FIFA president Gianni Infantino is engaged in heavy diplomacy to sell his plans to expend the 2022 World Cup.
EPA-EFE/Claudio Peri
FIFA boss Gianni Infantino wants to bring forward plans to expend the tournament from 32 to 48 countries. But it’s not going to be easy.
Saudi Minister of Energy, Industry and Mineral Resources Khalid Al-Falih.
AP Photo/Ronald Zak
The oil-exporting organization may have mustered the political will to cut production, but its disunity remains intact.
Joggers and sightseers take in the Doha skyline.
Reuters/Ibraheem al Omari
Qatar’s decision to aid Turkey in the face of American sanctions against the country may finally be a snub too far for its close relationship with the US.
FIFA president Gianni Infantino and Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Kremlin
New! Mega sports events wash your government’s tarnished reputation whiter-than-white.
Karl-Josef Hildenbrand / EPA
It seems likely that football will remain a pawn in an intensifying proxy war.
Qatar out of the picture: Donald Trump meets with Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia at the White House.
Kevin Dietsch/EPA
Without strategic clarity from the US, the Saudis and their allies are under little pressure to thaw their frozen relationship with Qatar.
Arsenal FC’s new sponsor is Rwanda.
Twitter/@Arsenal
Political ethics and sports don’t match well. The recent deal between Rwanda and Arsenal is potentially a case in point.
Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar.
EPA
The Libyan warlord and presidential hopeful looks likely to avoid a summons to The Hague.
The foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Egypt and Bahrain convene to discuss their common enemy.
EPA/Khaled Elfiqi
There are strong signs that Riyadh has begun a campaign to promote regime change. But the Saudi strategy appears to be backfiring.
Kuwait does not want to experience another financial crisis.
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Kuwait has first-hand experience of how financial and political shocks can stifle investor confidence in the entire region.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Oct. 5, 2017.
AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin
When it comes to foreign policy, Saudi Arabia has recently become far more aggressive. A historian of the modern Middle East sees three possible causes for the shift.
lev radin/Shutterstock
Everyone can stop talking about money for a few months. But expect more records to be set next year.
President Hassan Rouhani, here in parliament, is taking Iran to a new level of involvement in the Middle East.
EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH
Despite US threats, Iran seems to have emerged more powerful than ever, expanding its sphere of influence in the Gulf region and in the Levant.
Leonard Zhukovsk
When financial times are tight, only those with soft power ambitions can see the economic sense in World Cups or Olympic Games.
Neymar looks to leave Barcelona.
EPA/Kimimasa Mayama
Financial Fair Play rules require clubs’ spending to match their earnings.
EPA/Fernando Bizerra Jr
It’s all to do with PSG’s Qatari owners.
The Al Jazeera Media Network headquarters in Doha, Qatar.
Naseem Zeitoon/Reuters
When the network launched in 1996, it radically changed the media landscape of the Arab world. Two decades later, some regimes are still seething.
Noushad Thekkayil / EPA
No nation can truly feel secure without its own food supply.
Mohammed bin Salman with his father, King Salman.
EPA/Saudi Press Agency
As a crackdown on Qatar goes off half-cocked, the world is worrying Saudi Arabia’s new order could be even more dangerous.
Saif al-Islam, son of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
Reuters/Stringer
The news of Saif al-Islam’s release should be taken with a pinch of salt. During the past six years of warfare in Libya the fabrication of news has become common practice.