Category Archives: King Salman

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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Iran’s foreign minister visits Saudi Arabia as diplomatic thaw continues

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Talks in Riyadh declared successful by Tehran after years of hostility between regional rivals

Iran’s foreign minister has visited Saudi Arabia, the first such trip in years, marking the continuing thaw in relations between two powers who recently have been locked in destabilising competition.

The visit by Hossein Amir-Abdollahian comes as the countries have been trying to ease tensions including over Iran’s nuclear programme, the Saudi-led war in Yemen and security across the region’s waterways.

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Rate of executions in Saudi Arabia almost doubles under Mohammed bin Salman

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Last six years among bloodiest in kingdom’s modern history despite push to modernise

The rate of executions carried out by Saudi Arabia has almost doubled under the rule of the de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman, with the past six years being among the bloodiest in the Kingdom’s modern history, a report has found.

Rates of capital punishment are at historically high levels, despite a push to modernise with widespread reforms and a semblance of individual liberties. Activist groups say the price of change has been high, with a total crackdown on the crown prince’s political opponents and zero tolerance for dissent.

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Mohammed bin Salman named prime minister ahead of Khashoggi lawsuit

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New role likely to grant prince sovereign immunity in case concerning journalist murdered in Saudi Arabian embassy

Mohammed bin Salman has been named prime minister of Saudi Arabia in a move that experts said would probably shield the crown prince from a potentially damaging lawsuit in the US in connection to his alleged role in the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that King Salman was making an exception to Saudi law and naming his son as prime minister, formally ceding the dual title of king and prime minister he had personally held until now.

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Biden Saudi visit is ‘presidential pardon for murder’, says ex-spy chief’s son

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President ‘made it clear that there won’t be any direct consequences’ for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder, says Khalid Aljabri

Joe Biden’s visit to Saudi Arabia and meeting with its de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is “the equivalent of a presidential pardon for murder”, according to Khalid Aljabri, the son of the exiled former senior Saudi intelligence officer Saad Aljabri.

The US president once vowed to make Saudi Arabia “a pariah” after the death of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist whose 2018 murder was ordered, according to US intelligence. But this week the White House announced that Biden will meet the crown prince in Jeddah at the end of a four-day trip in July – a development described by Saudi human rights activists as a “betrayal”.

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Khashoggi row goes unmentioned as Erdoğan seeks to boost Saudi trade ties

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Analysis: regional rivals reconcile in Jeddah while reason for three-year rift remains elephant in the room

With awkward embraces and fixed grins, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Mohammed bin Salman struck a pose of reconciliation. For the past three years, the presence of the Turkish leader and the Saudi crown prince in the same room would have been unthinkable, but in a drawing room of a Jeddah palace on Friday, both tried to signal a new beginning.

There was no sign of the acrimony that had set the regional rivals apart and – most definitely – no mention of the reason for the rift: the Saudi murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

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Outspoken Saudi princess released after nearly three years in jail

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Human rights advocate Princess Basmah and her daughter were imprisoned without charge in 2019

Saudi authorities have released a princess and her daughter who had been detained without charge for nearly three years.

Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, 57, an outspoken human rights advocate and member of the royal family, went missing in March 2019 along with her adult daughter Souhoud al-Sharif.

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As Arab leaders gather in Saudi Arabia King Salman’s absence looms large

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With the king barely seen for 20 months, the crown prince is holding the reins of power – and unbothered by who knows it

Beaming in satisfaction as Arab rulers arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday, Mohammed bin Salman looked like a man in charge. As a succession of planes disgorged heads of state for a regional summit, the Saudi crown prince was there to receive them – standing in for his father at yet another big event.

But as Prince Mohammed ushered leaders of Kuwait, the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain along a purple carpet to a reception hall, the king’s absence loomed large. If the ailing monarch was to reappear in public – a once every five year gathering under his auspices would have been the time and place.

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‘Weak’ US let Saudis jail more dissidents, says rights group

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Lack of US sanctions on crown prince led to harsher sentences for critics of regime, Grant Liberty reports

The Biden administration’s failure to impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, has led to a increase in severe sentences for political prisoners in the kingdom, the Guardian can reveal.

The UK-based human rights organisation Grant Liberty found that twice as many harsh sentences had been meted out to Saudi prisoners of conscience in April than in the first three months of this year combined. It followed the Biden administration’s decision on 26 February to publish an intelligence report that showed the crown prince, “approved an operation in Istanbul, Turkey, to capture or kill Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi”.

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Biden defends move not to punish Saudi crown prince over Khashoggi killing

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President claims sanction for Mohammed bin Salman would have been diplomatically unprecedented but overstates US-Saudi ties

Joe Biden has defended his decision to waive any punishment for Saudi Arabia’s crown prince in the murder of a US-based journalist, claiming that acting against the Saudi royal would have been diplomatically unprecedented for the United States.

In an ABC News interview that aired on Wednesday, the US president discussed his administration’s decision to exempt Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from any penalties for the October 2018, killing of Jamal Khashoggi. Last month, the Biden administration released a declassified US intelligence report which concluded that the crown prince authorized the team of Saudi security and intelligence officials that killed Khashoggi.

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Rethink or reset? Joe Biden’s dilemma over Mohammed bin Salman

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US president has chosen to ‘recalibrate’ relations with Saudi Arabia, but some say a rupture is required

In late 2019, as Joe Biden stood on a debate stage and boldly vowed to make Saudi Arabia a pariah if he was elected president, a little-known former aide and Middle East expert was examining what exactly a “progressive” post-Trump stance towards the oil-rich kingdom might look like.

Daniel Benaim, a policy wonk who had worked for Biden as a speechwriter, and for Hillary Clinton and John Kerry before that, first travelled to Saudi Arabia and then began interviewing dozens of Democratic and progressive policy experts to come up with a blueprint.

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Khashoggi: statement clarifying US stance on Saudi Arabia due on Monday

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Biden’s announcement comes after Saudi exiles express shock over lack of sanctions against Mohammed bin Salman over killing of journalist

President Joe Biden said on Saturday that the US would make an announcement on Saudi Arabia on Monday, following an intelligence report that found that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had approved the killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul in 2018.

Saudi dissidents have expressed anger and disbelief that while the US has officially confirmed the long-suspected view that Prince Mohammed “approved” the killing of the journalist, he will escape punishment. A declassified intelligence assessment released on Friday concluded that the heir to the throne “approved an operation to capture or kill Khashoggi”.

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Lack of sanctions for crown prince shows weight Riyadh holds

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Analysis: decision not to penalise Saudi heir over Jamal Khashoggi shows kingdom still has influence

After two years of blanket cover from Donald Trump, a new US president has officially blamed Mohammed bin Salman for the most savage political slaying of modern times and brought the Saudi heir’s unchecked run with Washington to a humiliating halt.

Joe Biden’s confirmation that Prince Mohammed approved the butchering of Jamal Khashoggi bluntly ends the era of bromance between his predecessor and the kingdom’s de facto leader, and signals a very different relationship with a new administration.

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US finds Saudi crown prince approved Khashoggi murder but does not sanction him

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Biden administration to target ‘counter-dissident’ activity and Saudi official but not Mohammed bin Salman personally

US intelligence agencies concluded that the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, approved the 2018 murder of the Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi but stopped short of personally targeting the future Saudi king with financial or other sanctions.

Related: Khashoggi confidant Omar Abdulaziz: 'I’m worried about the safety of the people of Saudi Arabia'

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Jamal Khashoggi: Biden faces calls to ‘strike a blow’ for Saudi human rights

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President Biden to call King Salman as his administration prepare to release intelligence report expected to implicate crown prince

Joe Biden is expected to call Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, as his administration prepares to release a declassified intelligence report that many experts expect will name the royal’s son and heir as complicit in the grisly murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

The White House confirmed on Wednesday that Biden’s call to the 85-year-old ruler would take place “soon” and that the declassified report on Khashoggi’s murder was being readied for release. Biden is insisting that he speak only to the king.

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Biden seeks to sideline Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman

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The new US administration has signalled it expects the desert kingdom to ‘change its approach’ in a break with Trump policy

The Biden administration has said it expects Saudi Arabia to “change its approach” to the US and signalled that it wants to minimise any direct contact between the president and the country’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

The stance marks an abrupt change compared with the Trump administration, which showered the young heir with attention and praise. It comes as intelligence officials are preparing to release – possibly as early as next week – a declassified report to Congress that will describe its assessment of the crown prince’s alleged culpability in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the US-based Washington Post journalist who was killed by Saudi officials in 2018.

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Detained former Saudi crown prince at risk after social media attack, say lawyers

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Exclusive: YouTube asked to remove video claiming Mohammed bin Nayef plotted to bring down current regime

Mohammed bin Nayef – the detained former Saudi crown prince and interior minister – has been the victim of a sustained and coordinated attack from inside Saudi Arabia on social media that risks endangering his personal safety, lawyers acting for him have warned.

The lawyers have written to YouTube demanding it take down a video, saying the content claiming he had been plotting to bring down Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman runs the risk of inviting serious retribution and harm to him. YouTube has not yet acted on the complaint.

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UK MPs and lawyers request Saudi visit to check on missing princes

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Mohammed bin Nayef and Ahmed bin Abdulaziz have not been seen in public since March

A group of MPs and lawyers have asked to visit Saudi Arabia to discover the fate of two high-profile Saudi princes, the former crown prince Mohammed bin Nayef and Prince Ahmed bin Abdulaziz.

The panel has been set up to investigate and report on the detention of the princes as well as other key political figures detained in the region. The princes have reportedly been denied legal advice, medical care and contact with their family since they disappeared in March.

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Saudi expats launch opposition party on anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s death

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National Assembly party aims at creation of representative government in Saudi Arabia

A group of intellectual Saudi Arabian expatriates have launched an opposition party on the second anniversary of the murder of the Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi.

The aim of the National Assembly party is to gather the support of people inside and outside of Saudi Arabia for the formation of a representative government, which would be the first elected democratic institution inside the country since its birth 90 years ago.

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Outspoken Saudi princess reveals that she is in prison

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Princess Basmah, a human rights advocate, demands that her uncle the king frees her

A senior Saudi royal and granddaughter of the country’s founding monarch has revealed she is being held in prison and demanded that the current ruler and her cousin, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, release her and provide medical care.

Princess Basmah bint Saud bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, an outspoken human rights advocate, claims she is being detained without charge in Riyadh with one of her daughters. She says neither have received explanations for their arrests, despite repeated pleas to the kingdom’s royal court, and to her uncle King Salman.

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