{"id":465588,"date":"2018-09-05T10:38:46","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T10:38:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mecouncil.org\/?p=465588"},"modified":"2022-09-21T06:23:28","modified_gmt":"2022-09-21T06:23:28","slug":"gcc-news-roundup-saudi-arabia-and-canada-face-off-public-listing-of-aramco-blocked-august-1-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/gcc-news-roundup-saudi-arabia-and-canada-face-off-public-listing-of-aramco-blocked-august-1-31\/","title":{"rendered":"GCC News Roundup: Saudi Arabia and Canada face off, public listing of Aramco blocked (August 1-31)"},"content":{"rendered":"

SAUDI ARABIA AND CANADA LOCKED IN A DIPLOMATIC RIFT<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On August 3, Canada\u2019s foreign ministry\u2019s official Twitter account\u00a0tweeted<\/a> concern over Saudi Arabia\u2019s recent arrests of women\u2019s rights activists. Saudi Arabia responded with a tweet<\/a> of their own, declaring that no foreign entity interferes with their domestic affairs. As a result, Saudi Arabia suspended all flights to Toronto, froze trade with Canada, and expelled its ambassador, citing interference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SAUDI KING TIPPED THE SCALE AGAINST ARAMCO IPO PLANS<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In the last two years, Saudi Arabia has been preparing to place up to 5 percent of its national oil company on the stock market. The planned listing was to be the cornerstone of the kingdom\u2019s promised economic overhaul and, at a targeted $100 billion, the biggest IPO ever. But after months of setbacks, the international and domestic legs of the IPO were pulled after interference from King Salman.<\/p>\n

According to sources, the king\u2019s interlocutors told him that the IPO, far from helping the kingdom, would undermine it. Their main concern was that an IPO would bring full public disclosure of Aramco\u2019s financial details, the sources said.<\/p>\n

UAE USES ISRAELI SPYWARE IN HACKING SCHEME, SAYS LAWSUIT \u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

According to leaked emails, United Arab Emirates (UAE) rulers have been spying on local dissidents and rivals using Israeli spyware for more than a year. A lawsuit was filed against the spyware creators in both Israel and Cyprus, by victims of the spyware, a Qatari citizen, and Mexican activists and journalists.<\/p>\n

Despite the UAE not recognizing Israel as a state, spyware is considered a weapon in Israel, which means its sale to the Emiratis could have only been signed off by the Israeli defense ministry, suggesting an alliance behind the scenes between the two countries.<\/a><\/p>\n

A GLIMPSE INSIDE THE ANNUAL MUSLIM PILGRIMAGE OF HAJJ<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On August 19, almost two million Muslims from all over the world<\/a>congregated together in Mecca, Saudi Arabia to perform the holy ritual of Hajj, a mandatory religious duty required of all financially and physically-abled adult Muslims. The Hajj is considered an act of spiritual solidarity and submission to God, performed over five to six days.<\/p>\n

During this time, Muslim pilgrims renew their sense of purpose in the world and come together in a unified sense with Muslims from all over the world. At the end of Hajj, the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha commences, where an animal sacrifice (generally a lamb) is made and a portion of it is given as charity to the poor.<\/p>\n

MATTIS SIGNALS SUPPORT TO SAUDI-LED COALITION IN YEMEN\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On August 28, the United States indicated that it would continue its support<\/a> to the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen. This came after news that a Saudi-led airstrike struck a school bus full of children, killing dozens. Despite reiterating that U.S. support to the Saudis was not \u201cunconditional,\u201d Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told reporters that while the bus incident was a tragic mistake, the U.S. will continue to work with the Saudis, stating, \u201cWe haven\u2019t seen any callous disregard by the people we\u2019re working with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mattis also said that the goal of the U.S. was to, \u201c\u2026reduce this tragedy and to get it to the U.N.- brokered table as quickly as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SAUDI ARABIA AND CANADA LOCKED IN A DIPLOMATIC RIFT On August 3, Canada\u2019s foreign ministry\u2019s official Twitter account\u00a0tweeted concern over Saudi Arabia\u2019s recent arrests of women\u2019s rights activists. Saudi Arabia responded with a tweet of their own, declaring that no foreign entity interferes with their domestic affairs. As a result, Saudi Arabia suspended all flights… Continue reading GCC News Roundup: Saudi Arabia and Canada face off, public listing of Aramco blocked (August 1-31)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":465589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"publication_archive_type":[297],"class_list":["post-465588","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","publication_archive_type-issue-brief","entry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465588","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465588"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465588\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":465591,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465588\/revisions\/465591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465589"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465588"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465588"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465588"},{"taxonomy":"publication_archive_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mecouncil-afkar.fuegodigitalmedia.qa\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publication_archive_type?post=465588"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}