Qatar Emir Cedes Power to Son
Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani (61) ceded power Tuesday to his 33-year-old son, Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani. This is not a ground-breaking move, even if it is unprecedented. This should be considered a ruling "family", so passing the torch to the Emir's son is strictly symbolic. What is important here is that policy will continue as it has-as a "moderate" (ostensibly) Wahhabi petro-monarchy overseeing a population of 1.9 million people, only about 200,000 of which are actually Qataris. The West loves Tamin: he's polished and Western educated. But he is also the one who has been behind the Qatari strategy to bolster the Muslim Brotherhood at all costs across the region (most stridently, of course in Syria at the moment, where it is also arming and funding radical Sunni forces). Nothing will change here. Tamin will continue guiding this dangerous foreign policy strategy and the old Emir will continue to run the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA)--a multi-billion sovereign wealth fund-presumably from London.
Jordan Considers Israeli Gas
Suffering from a severe energy crisis that is fueling popular unrest in the Kingdom, Jordan is in talks with Israeli to potentially buy Israeli gas, which would prompt an interesting response from Jordan's Arab friends. Earlier this month, Israel decided on a 40% export cap on natural gas produced from its Leviathan field in the Levant Basin. It's about enough to supply one of two major…
Qatar Emir Cedes Power to Son
Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani (61) ceded power Tuesday to his 33-year-old son, Tamin bin Hamad al-Thani. This is not a ground-breaking move, even if it is unprecedented. This should be considered a ruling "family", so passing the torch to the Emir's son is strictly symbolic. What is important here is that policy will continue as it has-as a "moderate" (ostensibly) Wahhabi petro-monarchy overseeing a population of 1.9 million people, only about 200,000 of which are actually Qataris. The West loves Tamin: he's polished and Western educated. But he is also the one who has been behind the Qatari strategy to bolster the Muslim Brotherhood at all costs across the region (most stridently, of course in Syria at the moment, where it is also arming and funding radical Sunni forces). Nothing will change here. Tamin will continue guiding this dangerous foreign policy strategy and the old Emir will continue to run the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA)--a multi-billion sovereign wealth fund-presumably from London.
Jordan Considers Israeli Gas
Suffering from a severe energy crisis that is fueling popular unrest in the Kingdom, Jordan is in talks with Israeli to potentially buy Israeli gas, which would prompt an interesting response from Jordan's Arab friends. Earlier this month, Israel decided on a 40% export cap on natural gas produced from its Leviathan field in the Levant Basin. It's about enough to supply one of two major projects: a pipeline to Turkey and the sale of Israeli gas to European markets, or an LNG facility somewhere on the Israeli coast for export to East Asian markets. Jordan doesn't really fit into this 40% but Israeli officials are keen to see Jordan become their first customer because Jordan is desperate.
The Israeli PM was hoping that the Cabinet would approve an "over-and-above" proposal that would allow Israel to export to certain countries (like Jordan) for diplomatic purposes without it being counted against the 40% export cap. That proposal has been quashed, so gas for Jordan would have to come from the smaller Israeli Tamar field, which began production already earlier this year. Israeli gas could make its way to Jordan via a pipeline extension across the Dead Sea salt pools, connecting a gas-powered plant owned by Israel Chemicals Ltd and a Potash Corp (partly Canadian) plant on the Jordanian side. It is also possible that Israel would supply all of Jordan's needs via a separate, new pipeline running from the Mediterranean through the Jezreel Valley in northern Israel to Jordan (near Beit Shean). Jordan is also in talks for Qatari and Iraqi gas. Israeli gas will be the cheapest in terms of money, but they will all be expensive politically.
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