Middle East Experience

OPEC+ said on Thursday it would stick to its planned oil output hikes in August but avoided discussing policy from September onwards as prices have risen on tight global supplies and concerns about the groups' collective ability to pump more crude.Thursday’s meeting of the group that includes Saudi Arabia, Russia and other major oil producers was held days before US President Joe Biden travels to the Middle East, including Riyadh where he is expected to press the Kingdom for more oil.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.At its last gathering on June 2, OPEC+ decided to increase output each month by 648,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July and August, up from a previous plan to add 432,000 bpd per month.Washington welcomed the June 2 decision for a faster production rise, after months of Western pressure on OPEC+, which includes the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.Oil prices rocketed to their highest levels since 2008 after the United States and Europe imposed sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine in February, which Moscow calls a “special military operation.”Prices has slipped since then but were still above $115 on Thursday on tight supply and concerns that OPEC states had little extra capacity to raise output swiftly.French President Emmanuel Macron claimed that he had been told Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the only two OPEC states considered to have significant spare capacity, could barely raise output.According to Macron, Sheikh Mohamed said the UAE was at its “maximum” capacity and Saudi Arabia could raise production by only 150,000 bpd.This report was refuted by the Energy and Infrastructure Minister Suhail bin Mohammed al-Mazrouei, who said: “The UAE is producing near to our maximum production capacity based on its current OPEC+ production baseline, which the UAE is committed to until the end of the agreement,” according to the official WAM news agency.The UAE is able to produce 4.2 million bpd, according to its declared maximum production capacity.Read more:Libya suspends oil shipments from key port amid political crisisOPEC+ set for brief respite before tough decision on new dealUAE close to OPEC+ oil output ceiling: Energy minister
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: OPEC+ to maintain oil output policy, steers away from plans for September

Indirect talks between Iran and the US in Qatar this week aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal were “positive,” Iran’s top diplomat said, contradicting the US State Department which said no progress was made.“Our assessment of the recent talks in Doha is positive,” Iranian state media quoted Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian as telling his Qatari counterpart over the phone on Wednesday.“We are serious about reaching a good, strong and lasting agreement, and if the US is realistic, an agreement can be reached,” Amir-Abdollahian said.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Talks between the US and Iran began in Doha on Tuesday with the two sides negotiating indirectly through European Union envoy Enrique Mora as Tehran refuses to negotiate directly with Washington.They ended on Wednesday without “the progress the EU team as coordinator had hoped for,” Mora said on Twitter on Wednesday.“We will keep working with even greater urgency to bring back on track a key deal for non-proliferation and regional stability,” he added.The US State Department said “no progress” was made during the talks, blaming Iran. “We are disappointed that Iran has, yet again, failed to respond positively to the EU’s initiative and therefore that no progress was made.”Iran “raised issues wholly unrelated to the JCPOA and apparently is not ready to make a fundamental decision on whether it wants to revive the deal or bury it,” the State Department said.Iran’s positive assessments of the talks are meant to “inject hope to keep the process moving for as long as possible to buy time,” Jason Brodsky, policy director at United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Al Arabiya English.“From Iran’s perspective, the situation is positive: it calculates the E3 (Britain, France and Germany) and the US will never leave the table and impose meaningful costs while it advances its nuclear program; it gets to export its oil to China amid lax sanctions enforcement and high prices; and builds what is sees as a resistance economy,” said Brodsky.“Iran thinks all it has to do is offer another meeting, sound upbeat, and tell all too eager mediators like Qatar and the EU what they want to hear ¬– and nothing will change. It’s up to the E3 and the US to alter that calculus,” he added.“Iran only loses by the nuclear talks breaking down as that would trigger snapback sanctions.”Prior to the talks in Doha, the US and Iran had engaged for over a year in indirect talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 deal.Negotiations stalled in March, reportedly over an Iranian demand to have the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) removed from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list. The US had designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization under former President Donald Trump in 2019.The talks in Doha may be the last chance to revive the deal due to the progress Iran has made in its nuclear program.The 2015 deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), offered Iran sanctions relief in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.Trump withdrew Washington from the deal in 2018 and reimposed sweeping sanctions on Tehran, saying the deal failed to address Iran’s ballistic missile program and regional activities, and it did not block Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon.Iran, which insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only, responded by expanding its nuclear program, breaching most of the deal’s restrictions.Read more:US citizen in Iran prison appeals to Biden for dealFour British sailors rescued in Gulf of Aden: CMF naval coalitionIran says guard killed at Afghan border
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Contrary to US, Iran says nuclear talks in Doha were ‘positive’ 

President Joe Biden said on Thursday the US should go through with the delayed sale of the F-16 fighter jets to Turkey, but added that the approval of Congress is required.“We should sell them the F-16 jets and modernize those jets as well,” Biden said.He added: “I need congressional approval to do that and I think I can do that.”Biden’s statement of support for the sale came after Turkey dropped its opposition to the NATO membership bids of Finland and Sweden.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Biden said that there was “no quid pro quo” linking Turkey’s approval of Finland and Sweden joining NATO and the sale of the F-16s.The US had removed Turkey from the F-35 joint strike fighter program in 2019 over its concerns because of Ankara’s purchase of Russia’s S-400 missile defense system.Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said last month that his country was in talks with the US to buy F-16 fighter jets instead of the F-35.Read more:Turkey’s Erdogan to meet Biden for talks on Russia’s invasion of UkraineUS says it supports sale of F-16 fighter jets to Turkey
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Biden says US ‘should sell’ F-16 fighter jets to Turkey

Tunisia is staring down an unprecedented fiscal crisis while a would-be dictator smashes checks and balances..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Tunisia Faces the Specter of Government Failure

Saudi Arabia is investing in sporting events, like an upstart golf tour, as part of a yearslong drive to turn the country into a hot spot for business and tourism and to blunt criticism of its human rights record..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: For a Kingdom With an Image Problem, Golf Is Seen as a Sanitizer

The results of the study showed that older adults who choose to give away a larger portion of their money also tended to demonstrate poorer performance on cognitive assessments.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Wanting to give away money may be linked to early Alzheimer’s disease -study

According to reports, Israel, the US and Saudi Arabia, along with Egypt and Gulf countries took part in the meetings that were initiated by the US.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Who benefits from recent reports on Israel-US-Gulf ties? - analysis

The Syrian authorities have faced accusations from some of their neighbours that they were not seriously cracking down on trafficking..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Syria seizes record captagon shipment

A senior US official said that Turkey had not asked for any “particular concession” to give its green light to the entry of Finland and Sweden into NATO..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Biden administration signals support for Turkish plan to buy F-16s

"I am concerned that we might not make it over the finishing line," European Union Ambassador to the United Nations Olof Skoog told the UNSC.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: EU worries may not cross 'finishing line' to revive Iran's nuclear deal