FinPol Digest

 The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have said that the natural resources in the divided submerged area of the Arabian Gulf, including the entire Al-Durra gas field, are jointly owned by the two countries. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia announced that the Kingdom and Kuwait “exclusively have full sovereign rights to exploit the wealth in the Al-Durra gas field.” Kuwait and Saudi Arabia also reiterated "their previous and repeated calls" to the Islamic Republic of Iran to negotiate the eastern border of the submerged area, which is divided among Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.  The Al-Durra gas field is located in the neutral zone between Kuwait , Iran and Saudi Arabia. However, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia reject Iran’s claims over the area. The Durra gas field began production of natural gas in 2013.  Saudi Arabia and Kuwait said that they were prepared to commence drilling in the Al-Durra field to “explore and exploit” the oil field. These two countries p...

Fatima Al-Sane joined an online protest after being driven off the road. She had not taken the complaints to an authority or railed against the government, she just put up a banned rainbow flag. FIFA was raising its voice for LGBTQ rights, but Kuwait’s Gulf state remained silent. Here rallies are used not for rights but to impeach officials, to correct citizens. The country is missing progress because it is only focusing on gender segregation and not on economics or politics. Al-Sane, 42, only conveyed the message that the city has many issues such as poor education, no medicine, or development. The region is falling apart, where other Gulf countries are going to the moon, and Kuwait is just protecting Hatred. The politics are between blame games, and citizens are just waiting for development. Blame selfish politicians and a dysfunctional leadership for malaise at home and loss of clout abroad. And the problem is not lack of money. Kuwait is a region that receives more funds. History s...

 Egypt and Kuwait agreed on Friday to work together on a potential railroad linking agreement to build a rail connection between Egypt and Sudan. They signed a Dinars 750,000 agreement to prepare technical, economic, and environmental feasibility studies for the development of the railway system. Egypt’s Ministry of International Cooperation signed the deal with the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development at a meeting of financial institutions in the Arab world. The funding will be provided through the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development. The railway between Egypt and Sudan was first proposed in 2010. Similar proposals were made in 2018. The governments of both countries signed a joint cooperation agreement in November 2020 to carry out the feasibility studies. Preliminary studies for the railway line were completed in February. The railway line would connect the two countries’ rail networks. Reportedly, the line is to be built in two stages. Why is it important for Egypt ...

 Kuwait expressed grave concern on Friday over the missing reports of people because of the conflict in Syria. At least 100,000 Syrians have forcibly disappeared, mostly at the hands of government forces, over the past 11 years.  A speech was delivered by Kuwait’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva. Ambassador Jamal Al-Ghunaim raised concern about the fate of all those missing as a result of the Syrian conflict before the 49th session of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC).  Kuwait’s Permanent Representative urged the UN Secretary-General to put an end to the practice of arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance of tens of thousands of people in Syria. Al-Ghunaim also urged the council to pay attention to the cases of children reported missing as a result of the armed conflict in Syria. He condemned human rights violations in Syria. He explained that the brutal conflict caused the Syrian people to suffer se...

 A number of Arab countries have condemned an attack on a fuel transport ship anchored at Jeddah port on Monday. Being labelled as a "terrorist attack", the oil tanker was hit by an explosive-laden boat, according to a statement released by Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Energy. Singaporean shipping firm Hafnia also confirmed that the oil tanker was struck by a blast from an "external source" at the Jeddah terminal. Reportedly, the ship was carrying 60,000 tons of gasoline that caused an explosion on board. Releasing a statement on its website, the shipping company confirmed that all 22 sailors on board the BW Rhine escaped the blast without suffering any injury. “BW Rhine has been hit from an external source whilst discharging at Jeddah, Saudi Arabia at approximately 00:40 local time on 14 December 2020, causing an explosion and subsequent fire on board,” Hafnia said in its statement, as reported by Reuters. According to the Saudi energy ministry spokesperson, the ...