THREAD: Those concerned about #women's rights in #Saudi would do well to note the following steps that the Kingdom has taken in the last few years to empower women and remove the many barriers that they had faced in the past: Women have been allowed to fully integrate into the labor market from soldiers to cabinet rank ministers. Women's labor participation has doubled to 36%

Actually not. No “baby”here. Lebanon’s geopolitical value evaporated long ago. Also the new Saudi leadership is no longer in the check writing business it has other priorities mostly domestic.

https://twitter.com/yasfarouk/status/1451532263586508802

The old game brilliantly played by Lebanese politicos of getting Gulf money to fight the left/Iran etc has been exposed as the scam (that it always was) and new Gulf leaders have woken up to that.

A must read analyses of the status of the current Saudi-Iranian dialogue from the pre-eminent Saudi expert on Iran mei.edu/publications/w… 👇👇 "Given the dominant role of Iran’s security apparatus, it is understandable why dialogue began with them and not with the Iranian government. These bodies either have the final say over Iran’s foreign policy or are extremely close to the decision-making elite".

Silly and unnecessary ❗️

https://twitter.com/NUFC/status/1450809166700875777

This tweet is so ill advised. First fans have done this as sign of happiness at the acquisition and should be appreciated. Second this stupidly opens the door for people to say “the Saudis cannot tell us what to wear”. Fire the PR company with the coach! #idiots

Some personal experience with the Lebanese financial crisis. In 2001 (20 yrs ago) I was involved in an effort to acquire a stake in Bank Saradar in Lebanon. After our due diligence we found that the bank had invested more than its capital in Lebanese govt. debt. I then told the CEO "your bank is technically bankrupt since this debt will never be repaid". (Govt. debt then was about $30 billion). He smiled and told me all Lebanese Banks are in this same situation.

I think it is important to note that Saudi Arabia did not attend the unveiling of the "Mideast Peace Plan" It's driven by US and Israeli domestic politics and does not take into account any domestic or regional political considerations for any of the Arab governments close to the US.

For all those who have poured scorn on me for “defending the indefensible,” let me say the following: Many of you don’t give a damn what happens to Saudi Arabia, my country, either out of ignorance or malice toward the country or out of hatred for Trump, and you see this tragic event as a convenient weapon to use against the president.