeli authorities have told Gaza’s health ministry that access routes to the two hospitals will be blocked, the WHO said.
As a result, it will be “difficult, if not impossible” for medical staff and new patients to reach them, it said.
“If the situation further deteriorates, both hospitals are at high risk of becoming non-functional, due to movement restrictions, insecurity, and the inability of WHO and partners to resupply or transfer patients,” the organization said.
The WHO said both hospitals are already operating “above their capacity,” with patients suffering life-threatening injuries arriving amid a “dire shortage of essential medicines and medical supplies.”
It warned the closure of Nasser and Al-Amal would have dire consequences for patients in need of surgical care, intensive care, blood bank and transfusion services, cancer care and dialysis.
After nearly 20 months of war triggered by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, Gaza is mired in one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises, with civilians enduring relentless bombardment, mass displacement and severe hunger.
 

 


Gaza aid logistics company funded by Chicago private equity firm 

Palestinian boys carry pots as the queue at a hot meal distribution point in Nuseirat in the central Gaza Strip, June 4, 2025.
Updated 06 June 2025
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Gaza aid logistics company funded by Chicago private equity firm 

  • Israel blocked almost all aid into Gaza for 11 weeks until May 19, and has since only allowed limited deliveries in, mostly managed by the new GHF operation
  • SRS is run by a former CIA official named Phil Reilly, but its ownership has not previously been disclosed

WASHINGTON: A Chicago-based private equity firm - controlled by a member of the family that founded American publishing company Rand McNally - has an "economic interest" in the logistics company involved in a controversial new aid distribution operation in Gaza.
McNally Capital, founded in 2008 by Ward McNally, helped "support the establishment" of Safe Reach Solutions, a McNally Capital spokesperson told Reuters. SRS is a for-profit company established in Wyoming in November, state incorporation records show. It is in the spotlight for its involvement with the U.S.- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which last week started distributing aid in the war-torn Palestinian enclave. The foundation paused work on Wednesday after a series of deadly shootings close to its operations and has suffered from the departure of senior personnel.

HIGHLIGHTS

• McNally Capital has economic interest in Safe Reach Solutions

• GHF aid distribution halted after deadly shootings near operations

• U.N. and aid groups refuse to work with GHF, citing lack of neutrality

"McNally Capital has provided administrative advice to SRS and worked in collaboration with multiple parties to enable SRS to carry out its mission," the spokesperson said. "While McNally Capital has an economic interest in SRS, the firm does not actively manage SRS or have a day-to-day operating role."
SRS is run by a former CIA official named Phil Reilly, but its ownership has not previously been disclosed. Reuters has not been able to establish who funds the newly created foundation.
The spokesperson did not provide details of the scale of the investment in SRS by McNally Capital, which says it has $380 million under management.
McNally Capital founder Ward McNally is the great great great grandson of the co-founder of Rand McNally. The McNally family sold the publishing company in 1997.
A spokesperson for SRS confirmed it worked with the foundation, also known as GHF, but did not answer specific questions about ownership.
GHF, which resumed aid distribution on Thursday, did not respond to a request for comment
While Israel and the United States have both said they don't finance the operation, they have pushed the United Nations and international aid groups to work with it, arguing that aid distributed by a long-established U.N. aid network was diverted to Hamas. Hamas has denied that.
Israel blocked almost all aid into Gaza for 11 weeks until May 19, and has since only allowed limited deliveries in, mostly managed by the new GHF operation. This week GHF pressed Israel to boost civilian safety beyond the perimeter of its distribution sites after Gazan health officials said at least 27 Palestinians were killed and dozens wounded by Israeli fire near one of the food distribution sites on Tuesday, the third consecutive day of chaos and bloodshed to blight the aid operation.
The Israeli military said its forces on Tuesday had opened fire on a group of people they viewed as a threat after they left a designated access route near the distribution center in Rafah. It said it was investigating what had happened.
The U.N and most other aid groups have refused to work with GHF because they say it is not neutral and that the distribution model militarizes aid and forces displacement.
The SRS spokesperson said in a statement that under Reilly's leadership, "SRS brings together a multidisciplinary team of experts in security, supply chain management, and humanitarian affairs."
McNally Capital has investments in defense contracting companies. Among the firms it acquired was Orbis Operations, a firm that specializes in hiring former CIA officers. Orbis did not return calls for comment. Reilly used to work for Orbis.

 


Without meat, families in Gaza struggle to celebrate Islam’s Eid Al-Adha holiday

Updated 06 June 2025
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Without meat, families in Gaza struggle to celebrate Islam’s Eid Al-Adha holiday

  • The UN says 96 percent of the livestock and 99 percent of the poultry are dead

MUWASI, Gaza Strip: With the Gaza Strip devastated by war and siege, Palestinians struggled Thursday to celebrate one of the most important Islamic holidays.
To mark Eid Al-Adha – Arabic for the Festival of Sacrifice — Muslims traditionally slaughter a sheep or cow and give away part of the meat to the poor as an act of charity. Then they have a big family meal with sweets. Children get gifts of new clothes.
But no fresh meat has entered Gaza for three months. Israel has blocked shipments of food and other aid to pressure Hamas to release hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack that started the war. And nearly all the territory’s homegrown sheep, cattle and goats are dead after 20 months of Israeli bombardment and ground offensives.
Some of the little livestock left was on sale at a makeshift pen set up in the vast tent camp of Muwasi in the southern part of Gaza’s Mediterranean coast.
But no one could afford to buy. A few people came to look at the sheep and goats, along with a cow and a camel. Some kids laughed watching the animals and called out the prayers connected to the holiday.
“I can’t even buy bread. No meat, no vegetables,” said Abdel Rahman Madi. “The prices are astronomical.”
The Eid commemorates the test of faith of the Prophet Ibrahim – Abraham in the Bible – and his willingness to sacrifice his son as an act of submission to God. The day is usually one of joy for children – and a day when businesses boom a bit as people buy up food and gifts.
But prices for everything have soared amid the blockade, which was only slightly eased two weeks ago. Meat and most fresh fruits and vegetables disappeared from the markets weeks ago.
At a street market in the nearby city of Khan Younis, some stalls had stuffed sheep toys and other holiday knickknacks and old clothes. But most people left without buying any gifts after seeing the prices.
“Before, there was an Eid atmosphere, the children were happy … Now with the blockade, there’s no flour, no clothes, no joy,” said Hala Abu Nqeira, a woman looking through the market. “We just go to find flour for our children. We go out every day looking for flour at a reasonable price, but we find it at unbelievable prices.”
Israel’s campaign against Hamas has almost entirely destroyed Gaza’s ability to feed itself. The UN says 96 percent of the livestock and 99 percent of the poultry are dead. More than 95 percent of Gaza’s prewar cropland is unusable, either too damaged or inaccessible inside Israeli military zones, according to a land survey published this week by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization.
Israel barred all food and other supplies from entering Gaza for more than two months. It eased the blockade two weeks ago to allow a trickle of aid trucks in for the UN to distribute. The trucks have brought in some food items, mainly flour. But the UN says it has struggled to delivery much of the incoming aid because of looting or Israeli military restrictions.
Almost the entire population of more than 2 million people have been driven from their homes, and most have had to move multiple times to escape Israeli offensives.
Rasha Abu Souleyma said she recently slipped back to her home in Rafah — from which her family had fled to take refuge in Khan Younis — to find some possessions she’d left behind.
She came back with some clothes, pink plastic sunglasses and bracelets that she gave to her two daughters as Eid gifts.
“I can’t buy them clothes or anything,” the 38-year-old said. “I used to bring meat in Eid so they would be happy, but now we can’t bring meat, and I can’t even feed the girls with bread.”
Near her, a group of children played on makeshift swings made of knotted and looped ropes.
Karima Nejelli, a displaced woman from Rafah, pointed out that people in Gaza had now marked both Eid Al-Adha and the other main Islamic holiday, Eid Al-Fitr, two times each under the war. “During these four Eids, we as Palestinians did not see any kind of joy, no sacrifice, no cookies, no buying Eid clothes or anything.”
 

 


Media groups urge Israel to allow Gaza access for foreign journalists

Updated 06 June 2025
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Media groups urge Israel to allow Gaza access for foreign journalists

  • An open letter shared by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders called the restrictions “a situation that is without precedent in modern warfare.”

NEW YORK: More than 130 news outlets and press freedom groups called Thursday for Israel to immediately lift a near-total ban on international media entering Gaza, while calling for greater protections for Palestinian journalists in the territory.
Israel has blocked most foreign correspondents from independently accessing Gaza since it began its war there following the unprecedented October 7, 2023 attack by militant group Hamas.
An open letter shared by the Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Without Borders called the restrictions “a situation that is without precedent in modern warfare.”
Signees included AFP’s global news director Phil Chetwynd, The Associated Press executive editor Julie Pace, and the editor of Israeli newspaper Haaretz Aluf Benn.
The letter added that many Palestinian journalists — whom news outlets have relied on to report from inside Gaza — face a litany of threats.
“Local journalists, those best positioned to tell the truth, face displacement and starvation,” it said.
“To date, nearly 200 journalists have been killed by the Israeli military. Many more have been injured and face constant threats to their lives for doing their jobs: bearing witness.
“This is a direct attack on press freedom and the right to information.”
The letter added that it was a “pivotal moment” in Israel’s war — with renewed military actions and efforts to boost humanitarian aid to Gaza.
This, it said, makes it “vital that Israel open Gaza’s borders for international journalists to be able to report freely and that Israel abides by its international obligations to protect journalists as civilians.”
Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a separate statement that Israel must grant journalists access and allow them to work in Gaza “without fear for their lives.”
“When journalists are killed in such unprecedented numbers and independent international media is barred from entering, the world loses its ability to see clearly, to understand fully, and to respond effectively to what is happening,” she said.
Reporters Without Borders head Thibaut Bruttin said the media blockade on Gaza “is enabling the total destruction and erasure of the blockaded territory.”
“This is a methodical attempt to silence the facts, suppress the truth, and isolate the Palestinian press and population,” he said in a statement.
Thursday’s letter was issued the same day the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate said three reporters were killed by a strike close to a hospital in Gaza City.
Israel’s military said the strike had targeted “an Islamic Jihad terrorist who was operating in a command and control center” in the yard of the hospital.