Gulf Finance:

GCC stock markets, already down substantially this year, continued to fluctuate within a narrow range (a somewhat wider range for the more volatile Saudi market). They closed Sunday lower or straddling the line. On Monday, the Saudi market was the only one to rise marginally, while the Kuwaiti market index plunged more than 3%. Gulf media report that the declining trend in the region over the past year have not affected demand for initial offerings. The Dubai Financial Market (Stock Exchange) Company has started to go public, the first in the Middle East to do so, through public subscriptions.

The Kuwait market is severely affected with ramifications of  what is called ‘the partial neutralization’ of shares owned by the huge Al-Kharafi Group in at least 10 listed companies. There have been complaints, and official inquiries, about share ownership and the legality of the composition of boards of directors of a large number of companies. Some invesment executives claim that the 'punitive' actions taken by the Stock Exchange Commitee against companies that have violated disclosure rules have adversely affected trading and prices. Some Gulf analysts believe that the regional markets are going through a correction which has not run its course.

The Kuwait market is also affected by some political uncertainties. There has been talk of suspending the National Assembly, amending the constitution to make it less democratic and less open, perhaps with the addition of an appointed ‘Assembly of  Potentates’, and keeping the old restrictions on the freedom of speech and publication. These ideas would change the Kuwaiti political process and make it resemble the Bahrain system, where the King appoints half the assembly. These ideas are being vigorously pushed by two rightwing daily newspapers, Al-Seyassah and Al-Watan, the latter owned by a member of the ruling family who is now on the fringe of political life. The purported extra-constitutional measures are not new: they were tried in 1976 and again in 1986- and the country’s Finance, Foreign Investments and Petroleum Ministries witnessed some major financial scandals during those extra-constitutional periods throughout the 1980s and through 1991. The 1980s especially were like a 'police holiday' for corrupt officials in those institutions, a veritable financial wild west.
High officials including the Emir have now credibly denied these rumors of major political amendments. On the other hand, occasional warning noises from Iran about retaliation for any attacks launched against it from the Arab side of the Persian Gulf tend to rattle the market in Kuwait especially because of its proximity to the regional triangle of trouble (Iran-Iraq-Saudi Arabia).

Iran, Iraq, and Syria talk Turkey:

The Foreign Minister of Syria will is visiting Iraq this week, the first high official such visit in many years. Is this a planned indirect contact between Syria and the United states?

It also looks like there is increasing cooperation between Iran and Turkey regarding the situation in Iraq, especially in the North where both countries fear the effects of growing Kurdish nationalism. Reports have recently indicated that dissident Kurdish groups, supported and armed by the United States, have been active in northwest Iran. Seymour Hersh claims in the New Yorker that Israeli intelligence is active with these groups as well on the Iran-Kurdistan border. This has led to some shelling across the Iraq border in the past months. Turkey has a huge and restive Kurdish minority across the border from Iraq and Iran, and fears the effects of Kurdish instability on its own territory. Likewise, the US is also encouraging the Baluchis along the Pakistan border to defy Tehran, but this will probably have the effect of stirring the more numerous Baluchis in Pakistan as well.

Iran has also invited the presidents of Iraq and Syria to Tehran for a weekend summit with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. This step might be aimed at making irrelevant the on-and-off-again soul-searching going on in Washington on whether to enter talks with Iran and Syria over Iraq- sort of like the mullahs saying 'you can't beat us, but you can join us'. Newswires report that Iraqi President Talabani has accepted the invitation and will fly to the Iranian capital on Saturday.

What is a nice guy like him doing…...:

Arab media reports claim that the Prime Minister of Singapore shocked Egypt and the Arab World by arriving for a state visit on a commercial airliner, without a huge retinue of flunkies that accompany all Arab leaders, including the poorest, on their travels. The P.M arrived at Cairo on board an Emirate airliner- it was not reported if he flew economy, business, or first class. He also flew out on other visits on a commercial jetliner.
Cheers
Mohammed