Category Archives: Saudi Arabia

Joe Biden arrives in Middle East at time of rapid change

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Analysis: Israel has transformed itself from regional pariah to ally to many Arab states

Joe Biden has made clear that the Middle East is not a priority for his administration: Ukraine, China and the US midterm elections are all more pressing issues. Still, when Air Force One touches down in Tel Aviv for his first visit to the region as president on Wednesday afternoon, Biden will be faced with a rapidly changing – and still unstable – part of the world.

Biden’s main goal is to convince Saudi Arabia of the need to increase global oil supplies to ease the energy crisis sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But the fact that he flies directly to Jeddah after two days in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories speaks to a significant shift: Israel’s transformation from regional pariah to ally for many Arab states.

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US looking at new international body to record rights abuses in Yemen

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Rights activist say move is akin to asking Vladimir Putin to investigate Russian war crimes in Ukraine

The Biden administration is exploring the creation of a new international committee to document and report on human rights violations in Yemen, months after a Saudi lobbying campaign quashed an independent United Nations investigation into possible war crimes.

The revelation comes on the eve of a tour of the Middle East by Joe Biden that will include a visit to Israel and – controversially – Saudi Arabia, where the US president has said his aim is to strengthen the “strategic partnership” while also “holding true to fundamental American values”.

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Biden defends Saudi Arabia trip that aims to reset ties

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President says he aims to reorient relations and meet with the crown prince, who he previously denounced as a pariah

Joe Biden on Saturday defended his decision to travel to Saudi Arabia saying human rights would be on his agenda as he gave a preview of a trip on which he aims to reset ties with the crown prince, who he previously denounced as a pariah.

The American president will hold bilateral talks with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and his leadership team, including Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on his visit to the Middle East next week.

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Anger as families of US detainees in Middle East left off Blinken call

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‘Infuriating’ exclusions made just weeks before Joe Biden’s Saudi visit and expected rapprochement with the crown prince

Family members of several US nationals who are being held in Saudi Arabia and Egypt were not invited to attend a recent call with Antony Blinken, the secretary of state, in a move that was called “infuriating and discriminatory” by one critic.

The apparent decision to exclude the families from a 22 June call between Blinken and relatives of US nationals who are hostages or otherwise wrongfully detained in Russia, Venezuela, Rwanda and other countries, was made just weeks before Joe Biden’s controversial trip to the Middle East and an expected rapprochement between the US president and Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince.

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Judge puts Biden on the spot over immunity for Saudi crown prince

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Court invitation to clarify prince’s status comes as president faces criticism for ditching promise to turn Saudi Arabia into a ‘pariah’

A US judge has asked the Biden administration to weigh in on whether Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, should be granted sovereign immunity in a civil case brought against him in the US by Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of Jamal Khashoggi, the journalist who was killed by Saudi agents in 2018.

John Bates, a district court judge, gave the US government until 1 August to declare its interests in the civil case or give the court notice that it has no view on the matter.

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Israel and Saudi Arabia ‘in talks over joint defence against Iran’

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US-brokered summit discusses shared threat of Tehran’s growing missile and drone capabilities

Top military officials from Israel and Saudi Arabia have met in secret US-brokered talks to discuss defence coordination against Iran, according to a report.

Delegations from Riyadh, as well as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Jordan and Egypt, met the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) chief of staff in the Egyptian town of Sharm el-Sheikh in March, the Wall Street Journal revealed on Sunday, citing US and regional officials.

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British Muslim travel agencies in uproar over Saudi hajj changes

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Saudi Arabia tells pilgrims to use new online system and to seek refunds from any agencies they have already paid

British Muslim travel companies have said they face going out of business, with travellers potentially losing thousands of pounds, after Saudi Arabia launched a new system for applying for the hajj pilgrimage.

The Saudi government announced this month that pilgrims from Europe, the US and Australia could no longer book through travel agencies and would instead have to apply through a lottery system.

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Prince Charles’s charities are no stranger to controversy

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Analysis: Reports that prince accepted €3m from a former Qatari prime minister again throws spotlight on donations

• Charles given €3m by Qatari politician, according to report

Claims by the Sunday Times of alleged cash donations given to the Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund by a former Qatari prime minister are the latest to throw a spotlight on fundraising for the heir to the throne’s charities.

The billionaire Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber al-Thani, who was Qatar’s prime minister and foreign minister between 2007 and 2013, is a contentious figure.

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‘Frankly quite stupid’: rights groups condemn Biden’s Saudi Arabia visit

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Critics question value of US president’s visit, raising fears it will endanger dissidents and legitimise regime’s human rights stance

Rights advocates fear Joe Biden’s decision to visit Saudi Arabia will endanger dissidents abroad and be seen by the authorities there as giving the green light to restrict civil liberties domestically.

Abdullah Alaoudh, of the thinktank Democracy for the Arab World Now and son of jailed cleric Salman al-Odah, said: “Right before inauguration, he [Biden] said he will be sure to protect Saudi dissidents – those were his words. We’re not protected by someone shaking hands with the same person who is threatening us every day and taking our families hostage due to our activism here in the US.”

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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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US has not fully investigated own role in Yemen human rights abuses, watchdog finds

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Government Accountability Office also criticizes Biden’s move to classify Saudi weapons as ‘offensive’ or ‘defensive’ as meaningless

The US government has not fully investigated its own role in perpetuating human rights abuses in Yemen, according to a congressional watchdog report that offered a damning assessment of both the Trump and Biden administrations’ commitment to tracking violations of humanitarian law.

A report by the Government Accountability Office, which examined US weapons sales to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen, also raised serious doubts about one of Joe Biden’s first foreign policy as president, when he announced that his administration was ending US support for Saudi offensive operations in Yemen.

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Saudi authorities seize rainbow toys in crackdown on homosexuality

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Pencil cases, skirts and hats among items targeted for ‘contradicting Islamic faith and public morals’

Saudi officials have been seizing rainbow-coloured toys and clothing from shops in the capital as part of a crackdown on homosexuality, state media has reported.

The kingdom opened to tourism in 2019 but, like other Gulf countries, it is frequently criticised for its human rights record, including its outlawing of homosexuality, a potential capital offence.

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Democrats voice concerns over Biden’s Saudi trip: ‘Their values are not ours’ – as it happened

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Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer said the text of the gun control compromise reached by senators this weekend should come in the “coming days.”

Before the chamber can vote on the proposal, it needs to see a bill first, following this weekend’s announcement of an agreement that could pass the evenly divided Senate.

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‘Betrayal’: critics condemn Biden’s plan to visit Saudi Arabia

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Trip comes after Biden labeled the kingdom a ‘pariah’, as questions also emerge over president’s trip to Israel

Joe Biden will visit Israel, the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia next month, the White House said on Tuesday. The announcement immediately put the administration on the defensive, given the president’s previous stance that the Saudi regime was a “pariah” because of the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and other human rights abuses.

One Saudi human rights campaigner called Biden’s decision to meet the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, a “betrayal”.

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UN appeals to public for $20m to stop feared catastrophic oil spill from tanker

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Vessel off Yemen with more than 1m barrels of oil aboard has been stranded for six years and is close to breaking up

A rare UN appeal to the public to raise $20m is to be launched on Tuesday in an attempt to prevent an environmental catastrophe caused by the potential break-up of an oil tanker off the coast of Yemen.

The money is needed to offload more than 1.14m barrels of oil that have been sitting in the decrepit cargo ship, Safer, for more than six years because of an impasse between Houthi groups and the Saudi-backed government over ownership and responsibility.

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Saudi Arabia bans Pixar’s Lightyear over same-sex kiss

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The Hollywood film has been banned in a number of countries in the Middle East because of a kiss between space ranger Alisha and her partner

Toy Story spin-off Lightyear will not be released in Saudi Arabia due to the inclusion of a same-sex kiss, the latest in a string of Hollywood films that have been banned in the Middle East over LGBTQ+ content.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, the scene in question involved a space ranger called Alisha (voiced by Uzo Aduba) and her partner who greet each other with a kiss on the lips. Variety reports that Lightyear was not submitted to censors in Saudi Arabia, as it was anticipated it would not pass due to the country’s total prohibition of same-sex relationships. However, the Pixar film was submitted to censors in the comparatively more liberal United Arab Emirates, but the film’s licence was revoked after complaints on social media.

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Don’t make Partygate official Martin Reynolds our man in Riyadh, urge Tories

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Senior figure warns that man mentioned 24 times in Sue Gray report would be ‘representing the Queen’ as ambassador to Saudi Arabia

Senior Tories are warning Boris Johnson against appointing an official at the heart of the Partygate scandal to a top diplomatic job after it emerged that the man was being lined up to be Britain’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Martin Reynolds quit as Johnson’s principal private secretary in February following outrage about Partygate. He left after an email emerged in which he had invited hundreds of Whitehall staff to a “bring your own booze” party in the Downing Street garden in May 2020.

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Jack Nicklaus says he turned down $100m to be face of Saudi-backed golf tour

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  • American remains loyal to PGA Tour, which he helped found
  • Nicklaus offers advice to under-fire Phil Mickelson

Greg Norman was not the first choice to be the face of the Saudi-backed LIV Golf Series, whose Saudi Arabian organizers pursued and preferred Jack Nicklaus, according to the 73-time PGA Tour winner.

“I was offered something in excess of $100m by the Saudis, to do the job probably similar to the one that Greg is doing,” Nicklaus said in a story with Fire Pit Collective. “I turned it down. Once verbally, once in writing. I said, ‘Guys, I have to stay with the PGA Tour. I helped start the PGA Tour.’”

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Saudi oil giant Aramco reports 82% rise in quarterly profits

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Investors to get $4bn in bonus shares after record earnings of $39.5bn on higher demand and crude prices

Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, has disclosed an 82% rise in quarterly profits to a new record of $39.5bn (£32.2bn), boosted by an increase in demand and higher crude prices.

The company, which last week overtook technology group Apple to become the world’s most valuable company, said it would pay an $18.8bn (£15.3bn) dividend and hand $4bn (£3.2bn) in bonus shares to its investors after the better-than-expected performance.

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Saudi Aramco overtakes Apple as world’s most valuable company

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Soaring commodity prices swell oil giant’s profits as tech stock slide pegs back iPhone maker

Apple has lost its crown as the world’s most valuable company to the oil giant Saudi Aramco, as soaring commodity prices swell profits at energy companies and technology stocks continue to slide.

In a sign that the old economy is reasserting itself over the new this year, Aramco eclipsed Apple on Wednesday night amid the ongoing rout on Wall Street.

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