Women fear use of sexual violence as a ‘tactic’ against those protesting the coup, after attack on 18-year-old in Khartoum
Demonstrations took place across Sudan on Tuesday in protest at the alleged gang-rape of a teenager by security forces.
The 18-year-old said she was attacked in Khartoum on Monday by up to nine men dressed in the uniforms of the security forces involved in dispersing regular protests held across Sudan since October’s military coup.
Continue reading...Rebel enclave hopes global outcry against Russia, the Syrian regime’s main backer, will renew interest in their cause
Thousands of protesters in the rebel enclave of Idlib have marked 11 years since the start of Syria’s anti-government uprising, buoyed up by the global outcry over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
More than 5,000 people gathered on the main square in the north-western city on Tuesday in one of the largest rallies the region had seen in months. Many demonstrators hoped the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the Syrian government’s main backer, would rekindle interest in their cause.
Continue reading...Labour leader warns about replacing dependence on Russia with reliance on Saudis, as PM prepares for Gulf visit
Keir Starmer has accused Boris Johnson of “going cap in hand from dictator to dictator,” as the prime minister prepares to fly to Saudi Arabia to seek alternatives to Russian oil supplies.
Johnson has a personal relationship with the Saudi leader, Mohammed bin Salman, and government sources suggest he could help persuade the Saudis to increase oil production. The prime minister defended the trip on Tuesday, saying he had to build a coalition of countries to help the west reduce its dependence on Vladimir Putin, likening the Russian leader to a drug dealer who had got the west hooked on his hydrocarbons.
British PM hopes to persuade Gulf state to raise oil and gas production to reduce reliance on Moscow
Boris Johnson has compared Vladimir Putin to a drug dealer who managed to hook western nations on Russian supplies of oil and gas, ahead of a trip to the Middle East in an attempt to diversify the sources of Britain’s energy imports.
The UK prime minister urged European countries to “get ourselves off that addiction” and said he wanted support from “the widest possible coalition” to help offset the pressures caused by spiralling oil and gas prices.
Continue reading...Photograph shows Chelsea FC owner in VIP lounge shortly before jet linked to him took off for Istanbul
Roman Abramovich, the billionaire owner of Chelsea FC who was subjected to sanctions by the UK government last week, has been spotted at a VIP lounge at an airport in Israel.
One of seven Russians who had their assets frozen last Thursday in an attempt to ratchet up the pressure on Vladimir Putin after the invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich was seen in Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport on Monday shortly before a jet linked to him took off for Istanbul.
Continue reading...Analysis: PM will try and succeed where Biden failed but is unlikely to get a sympathetic hearing
Boris Johnson is facing criticism both domestically and in the Gulf as he tries to persuade Gulf states to boost oil production.
He is expected to visit Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states such as the United Arab Emirates as western powers seek extra oil supplies to loosen the west’s dependence on Russian energy and slow the massive price rises caused by sanctions due to the war in Ukraine.
Continue reading...MPs voice deep concerns over trip after mass execution by regime and its continuing role in Yemen war
Boris Johnson is facing scrutiny over a planned trip to Saudi Arabia to push for an increase in oil output amid an outcry over the regime’s biggest ever mass execution and growing fears the prime minister may try to limit media scrutiny of the visit.
Downing Street would not confirm Johnson’s likely trip to Riyadh, but sources have said he wants to appeal to the Gulf state to increase its oil output to replace supplies from Russia.
Continue reading...Analysis: Disputes with Biden administration mean Riyadh and Abu Dhabi are likely to drive hard bargain
Joe Biden’s hardline stance on Russia has won him widespread plaudits, but with the most serious oil shock in decades now a reality, the US president’s attempt to cushion the blowback continues to meet resistance from the two allies he needs most.
Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, and his counterpart in the United Arab Emirates, Mohammed bin Zayed, are yet to agree to a phone call with the west’s most powerful man – a scenario all but unthinkable during previous administrations.
Continue reading...Revolutionary Guards say target in Erbil was Israeli ‘strategic centre’ following attack in Syria
Iran has claimed responsibility for a missile barrage that struck early on Sunday near a sprawling US consulate complex in the northern Iraqi city of Erbil, saying it was retaliation for an Israeli strike in Syria that killed two of its Revolutionary Guards.
No injuries were reported in the attack, which marked a significant escalation between the US and Iran. Hostility between the countries has often played out in Iraq, whose government is allied with both countries.
Continue reading...A day after Iraq said it would host a fresh round of talks between the regional rivals, Iran announced they would not go ahead
Iran has suspended the latest round of talks with regional rival Saudi Arabia, a website affiliated with Iran’s top security body has reported.
Iraq’s foreign ministry had announced on Saturday that it would host the talks on Wednesday. The Iraqi foreign minister, Fuad Hussein, revealed the development during remarks at a diplomatic forum in Antalya on Turkey’s southern coast cited by local media. A foreign ministry spokesperson confirmed the comments to Reuters.
Continue reading...Missing are presumed dead after three migrants rescued and one body retrieved, Libyan coast guard says
A boat carrying about two dozen migrants capsized in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Libya on Saturday, with at least 19 people missing and presumed dead, authorities said.
Libya’s coastguard said that a group of 23 migrants – Egyptians and Syrians – set off from the eastern city of Tobruk earlier in the day. Three migrants were rescued and taken to hospital. Only one body was retrieved and search efforts were continuing, the agency said.
Continue reading...Officials say those executed were convicted of charges including terrorism and holding ‘deviant beliefs’
Saudi Arabia has executed 81 men over the past 24 hours, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian national, on charges including terrorism and holding “deviant beliefs“, state news agency SPA said on Saturday.
The number dwarfed the 67 executions reported in the kingdom in all of 2021 and the 27 in 2020.
Continue reading...It’s unclear if Saudi authorities placed restriction on his release but human rights campaigners promise to fight them
Saudi blogger Raif Badawi has been released from prison in Saudi Arabia after serving a 10-year sentence for advocating an end to religious influence on public life, his wife said on Friday.
“Raif called me. He is free,” his wife, Ensaf Haidar, who lives in Canada with their three children and had been advocating for his release, told AFP.
Continue reading...Moscow is insisting that Washington pledge not to sanction trade between it and Tehran over Ukraine
Talks on the revival of the Iran nuclear deal have become a casualty of the war in Ukraine after an indefinite pause was announced over last-minute Russian demands.
An agreement on the nuclear deal to bring the US and Iran back into compliance would have led to a swathe of US sanctions on Iran being lifted, including Iranian crude oil exports and petrochemicals, in return for limits on Tehran’s nuclear activity.
Continue reading...Campaigners say not enough is being done to prevent loss of life and the causes of death are not being properly investigated
As many as 10,000 migrant workers from south and south-east Asia die every year in the Gulf countries, according to a report by a group of human rights organisations.
More than half of the deaths are unexplained, said the report, and are commonly recorded as due to “natural causes” or “cardiac arrest”. But Gulf states are failing properly to investigate why so many migrant workers are dying.
Continue reading...Audio message names Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi as new leader in first admission of former head’s death
Islamic State has named a new leader after confirming that its previous head was killed by the US in north-western Syria over a month ago.
In an audio message released on Thursday, an IS spokesman, Abu Omar al-Muhajer, confirmed the death of the group’s leader, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, as well as that of its former spokesman, Abu Hamza al-Qurayshi, in the US raid.
Continue reading...Influx of 100,000 refugees from the war zone expected as members of the diaspora exercise the country’s law of return
A red carpet, applause and dozens of blue and white flags were waiting for the first Jewish Ukrainian refugees to arrive in Israel as part of a huge rescue operation triggered by Moscow’s invasion.
About 400 people on four flights from Poland, Moldova and Romania landed in Tel Aviv on Sunday, among them 100 children who had been living in a Jewish orphanage in the northern city of Zhytomyr. Most of the new arrivals were visibly relieved to have reached safety; as is tradition, several people touched and kissed the ground after disembarking.
Continue reading...Analysis: Putin used the same false justification for brutal bombings in Syria, in the glare of western media
When a Russian spokesperson took to a podium in Moscow on Wednesday and warned of a “biological weapons programme” in Ukraine, fighters on another battlefield – Syria – understood what she meant.
The anti-Assad opposition groups that still held northern Syria had heard it all before. From 2015, when Russia took a prominent stake in the conflict, and throughout the gruesome years that followed, claims that they, instead of the Assad regime, had used chemical weapons were a ready-made slur that put them on notice of an imminent assault. The allegations were made by Moscow, whenever ground forces it was supporting wanted to clear a town or city. Brutal, indiscriminate bombardment followed. So did impunity.
Continue reading...The Gulf nations have capacity to pump more oil to ease supply fears but relations with the US have chilled under Biden
The de-facto leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have declined to arrange calls with US president Joe Biden in recent weeks as the US and it allies have sought to contain a surge in energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
According to the Wall Street Journal, citing Middle East and US officials, both Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the UAE’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan have been unavailable to Biden after US requests were made for discussions.
Continue reading...White House refuses to confirm that top advisers considering spring Saudi Arabia visit to propose increase in oil exports
Joe Biden attracted criticism from both progressives and Republicans after a report indicated the White House was planning a visit to Saudi Arabia to discuss global oil supply.
Axios reported on Sunday that Biden’s senior advisers were considering a spring trip to Saudi Arabia in an effort to improve relations and to propose a potential increase in oil exports.
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