Ever since Abdullah Yameen was elected as the President of the Maldives in November 2013, there has been quite a bit of traffic between the heavenly archipelago and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. &nbsp;

Officials from each country&nbsp;are seen making frequent visits to the other. And, these are not vacation tours, at least not entirely. They are all about business and politics, big business and big politics.&nbsp;

Businessmen from the Kingdom and members of the royal family (House of Saud)&nbsp;itself are increasingly investing in the Maldives, a country which depends extensively on international investments to keep its economy going. And more investment also means more influence for Saudi Arabia.&nbsp;

After securing a massive project for the construction of a new passenger terminal for the Maldives international airport, the construction conglomerate Saudi Binladin Group - founded by Osama Bin Laden&#39;s father - leads the Saudi investment front.&nbsp;

The airport&#39;s new wing is part of an ambitious plan the Maldives government launched in 2014, a&nbsp;$800-million&nbsp;investment meant to boost the archipelago&#39;s tourism sector. Part of the funding will come from the Saudi Fund for Development, a government managed fund formally meant to support developing countries and often used as an instrument of influence and soft power. &nbsp;&nbsp;

Awarding the contract to the Binladin Group&nbsp;was controversial right from the word go. The same contract had previously been allotted to MGR, a major Indian infrastructure company which is seeking $1&nbsp;billion as compensation from the Maldives government for not respecting a valid contract.&nbsp;

In 2014, no less than Saudi Arabia&#39;s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, crown prince back then, donated $1 million to the Maldives ministry of Islamic affairs and $1.5 million for health initiatives. He also promised to build ten &quot;world-class&quot; mosques in the country, the biggest of which will be in the capital city of Mal&eacute;:&nbsp;a six-storey structure which can hold 6,000 people.&nbsp;

It was again the Saudi Investment Fund which gave the Maldives $1 million to conduct a feasibility study for building a transhipment port and an attached Special Economic Zone in 2015. &nbsp;

In March 2016, Adam Shareef Umar, the Maldivian&nbsp;defence minister, travelled to Saudi Arabia to meet his counterpart,&nbsp;deputy crown prince Mohamed Bin Salman al-Saud, who pledged $50 million for a military housing project in&nbsp;Maldives. As the world has learnt from China, infrastructure development is the most surefire away of exerting influence on countries.

The role of Islam&nbsp;

It is not only profit which brings the two countries together. The Maldives are a Muslim nation by constitution, the population mostly Sunni. After the election of President Abulla Yameen, religion has increasingly stepped out from its traditional&nbsp;private sphere to make its effect felt in public life.&nbsp;

This change matches&nbsp;Saudi Arabia&#39;s aspiration to become the most influential actor among all Sunni - if not Muslim - countries in the world, an ambition that Iran&#39;s growing influence in West Asia has negatively impacted. &nbsp;

In November 2015, the Maldivian&nbsp;President invited the Saudi Islamic affairs minister Saleh bin Abdulaziz with the aim of building a &quot;religious bridge&quot;&nbsp;between the two countries. Saudi Arabia agreed to help the Maldives in collection of Zakat&nbsp;(an Islamic tax),&nbsp;in translating books on Islam into English, to send preachers across and to host and provide religious education to Maldivian scholars.&nbsp;

In the same year, for the first time ever, Saudi Arabia opened its first diplomatic mission in the archipelago. &nbsp;

In January 2016, Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Ibrahim Al-Sheikh, the first speaker of the King-nominated Saudi&#39;s Shura Council to visit the Maldives, announced the formation of a joint committee to address issues of mutual interest. He also donated $100,000 to the recently established Islamic University of Maldives.&nbsp;

The Saudi religious influence in the Maldives translates ultimately into the spread of Wahhabism. The hardline doctrine is, in fact, the Kingdom&#39;s official belief and is changing the common perception of Islam in the Maldives, where&nbsp;people had practised a traditionally and majorly&nbsp;tolerant version.&nbsp;

Beside being a perfect holiday destination, the Maldives&#39; location in the middle of the Indian Ocean makes the archipelago a strategic foothold for Saudi Arabia, which&nbsp;is using all its means to cement its position.

The Kingdom&#39;s influence in the Maldives&nbsp;has become so strong that for the first time in its history, the country has been pulled into the boiling cauldron of Sunni-Shia rivalry. In May 2016, the Maldives became the first Asian nation to sever&nbsp;its diplomatic relations with Iran after 41 years, without any solid reason. Saudi Arabia did the same in January.&nbsp;

On a similar note, it is worth remembering that the Maldives are a member of a 34-country military coalition led by the Saudis which is aimed&nbsp;to fight&nbsp;terrorism, at least on paper. In this alliance, there is no place for Iraq, Iran and Syria, all Shia-led countries. &nbsp;

It seems the struggle for hegemony of the Muslim world,&nbsp;till now mainly restricted to West&nbsp;Asia, is spreading to faraway lands. &nbsp;

(WION) 
&nbsp;

The Kingdom has increased its investments and is trying to turn the islands into a Wahhabi archipelago

Ever since Abdullah Yameen was elected as the President of the Maldives in November 2013, there has been quite a bit of traffic between the heavenly archipelago and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Officials from each country are seen making frequent visits to the other. And, these are not vacation tours, at least not entirely. They are all about business and politics, big business and big politics. Businessmen from the Kingdom and members of the royal family (House of Saud) itself are increasingly investing in the Maldives, a country which depends extensively on international investments to keep its economy going. And more investment also means more influence for Saudi Arabia. After securing a massive project for the construction of a new passenger terminal for the Maldives international airport, the construction conglomerate Saudi Binladin Group - founded by Osama Bin Laden's father - leads the Saudi investment front. The airport's new wing is part of an ambitious plan the Maldives government launched in 2014, a $800-million investment meant to boost the archipelago's tourism sector. Part of the funding will come from the Saudi Fund for Development, a government managed fund formally meant to support developing countries and often used as an instrument of influence and soft power. Awarding the contract to the Binladin Group was controversial right from the word go. The same contract had previously been allotted to MGR, a major Indian infrastructure company which is seeking $1 billion as compensation from the Maldives government for not respecting a valid contract. In 2014, no less than Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, crown prince back then, donated $1 million to the Maldives ministry of Islamic affairs and $1.5 million for health initiatives. He also promised to build ten "world-class" mosques in the country, the biggest of which will be in the capital city of Malé: a six-storey structure which can hold 6,000 people. It was again the Saudi Investment Fund which gave the Maldives $1 million to conduct a feasibility study for building a transhipment port and an attached Special Economic Zone in 2015. In March 2016, Adam Shareef Umar, the Maldivian defence minister, travelled to Saudi Arabia to meet his counterpart, deputy crown prince Mohamed Bin Salman al-Saud, who pledged $50 million for a military housing project in Maldives. As the world has learnt from China, infrastructure development is the most surefire away of exerting influence on countries. The role of Islam It is not only profit which brings the two countries together. The Maldives are a Muslim nation by constitution, the population mostly Sunni. After the election of President Abulla Yameen, religion has increasingly stepped out from its traditional private sphere to make its effect felt in public life. This change matches Saudi Arabia's aspiration to become the most influential actor among all Sunni - if not Muslim - countries in the world, an ambition that Iran's growing influence in West Asia has negatively impacted. In November 2015, the Maldivian President invited the Saudi Islamic affairs minister Saleh bin Abdulaziz with the aim of building a "religious bridge" between the two countries. Saudi Arabia agreed to help the Maldives in collection of Zakat (an Islamic tax), in translating books on Islam into English, to send preachers across and to host and provide religious education to Maldivian scholars. In the same year, for the first time ever, Saudi Arabia opened its first diplomatic mission in the archipelago. In January 2016, Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Ibrahim Al-Sheikh, the first speaker of the King-nominated Saudi's Shura Council to visit the Maldives, announced the formation of a joint committee to address issues of mutual interest. He also donated $100,000 to the recently established Islamic University of Maldives. The Saudi religious influence in the Maldives translates ultimately into the spread of Wahhabism. The hardline doctrine is, in fact, the Kingdom's official belief and is changing the common perception of Islam in the Maldives, where people had practised a traditionally and majorly tolerant version. Beside being a perfect holiday destination, the Maldives' location in the middle of the Indian Ocean makes the archipelago a strategic foothold for Saudi Arabia, which is using all its means to cement its position. The Kingdom's influence in the Maldives has become so strong that for the first time in its history, the country has been pulled into the boiling cauldron of Sunni-Shia rivalry. In May 2016, the Maldives became the first Asian nation to sever its diplomatic relations with Iran after 41 years, without any solid reason. Saudi Arabia did the same in January. On a similar note, it is worth remembering that the Maldives are a member of a 34-country military coalition led by the Saudis which is aimed to fight terrorism, at least on paper. In this alliance, there is no place for Iraq, Iran and Syria, all Shia-led countries. It seems the struggle for hegemony of the Muslim world, till now mainly restricted to West Asia, is spreading to faraway lands. (WION)

Analysis: Religion and money fuel Saudi Arabia's influence in Maldives

As the old saying goes, only once we have hit rock bottom can we rehabilitate ourselves. Usually the preserve of the individual, this saying can also been applied to countries in distress. And perhaps no more so than the complicated Yemen.

Located on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen is surrounded by wealth, of which it has none, whilst also being situated in a dangerous neighbourhood means Yemen isn&rsquo;t exactly on the rise right now. The Middle East is locked in a battle for hegemony between a Shia-dominated Iran and a Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia. Most notably, this battle is being played out in Syria, with the&nbsp;general consensus being that the Saudis are aligned with the losing team.

But Yemen, too, has&nbsp;become an arena for this battle of Islamic ideology. And like Syria, both sides of the wider conflict have stakes involved. For nearly two years, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition of Sunni states against a ragtag Shia rebel group called the Houthis. Though Zaidi Shia, the Houthis took control of the country from the legitimate government of Yemen and are allegedly supported by Iran.

IS YEMEN ON THE BRINK?

Yemen has always been relatively poor in financial terms and slightly out of place in a region associated with oil money. Most importantly, the Saudis have always perceived Yemen as a backwater that they control. Accordingly, even at the suggestion of a threat of an Iranian-backed takeover of the country, the Saudis leaped into action.

However, their success has been limited. The Saudis continue bombing Yemen and the Houthis continue holding most of the country, including the capital Sanaa. In the midst of this political to-and-fro, Yemen&rsquo;s basic infrastructure has been ravaged and half of the population is <a href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/08/300000-children-hungry-yemen-160803074103029.html">now starving to death</a>.

Commentators have long muffled of how Yemen was &ldquo;on the brink,&rdquo; crisis after crisis, whether it be Al-Qaeda in the early 2000s or the Arab Spring in 2011. Yet now there is a stark realisation among Yemenis that the country has firmly fallen. There is no longer any talk of a brink, or an edge, or any other idiom that reflects a crucial moment in the downfall of a state

By all accounts, 2016 was a terrible year for Yemen. New lows were reached starting as early as March, and even the country&rsquo;s central bank finally gave up its peacetime pretense by November. To borrow another overused metaphor, it is fair to say that Yemen is firmly down the rabbit hole.

It is likely that 2017 will prove to be even more of a divisive year. The Saudis appear to be showing no signs of stopping, and it would be a just assessment to say that they are committed to securing Yemen at all costs.

The Houthis and their ally, former strongman President Ali Abdullah Saleh, have little to&nbsp;lose personally for continuing their resistance. Political efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement under United Nations patronage have failed, meaning that their defeat in the conflict will more than likely signal the end of the road for their political ambitions at the least, and perhaps their continued existence at the worst.

Faced with such circumstances, the Houthis are likely to adopt a fight or die mentality in 2017. This is likely to take hold even more strongly as the rebels and their allies run low in funding and weaponry. Assuming there is merit in the alleged Houthi-Iran alliance&mdash;of which little evidence to substantiate&nbsp;it has surfaced&mdash;it is unlikely that Tehran will be able to save their brethren. This is because any effort by Tehran will need to overcome significant logistical barriers, as it must try to find a means of transporting arms to Yemen, which is nearly 2,000 km away and subject to a Saudi naval blockade.

However, the Saudis also face challenges. Coalition airstrikes have raised concerns over the breach of international law. These concerns have been heard by their Western sponsors, primarily the United States and Britain. In exchange for a continued supply of arms, Washington and London are now demanding greater accuracy in bombing&nbsp;targets and more transparency in aftermath reporting by the Saudis.

LOOKING TO COLOMBIA PERHAPS?

All in all, whichever way the conflict goes, the picture does not bode well for civilians. In this regard, perhaps Yemenis may take some solace in knowing that once rock bottom has been reached, the country can only rise.

The example of Colombia, which not so long ago was a crime-ridden country famous for drugs and murder, is a useful reminder. Over the past 20 years, Colombia&rsquo;s murder rate has fallen by 60%, its inflation has dropped by 87% and unemployment has gone down by half. While foreign direct investment reaches $15 billion annually and the government&rsquo;s borrowing deficit has fallen to only 2% of gross domestic product (GDP).

If Columbians were able to rehabilitate their country once it hits rock bottom, Yemenis could do the same in 2017.

&nbsp;

(Courtesy: Fair Observer)

Yemen has to rise up from the nadir it has reached

As the old saying goes, only once we have hit rock bottom can we rehabilitate ourselves. Usually the preserve of the individual, this saying can also been applied to countries in distress. And perhaps no more so than the complicated Yemen. Located on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen is surrounded by wealth, of which it has none, whilst also being situated in a dangerous neighbourhood means Yemen isn’t exactly on the rise right now. The Middle East is locked in a battle for hegemony between a Shia-dominated Iran and a Sunni-ruled Saudi Arabia. Most notably, this battle is being played out in Syria, with the general consensus being that the Saudis are aligned with the losing team. But Yemen, too, has become an arena for this battle of Islamic ideology. And like Syria, both sides of the wider conflict have stakes involved. For nearly two years, Saudi Arabia has led a coalition of Sunni states against a ragtag Shia rebel group called the Houthis. Though Zaidi Shia, the Houthis took control of the country from the legitimate government of Yemen and are allegedly supported by Iran. IS YEMEN ON THE BRINK? Yemen has always been relatively poor in financial terms and slightly out of place in a region associated with oil money. Most importantly, the Saudis have always perceived Yemen as a backwater that they control. Accordingly, even at the suggestion of a threat of an Iranian-backed takeover of the country, the Saudis leaped into action. However, their success has been limited. The Saudis continue bombing Yemen and the Houthis continue holding most of the country, including the capital Sanaa. In the midst of this political to-and-fro, Yemen’s basic infrastructure has been ravaged and half of the population is now starving to death. Commentators have long muffled of how Yemen was “on the brink,” crisis after crisis, whether it be Al-Qaeda in the early 2000s or the Arab Spring in 2011. Yet now there is a stark realisation among Yemenis that the country has firmly fallen. There is no longer any talk of a brink, or an edge, or any other idiom that reflects a crucial moment in the downfall of a state By all accounts, 2016 was a terrible year for Yemen. New lows were reached starting as early as March, and even the country’s central bank finally gave up its peacetime pretense by November. To borrow another overused metaphor, it is fair to say that Yemen is firmly down the rabbit hole. It is likely that 2017 will prove to be even more of a divisive year. The Saudis appear to be showing no signs of stopping, and it would be a just assessment to say that they are committed to securing Yemen at all costs. The Houthis and their ally, former strongman President Ali Abdullah Saleh, have little to lose personally for continuing their resistance. Political efforts to negotiate a peaceful settlement under United Nations patronage have failed, meaning that their defeat in the conflict will more than likely signal the end of the road for their political ambitions at the least, and perhaps their continued existence at the worst. Faced with such circumstances, the Houthis are likely to adopt a fight or die mentality in 2017. This is likely to take hold even more strongly as the rebels and their allies run low in funding and weaponry. Assuming there is merit in the alleged Houthi-Iran alliance—of which little evidence to substantiate it has surfaced—it is unlikely that Tehran will be able to save their brethren. This is because any effort by Tehran will need to overcome significant logistical barriers, as it must try to find a means of transporting arms to Yemen, which is nearly 2,000 km away and subject to a Saudi naval blockade. However, the Saudis also face challenges. Coalition airstrikes have raised concerns over the breach of international law. These concerns have been heard by their Western sponsors, primarily the United States and Britain. In exchange for a continued supply of arms, Washington and London are now demanding greater accuracy in bombing targets and more transparency in aftermath reporting by the Saudis. LOOKING TO COLOMBIA PERHAPS? All in all, whichever way the conflict goes, the picture does not bode well for civilians. In this regard, perhaps Yemenis may take some solace in knowing that once rock bottom has been reached, the country can only rise. The example of Colombia, which not so long ago was a crime-ridden country famous for drugs and murder, is a useful reminder. Over the past 20 years, Colombia’s murder rate has fallen by 60%, its inflation has dropped by 87% and unemployment has gone down by half. While foreign direct investment reaches $15 billion annually and the government’s borrowing deficit has fallen to only 2% of gross domestic product (GDP). If Columbians were able to rehabilitate their country once it hits rock bottom, Yemenis could do the same in 2017. (Courtesy: Fair Observer)

What lies ahead for Yemen in 2017

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Analysis: Religion and money fuel Saudi Arabia's influence in Maldives

What lies ahead for Yemen in 2017