Category Archives: Mohammed bin Salman

Why Trump’s lavish Saudi courtship leaves Israel on the back foot

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Pageantry and trillion-dollar promises reveal how Washington’s loyalties may be tilting toward the Gulf

The White House welcome bestowed on the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was the most lavish of the Trump presidency, and a gaudily clear statement of its foreign policy priorities.

It was billed as a mere working visit, but it was more extravagant than any previous state visit. The president greeted the prince on the south lawn, the White House’s biggest stage. There were uniformed men on horses bearing flags and a flypast of fighter jets.

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Saudi Arabia releases US retiree jailed over critical tweets

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Saad Almadi’s family thanks Trump and state department as announcement comes after meeting with crown prince

Saudi Arabia has agreed to allow US citizen Saad Almadi to return home to Florida, five months ahead of the scheduled lifting of travel restrictions and a day after Saudi crown prince and prime minister Mohammed bin Salman met Donald Trump at the White House.

Almadi, 75, was sentenced to 19 years of incarceration in the kingdom in 2021 after he wrote 14 tweets critical of the Riyadh government. Two years later, the charges were reduced to so-called “cyber crimes” and he was sentenced to a 30-year ban on leaving Saudi Arabia.

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Trump shrugs off Khashoggi murder during Saudi prince’s White House visit

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US president also claims Mohammed bin Salman ‘knew nothing’ about murder of journalist

Donald Trump has shrugged off the Saudi regime’s 2018 murder of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, saying the journalist was “extremely controversial” and unpopular, dismissing the killing by observing “things happen”.

The US president made the remarks at the White House on Tuesday while welcoming Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for the first time since Khashoggi’s murder and dismemberment in Istanbul by Saudi state operatives.

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Saudi entourage for US visit may include official implicated in Twitter spy plot

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Senior aide to Mohammed bin Salman allegedly led campaign to identify users who were posting critically about Saudi regime

A senior official in Mohammed bin Salman’s entourage, who is expected to travel with the crown prince on his first trip back to the US in seven years, has previously been accused by US prosecutors of playing a central role in a conspiracy to infiltrate Twitter and identify users who were posting critically about the Saudi regime.

Bader al-Asaker, who has headed Prince Mohammed’s private office since before he became crown prince, has never been formally charged by the US government for his role in the 2014-15 scheme, but was accused in court by a US government lawyer as having led the campaign to find a “mole” who would be able to extract sensitive information from the social media company, which is now known as X.

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Trump says US will sell F-35 stealth jets to Saudis as Prince Mohammed visits

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Kingdom’s de facto ruler to arrive on first White House trip since killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018

Donald Trump is to welcome Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman to Washington on Tuesday, in a red-carpet visit expected to result in the sale of highly advanced US F-35 fighter jets to the Gulf monarchy.

The crown prince’s arrival in Washington will be his first White House visit since the 2018 killing of the Washington Post journalist and critic of the kingdom Jamal Khashoggi. The CIA later determined Khashoggi’s murder was approved by the crown prince, leading to global condemnation.

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A Saudi journalist tweeted against the government – and was executed for ‘high treason’

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The death of Turki al-Jasser was the first high-profile killing of a journalist since the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi

The tweet posted by Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser in 2014 was chillingly prescient: “The Arab writer can be easily killed by their government under the pretext of ‘national security’,” he wrote.

On Saturday, the Saudi interior ministry announced that al-Jasser had been executed in Riyadh, for crimes including “high treason by communicating with and conspiring against the security of the Kingdom with individuals outside it”.

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Saudi Arabia is hosting more Ukraine talks – but how neutral is it?

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The US and Ukraine will meet in Jeddah next week, but the Saudi crown prince’s closeness to Putin is a concern

On the surface, the announcement that Saudi Arabia will host talks between the US and Ukraine in Jeddah next week appears promising news.

After the disastrous meeting between the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and Donald Trump in the White House last week, a more neutral location for this meeting of lower-level figures makes sense in terms of trying to dial down the temperature.

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Syrian leader meets Saudi crown prince for first official foreign visit

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Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh on trip that highlights reset of regional alliances after end of Iran-backed Assad regime

Syria’s transitional president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, met the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, in Riyadh on Sunday in his first foreign trip as Syrian leader, in a sign of the major shifts under way in regional alliances.

Sharaa assumed power as transitional president last week, after leading a rebel campaign that ousted the longtime Iran-backed leader Bashar al-Assad, whose ties with the rest of the Arab world were strained throughout the nearly 14-year Syrian war.

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‘It’s created an internal shitstorm’: turmoil at UK law firm accused of ‘whitewashing’ Saudi World Cup report

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Sources say key people at Clifford Chance were not consulted, as it emerges another company refused job due to reputational concerns

When the Saudi crown prince locked nearly 400 of his country’s most powerful people in a luxury hotel in 2017 and stripped them of their fortunes, a UK law firm allegedly played a significant role.

On the orders of Mohammed bin Salman, Clifford Chance - a “magic circle” legal giant with headquarters in London – was reported to have facilitated the forced transfer of assets from a Saudi TV station to the government.

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X admits ‘error’ led to reinstatement of key suspect in Jamal Khashoggi murder

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Saud al-Qahtani was first suspended before Elon Musk took over what was then Twitter, and was suspended again today after Guardian report

A key Saudi suspect in the murder of US-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 had his account reinstated on X, the social media company controlled by Elon Musk, after it was permanently suspended under the company’s previous owner.

Saud al-Qahtani, a onetime key adviser to Mohammed bin Salman, had “direct involvement” in the murder of Khashoggi, according to a US intelligence assessment released by the Biden administration in 2021.

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World leaders to gather in Swiss resort in attempt to forge Ukraine peace plan

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More than 100 leaders at two-day conference to discuss Kyiv’s proposals to end war – but Russia and China absent

More than 100 leaders, including the US vice-president, Kamala Harris, and the presidents or heads of the EU, South American, Middle East and Asian countries, will gather in Switzerland on Saturday for one of the most ambitious attempts yet to forge a peace plan for Ukraine.

The summit comes as G7 leaders gathering in Italy clinch a new deal for a €50bn loan for Ukraine, securitised through use of the windfall profits from the interest on Russian central bank assets frozen by the EU and other western nations after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

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End of the Line? Saudi Arabia ‘forced to scale back’ plans for desert megacity

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Crown prince’s pet project was sold as a 105-mile-long city of the future, but finances may have led to a rethink

It was billed as a glass-walled city of the future, an ambitious centrepiece of the economic plan backed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to transition Saudi Arabia away from oil dependency.

Now, however, plans for the mirror-clad desert metropolis called the Line have been scaled down and the project, which was envisaged to stretch 105 miles (170km) is expected to reach just a mile and a half by 2030.

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Saudi Arabia to allow first alcohol sales in 72 years, dividing opinion

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Shop will be open only to non-Muslim diplomats – but some fear it is first step to wider availability of alcohol in teetotal kingdom

The news that Saudi Arabia will allow its first alcohol shop has citizens and foreigners alike mulling one question: is this a minor policy tweak, or a major upheaval?

Sources familiar with preparations for the store disclosed details of the plan on Wednesday, as a document circulated indicating just how carefully leaders of the teetotal Gulf kingdom will manage its operations.

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Rishi Sunak holds ‘productive’ talks with Saudi Arabia after Israel visit

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British PM flew to Saudi Arabia after Netanyahu stressed Israel’s need for ‘continuous’ UK support in war with Hamas

Rishi Sunak has urged Saudi Arabia to use its influence to support stability in the Middle East after flying there following talks in Israel with Benjamin Netanyahu, who told him his country was counting on the UK’s “continuous support” in what will be a long war with Hamas.

Britain wanted Israel “to win”, the prime minister told his Israeli counterpart during a joint press conference in Jerusalem following talks that were part of diplomatic efforts to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza and prevent a wider regional conflict.

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Biden accused of betrayal of Khashoggi over push to deepen Saudi ties

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Activists and Democrats condemn rapprochement – aimed at heading off China – with ‘autocratic, sociopathic government’

Joe Biden is facing accusations of betraying a pre-election promise to re-evaluate ties with Saudi Arabia over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi in favour of pursuing a rapprochement with the kingdom aimed at repelling a challenge from China to US primacy in the Middle East.

The charge, from human rights campaigners and some Democrats, follows the fifth anniversary of Khashoggi’s death at the hands of Saudi regime agents and comes amid mounting criticism of a proposed new defence treaty between Washington and Riyadh that could result in Saudi Arabia granting official recognition to Israel.

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Palestinian negotiators sceptical over potential Israel-Saudi deal

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Despite outward positivity, sources say normalisation deal unlikely to happen any time soon

A potential normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia is being treated with scepticism by Palestinian negotiators, despite outwardly positive signals from Palestinian officials, several sources with knowledge of the talks have said.

Unofficial relations between Israel and the powerful Gulf petrostate have been growing for years. The possibility of a formal diplomatic agreement, however, has come to the fore since the two countries, along with the US, signalled progress on the matter during the UN general assembly in New York last week.

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Mohammed bin Salman says he will ‘continue doing sport washing’ for Saudi Arabia

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  • Crown prince ‘doesn’t care’ about claims against country
  • Saudis have invested heavily in football, golf and other sports

The crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, has said he “doesn’t care” about accusations of sportswashing against his country.

Bin Salman, known as MBS, has presided over unprecedented spending on sport since becoming Saudi’s de facto ruler in 2017. Critics argue the investment is intended to distract attention from his country’s human rights abuses. But in a rare interview Bin Salman said he was not troubled by the accusations.

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Saudi Arabia ‘getting closer’ to normalising relations with Israel, crown prince says

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In a rare interview with Fox News, Mohammed bin Salman said major progress must be made in creation of a Palestinian state

A potential normalisation deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and what those negotiations could mean for the Palestinians, are top of the news agenda in the Middle East after the two countries and the US signalled progress on the matter on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York.

In a rare interview with western media, Riyadh’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, told Fox News on Wednesday that ongoing talks with Israel meant the prospect of normalised relations was “getting closer every day”.

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Rishi Sunak and Saudi crown prince hope to meet ‘at earliest opportunity’

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Leaders discuss plans to ‘progress UK-Saudi cooperation’ amid reports that Mohammed bin Salman has been invited to UK this autumn

Downing Street has confirmed Rishi Sunak plans to meet the Saudi crown prince “at the earliest opportunity”, following reports that the UK has invited Mohammed bin Salman to visit this autumn.

A No 10 readout of Thursday’s conversation between the prime minister and Prince Mohammed gave more indications of the shift towards a renewed UK embrace of Saudi Arabia, after a hiatus in the wake of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the dissident and Washington Post columnist, in 2018.

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Thursday briefing: Vice took millions from Saudi Arabia – but has its deal backfired?

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In today’s newsletter: As the upstart media company faces bankruptcy, it has developed strong ties with the country, leaving some to question what compromises companies are willing to make to do business

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It’s hard to put into words the transformation that Saudi Arabia has undergone in the past six years.

Mohammed bin Salman, commonly referred to as MBS, was appointed the crown prince in 2017 and is now the de facto ruler of the kingdom. There have been notable reforms under his new regime. Women are allowed to drive; the guardian system – under which men have legal powers over women – has been relaxed; and cinemas reopened after 35 years.

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