Yevgeny Primakov traversed the Middle East for decades as a reporter, KGB officer and diplomat. Michelle Risley reads his account of the chaotic struggle between the superpowers.
Russia and the Arabs: Behind the Scenes in the Middle East from the Cold War to the Present
Yevgeny Primakov
Basic Books
Dh105
Colonialism's collapse in the aftermath of the Second World War left Arab countries exalted by their new-found independence but also in need of financial and military assistance. The creation of a Jewish state in Israel in 1948 intensified pan-Arab solidarity, but it also made the support of a powerful ally all the more important. Reluctant to turn to their former colonisers for aid, Arab countries initially sought the help of both the Soviet Union and the United States. With the October 1956 Suez Canal Crisis, when Britain, France and Israel launched a failed military intervention in Egypt meant to subordinate it, the potential for intervention from the former colonial powers came essentially to an end as the threat from Israel increased.
This left the terrain open for the two emerging superpowers, divided by opposing ideologies. The United States had withdrawn a promised loan for the construction of the Aswan Dam in July to signal its disapproval over Egypt's increasingly closer ties to the Soviet Union, Gamel Abdel Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal, to wide acclaim, and Soviet military support for Egypt continued to grow. In 1957, the United States - wrongly convinced that the oil-rich Middle East was the next Soviet target - declared the region a Cold War battle zone with the announcement of the Eisenhower doctrine, asserting America's responsibility to assist any Middle Eastern country threatened by Communist aggression. As ties between America and Israel grew stronger, particularly after the 1967 war, the battle lines of the Cold War in the Middle East took shape: pitting the Americans and their Israeli client against the Soviets and their Arab allies. For decades, the region remained one of the tensest battlegrounds in the Cold War - a theatre for fierce competition between superpowers anxious to avoid direct conflict but unwilling to be defeated by proxy.
The former Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov was on the front lines of this conflict for more than 40 years as one of the Soviet Union's leading Arabists. His new book, Russia and the Arabs: Behind the Scenes in the Middle East from the Cold War to the Present, is a kind of memoir of his vast experiences in the region, an uneven mix of history, anecdote, gossip and insight gleaned from his innumerable meetings with Arab leaders as a journalist, intelligence officer and diplomat. He contends that "neither the United States nor the Soviet Union had any decisive means to control the course of events; both found themselves at the mercy of an escalating crisis in the region". While neither wanted to engage in conflict or lose ground, they "more than once they intervened to restrain their client states".
This proved a tenuous balance. Unlike in Europe or Asia, where the battle between the superpowers was often framed in starkly ideological terms, they prioritised pragmatic concerns in establishing alliances in the Middle East, without much attention to the "socialist" or "capitalist" orientation of their new allies. Desire to preserve their power bases and to gain advantage led both to provide regional "clients" with weaponry and support in order to maintain their allegiance. The balance became more fragile as Arab unity was weakened by conflicts of interest between its leaders, which led them to seek out and, if necessary, switch superpower alliances.
In Primakov's account, Egypt emerges as the Arab country most adept at exploiting the superpowers' need for regional alliances to achieve its own goals. For the first stretch of the Cold War in the region, Nasser's ambitions aligned with the Soviet Union's vision: "a coalition of Arabs in a pro-independence struggle against Western attempts to unseat the new revolutionary regimes". The US, on the other hand, wanted to undermine these regimes, with the help of regional allies including Lebanon and Jordan.
For Nasser, defeating Israel was key to establishing himself as the leader of the Arab world. In the spring of 1967, Soviet and Egyptian intelligence - incorrectly - warned that Israel planned to launch a guerrilla attack on Syria. Nasser, backed by Soviet tanks and planes, first demanded that the United Nations withdraw its peacekeeping troops from the Sinai Peninsula, which they had occupied since the 1956 Suez crisis. He then pulled what was apparently intended as a bluff: on May 22, he closed the Straits of Tiran, blocking access to Israel's only port on the Red Sea. This backfired spectacularly. Israel took Nasser's provocation as an invitation to war, preemptively attacked both Syria and Egypt on June 5, and in a week captured the Golan Heights, the Sinai Peninsula, and the entirety of the West Bank and Gaza. Egypt and Syria were humiliated and the Soviet Union's credibility severely undermined.
In 1972, a year after Nasser's death, his successor Anwar Sadat took the first major step to shift Egypt from the Soviet camp into the American one - expelling some 20,000 Soviet military advisers. Détente talks between Nixon and Brezhnev had confirmed Sadat's suspicions that the Soviet Union was pursuing its own aims to Egypt's detriment. (Although Primakov doesn't relate if Egypt was among them, many Soviet clients in the early 1970s also expressed dissatisfaction with their patron's "limited aid".) Sadat also viewed hostilities with Israel as a block on potential revenue sources that could be used to address domestic problems. He therefore believed that the superpowers' intervention was necessary to orchestrate the settlement he desired with Israel. In early October 1973, Egypt, along with Syria, launched a surprise attack on Israel on Yom Kippur. Egypt expected the conflict would end once its limited goals had been secured, but Israel persisted. (Primakov speculates, cryptically and unconvincingly, that Nixon's national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, was aware of Sadat's plans, and duped him into thinking that he had US support.) To preserve face, the superpowers struggled to keep their clients armed while frantically trying to arrange an end to the fighting. After the passage of a UN Security Council Resolution authorising a ceasefire, the superpowers sought to avoid direct engagement at all costs.
A confluence of factors led to the next major development in Arab-Israeli relations: the signing of an Israel-Egypt peace treaty in 1979, encouraged by the Carter administration. This was Carter's attempt to move away from Kissinger's strategy of shuttle diplomacy, first developed to end the Yom Kippur War, and towards a more multilateral approach. His aim now was to foster Egyptian-Israeli relations - and to shut the Soviet Union out of the process. Sadat welcomed further accommodation with Israel so that he could focus his attentions domestically, while Menachim Begin, the right-wing Israeli prime minister elected in 1977, was eager to sign a separate peace with Egypt. This separate agreement, Primakov believes, came at the Palestinians' and Syrians' expense (It certainly alienated Egypt from the Arab world.) His preference was for a sensible sounding "step-by-step approach to a comprehensive peace settlement", which, unlike a separate agreement, would have prevented Israel from meeting its security goals without "having to give up anything substantial itself". What our narrator declines to shed light on is why the Soviet Union wasn't involved in the process. Perhaps, as others have speculated, it was because its leadership prioritised the process of détente, a trend that continued as internal problems, which would eventually result in the collapse of the Soviet Union, continued to intensify, and the Soviet desire for accommodation with the United States became more acute.
Omissions such as this, as well as Primakov's failure to acknowledge other unexplored opportunities for manoeuvre in Soviet foreign policy, undermine his case that both superpowers were without recourse in the region. It was America's canny exploitation of changes in the political landscape in the region, and its willingness to work with Egypt as well as Israel that led to its diplomatic (if not political) successes in the 1970s. Primakov served as the Soviet representative sent to conduct secret talks with Israeli leaders between 1971 and 1977, prompted by Soviet fears of losing influence. They were held in the absence of formal diplomatic relations, which the Soviet Union had severed in 1967. He attributes their failure to Israeli intransigence over security concerns, while "the Soviet Union sought all possible means to try to bring about a compromise Middle East peace deal". Yet Primakov apparently rebuffed Israeli leaders' attempts to discuss the conditions of Jews in Russia, whose immigration to Israel was effectively prohibited.
Contemplating the future of the Middle East in a world where the US is the sole superpower, Primakov fails to discuss the negative ramifications of the Soviet legacy that may hinder its development. In his outline for the future of the Middle East, Primakov glosses over the economic problems that persist in countries that were once - or remain - beneficiaries of Russian aid. Focus is instead placed on the trouble spots where the most recent damaging interventions have come from either the US or Israel: Lebanon, Iraq, Iran and Palestine. Primakov proffers Russia's counsel and co-operation in arriving at political and diplomatic solutions in all of these areas. Yet because the mechanics of Soviet and Russian foreign policy are absent from his account - as is any discussion of how policies changed when leadership did or even with the fall of Soviet Union, it's difficult to gain a sense of whether either were successful in achieving strategic aims, or what those even were. The Soviet Union only gradually and begrudgingly accepted "Arab Socialism" as part of the Marxist-Leninist canon, but it is a curious omission from a book on the Cold War penned by a former Soviet official.
The limits and damages of America's foreign policy in the Middle East - both in a Cold War world dominated by two competing superpowers and in one where it alone holds this title - seem obvious today, with the most flagrant example being the Bush administration's 2003 war in Iraq. To what degree the Obama administration can remedy the regional fallout remains to be seen, and Primakov is correct (and not alone) in suggesting the need for a counterbalancing power and a more multilateral decision-making process there. Yet he fails to convince that Soviet and Russian interventions in the Arab world have been appreciably more successful than American ones. In this regard, his account backfires: Russia as he depicts it doesn't possess the capacity or the vision to forge a Middle Eastern future that is different from what the Soviet Union helped to create in its past. What it lacks, at the moment, is the power and authority to succeed.
Michelle Risley is a business consultant in New York.
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Wicked
Director: Jon M Chu
Stars: Cynthia Erivo, Ariana Grande, Jonathan Bailey
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The specs
The specs: 2019 Audi Q8
Price, base: Dh315,000
Engine: 3.0-litre turbocharged V6
Gearbox: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 340hp @ 3,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm @ 2,250rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 6.7L / 100km
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
Rating: 1/5
Test
Director: S Sashikanth
Cast: Nayanthara, Siddharth, Meera Jasmine, R Madhavan
Star rating: 2/5
Champions League Last 16
Red Bull Salzburg (AUT) v Bayern Munich (GER)
Sporting Lisbon (POR) v Manchester City (ENG)
Benfica (POR) v Ajax (NED)
Chelsea (ENG) v Lille (FRA)
Atletico Madrid (ESP) v Manchester United (ENG)
Villarreal (ESP) v Juventus (ITA)
Inter Milan (ITA) v Liverpool (ENG)
Paris Saint-Germain v Real Madrid (ESP)
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
RACE RESULTS
1. Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Mercedes) 1hr 21min 48.527sec
2. Sebastian Vettel (GER/Ferrari) at 0.658sec
3. Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Red Bull) 6.012
4. Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes) 7.430
5. Kimi Räikkönen (FIN/Ferrari) 20.370
6. Romain Grosjean (FRA/Haas) 1:13.160
7. Sergio Pérez (MEX/Force India) 1 lap
8. Esteban Ocon (FRA/Force India) 1 lap
9. Felipe Massa (BRA/Williams) 1 lap
10. Lance Stroll (CAN/Williams) 1 lap
11. Jolyon Palmer (GBR/Renault) 1 lap
12. Stoffel Vandoorne (BEL/McLaren) 1 lap
13. Nico Hülkenberg (GER/Renault) 1 lap
14. Pascal Wehrlein (GER/Sauber) 1 lap
15. Marcus Ericsson (SWE/Sauber) 2 laps
16. Daniil Kvyat (RUS/Toro Rosso) 3 laps
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre flat-six twin-turbocharged
Transmission: eight-speed PDK automatic
Power: 445bhp
Torque: 530Nm
Price: Dh474,600
On Sale: Now
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Three stars
THE%20SPECS
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ECompany%20name%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Alaan%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarted%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%202021%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EBased%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Dubai%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EFounders%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Parthi%20Duraisamy%20and%20Karun%20Kurien%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ESector%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20FinTech%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EInvestment%20stage%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20%247%20million%20raised%20in%20total%20%E2%80%94%20%242.5%20million%20in%20a%20seed%20round%20and%20%244.5%20million%20in%20a%20pre-series%20A%20round%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
Key figures in the life of the fort
Sheikh Dhiyab bin Isa (ruled 1761-1793) Built Qasr Al Hosn as a watchtower to guard over the only freshwater well on Abu Dhabi island.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Dhiyab (ruled 1793-1816) Expanded the tower into a small fort and transferred his ruling place of residence from Liwa Oasis to the fort on the island.
Sheikh Tahnoon bin Shakhbut (ruled 1818-1833) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further as Abu Dhabi grew from a small village of palm huts to a town of more than 5,000 inhabitants.
Sheikh Khalifa bin Shakhbut (ruled 1833-1845) Repaired and fortified the fort.
Sheikh Saeed bin Tahnoon (ruled 1845-1855) Turned Qasr Al Hosn into a strong two-storied structure.
Sheikh Zayed bin Khalifa (ruled 1855-1909) Expanded Qasr Al Hosn further to reflect the emirate's increasing prominence.
Sheikh Shakhbut bin Sultan (ruled 1928-1966) Renovated and enlarged Qasr Al Hosn, adding a decorative arch and two new villas.
Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan (ruled 1966-2004) Moved the royal residence to Al Manhal palace and kept his diwan at Qasr Al Hosn.
Sources: Jayanti Maitra, www.adach.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: BorrowMe (BorrowMe.com)
Date started: August 2021
Founder: Nour Sabri
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: E-commerce / Marketplace
Size: Two employees
Funding stage: Seed investment
Initial investment: $200,000
Investors: Amr Manaa (director, PwC Middle East)
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
UAE%20Warriors%2033%20Results
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Mumbai Indians 213/6 (20 ov)
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THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani