The Ukrainian MP said the decision told Russia that ‘everything can be bought and everything is for sale’Bryony GoochThursday 21 May 2026 00:47 EDT A Ukrainian politician has condemned the British government for loosening sanctions on Russian oil, saying it “puts a question mark” on the UK’s friendship with Ukraine. The government …
Read More »Iraq’s Delayed Gulf Cooperation Council Power Link Deepens Summer Electricity Risks
Baghdad Struggles with Rising Demand, Limited Domestic Generation, and Heavy Dependence on Iran for Fuel SuppliesIraq has been told that the long-awaited Gulf Cooperation Council electrical interconnection project will not arrive on schedule, leaving Baghdad with one fewer option before the summer heat. The project was due to begin operating …
Read More »Turkey’s Maritime Jurisdiction Bill: Energy, law, and power in the Eastern Mediterranean
Turkey’s reported plan to submit a bill to parliament asserting maritime jurisdiction over disputed areas of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean marks a serious escalation in one of the region’s most sensitive maritime disputes. The proposed legislation would reportedly formalize Ankara’s claims in contested waters believed to contain existing or potential natural …
Read More »How Will the Gulf Arab Economies Change Post-War?
Recovery Will Not Be Simply a Return to the Old Model, Now That Gulf States Are Diversifying Their Energy and Economies After Israel and the United States attacked the Islamic Republic of Iran on February 28, 2026, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps responded with missiles and drones targeting oil facilities, …
Read More »Non-oil boom masks deeper risk as Saudi growth still hinges on state spending
Saudi Vision 2030 deploys several policy instruments to reduce dependence on hydrocarbons. Central among them is the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which serves as the primary capital engine for diversification by investing in strategic sectors such as tourism, entertainment, mining, logistics, renewables, and advanced manufacturing. These investments are complemented by …
Read More »When gas becomes a battlefield: Qatar’s LNG disruption marks a new era of energy warfare
QatarEnergy’s force majeure declaration crystallises a broader shift in global energy markets toward fragmentation and securitisation. The disruption has intensified market tightness, driven price volatility, and exposed the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to geopolitical conflict QatarEnergy’s March 24 declaration of force majeure on parts of its long-term LNG contracts marks …
Read More »Potential U.S. Strike Targets Include Natural Gas Power Plants
By Brian Spegele If President Trump follows through on his threat to attack Iranian power assets, the strikes would almost certainly target plants in the country that generate electricity from natural gas. Around 80% of power generation in Iran came from natural gas as of 2023, according to the International …
Read More »Why Tehran’s business pitch to Trump won’t end nuclear deadlock
Reports in major outlets that Tehran has floated a “commercial bonanza” to the Trump administration should be understood less as an investment roadmap than as a survival strategy. As Donald Trump’s 10-to-15-day deadline for a “meaningful” deal with Iran enters its decisive phase, Iranian officials appear to be reframing diplomacy …
Read More »Gunboat diplomacy: US seeks coercion without war on Iran
President Donald Trump’s response to Iran’s recent unrest appears to reflect a strategy of gunboat diplomacy: the use of military pressure, rhetorical escalation, and economic coercion to extract concessions without committing to war or formal regime change. Iran’s currency plunge in late December 2025 sparked nationwide protests that quickly escalated …
Read More »Why ‘Maximum Pressure’ Hasn’t Crippled Iran’s Oil Sector
Iran’s Sanctions-Evasion Infrastructure Has Become Systematic Rather than Improvised In early February 2025, President Donald Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 2 (NSPM-2), formally reinstating his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran. The directive sought to deny Tehran any path to nuclear weapons, constrain its ballistic missile program, and dismantle support for regional proxies by …
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