Category Archives: Saudi Arabia

Muslim backlash against Macron gathers pace after police raids

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Iran calls Paris’s response to teacher’s killing ‘unwise’ amid protests across Muslim world

The backlash against Emmanuel Macron following his insistence that publication of caricatures of the prophet Muhammad is fundamental to freedom of speech has spread, with angry international protests, cyber-attacks against French websites and warnings that the president’s response is “unwise”.

Muslims in France – and elsewhere – are also furious at what they claim is a heavy-handed government clampdown on their communities in the wake of the killing 11 days ago of the high school teacher Samuel Paty.

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Saudi women’s summit accused of ‘whitewashing’ record on rights

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Sister of jailed activist, Loujain al-Hathloul, says attendees legitimise regime that silences women

The sister of a jailed Saudi activist has criticised a G20-linked women’s summit hosted by Riyadh this week as a disturbing attempt to whitewash the country’s dismal record on women’s rights.

Loujain al-Hathloul has been in prison for more than two years without trial after campaigning for an end to Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving and its system of male guardianship, which effectively relegates women to the status of second-class citizens, requiring permission from male relatives for many life decisions.

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Saudi Arabia fails to join UN human rights council but Russia and China elected

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Result follows warnings from human rights groups that UN body’s credibility at stake

Russia and China have been elected to the UN human rights council for the next three years, but Saudi Arabia failed in its attempt to win a place on the 47-seat body.

The result is a severe blow to the country’s efforts to improve its image in the wake of the admitted killing of the Saudi citizen and Washington Post reporter Jamal Khashoggi.

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China, Russia and Saudi Arabia set to join UN human rights council

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Rights campaigners voice concerns as Cuba and Pakistan also expected to be elected

China, Russia, Cuba, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are expected to be elected to the board of the UN human rights council on Tuesday, leaving human rights campaigners in the countries aghast and pleading with EU states to commit to withholding their support.

The Geneva-based monitoring NGO UN Watch described the situation as the equivalent of allowing five convicted arsonists to join the fire brigade.

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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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Coronavirus live news: concern over case clusters at French schools and universities; Melbourne lifts curfew

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Le Monde reports 32% of outbreaks in France found in schools or universities; Victoria ends curfew

Families are counting down the days to moving into new homes in a Hong Kong estate that had been used as a Covid-19 quarantine centre in what had become a lightning rod for discontent, the South China Morning Post reports.

They included L.N. Siu, her husband and daughter, who were overjoyed when they were finally allocated a public housing flat at the Chun Yeung Estate in Hong Kong last December. They had been waiting eight years.

Romanians go to the polls on Sunday to choose mayors and local councillors, but a Covid-19 surge is threatening to hit the first electoral test after years of political turbulence with a high abstention rate.

Nationwide, the east European country of almost 19 million people has 43,000 seats to fill in the single-round election seen as a test ahead of national polls in December.

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Saudi heir and Jared Kushner inch kingdom towards deal with Israel

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Saudi Arabia’s interventions could result in seismic shift in region’s geopolitics

As the UAE and Bahrain prepared to sign a deal to normalise diplomatic relations with Israel this summer, Saudi Arabia – the regional heavyweight – was quietly urging them on.

For several months before the deals were signed at the White House, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had been laying out his rationale for a pact that would overturn regional policies towards a long-term foe.

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Sadiq Khan urged to boycott Saudi-hosted G20 mayors summit

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Rights coalition calls on mayors to withdraw from U20, which coincides with anniversary of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder

Mainly leftwing mayors of some of the world’s biggest cities are being urged to boycott a G20 urban summit hosted by Saudi Arabia on the 2nd anniversary of the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

The Urban 20 (U20) is being held as part of the Saudi Arabian chairmanship of this year’s G20. Among the mayors slated to attend include, Berlin’s Michael Müller, London’s Sadiq Khan, New York’s Bill de Blasio, Paris’s Anne Hidalgo, Rome’s Virginia Raggi as well as the mayors of Los Angeles and Madrid.

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Revealed: Saudi Arabia may have enough uranium ore to produce nuclear fuel

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Confidential Chinese report seen by the Guardian intensifies concerns about possible weapons programme

Saudi Arabia likely has enough mineable uranium ore reserves to pave the way for the domestic production of nuclear fuel, according to confidential documents seen by the Guardian.

Details of the stocks are contained in reports prepared for the kingdom by Chinese geologists, who have been scrambling to help Riyadh map its uranium reserves at breakneck speed as part of their nuclear energy cooperation agreement.

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‘I had to kill so many people’: the battle to protect children in conflicts

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25,000 grave violations were committed against children in conflict in 2019, says the UN, which hopes to highlight issue with new international day

When Islamic State fighters rolled into Mosul, Iraq, they made promises.

“When they arrived they promised us salvation, a better life, but within months our schools were closed and we were living in fear, prisoners in our own city,” says Usama Salem, 11.

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Jamal Khashoggi murder: Saudi court overturns five death sentences

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Eight defendants jailed for between seven and 20 years in final ruling on case

A Saudi court has overturned five death sentences over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, in a final ruling that jailed eight defendants for between seven and 20 years, state media reported.

“Five of the convicts were given 20 years in prison and another three were jailed for seven to 10 years,” the official Saudi Press Agency said, citing a spokesman for the public prosecutor. None of the defendants were named.

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Saudi ex-spy suing crown prince faces fresh death threat in Canada – report

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Canada reportedly increases security around Saad Aljabri, who is suing Prince Mohammed bin Salman over alleged 2018 assassination attempt

A former senior Saudi intelligence official who has accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of trying to have him assassinated in 2018 has been placed under heightened security after a new threat on his life, a Canadian newspaper has reported.

The Globe and Mail said Canadian security services had been informed of a new attempted attack on Saad Aljabri, who lives at an undisclosed location in the Toronto region.

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Saudi detention of ex-official’s children prompts rare rebuke from Trump administration

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Letter signed by US state department representative calls for ‘immediate release’ of adult children of Saad Aljabri

The Trump administration has issued a rare rebuke of Saudi Arabia over the detention of two of the adult children of a former Saudi intelligence official who has been credited with protecting Americans from al-Qaida threats.

A letter signed by a state department official said any persecution of Saad Aljabri’s family members by Saudi authorities was “unacceptable” and urged the “immediate release” of the two children, Omar and Sarah Aljabri, who were arrested from their home in Riyadh in March and have been held in detention indefinitely.

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Former Saudi intelligence official accuses crown prince of plot to kill him

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US lawsuit by Saad Aljabri claims that the Saudi state sent a team of assassins to Canada

A former senior Saudi intelligence official with close ties to western intelligence agencies has accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of plotting to kill him, claiming in a US lawsuit that one such attempt was thwarted by Canadian officials in 2018.

A lawsuit by Saad Aljabri against the Saudi crown prince and other Saudi officials, which was brought in a district court in Washington DC, claims that the Saudi state launched a campaign to target the former high-ranking official in Canada because he was viewed as a threat to Prince Mohammed’s relationship with the US and his eventual ascendancy to the throne.

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‘We drink from the toilet’: migrants tell of hellish Saudi detention centres

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Kingdom urged to rethink mass deportation policy as crowded and insanitary conditions spark Covid-19 fears

Ibraahin’s* first week of work at a market in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was also his last. As the sun set on the fifth day, the police descended upon the crowds and rounded up the 40-year-old Somali, along with several other undocumented migrant workers. They were transported to the nearby al-Shumaisi detention centre where many, including Ibraahin, remain months later, awaiting deportation.

Saudi authorities regularly arrest those found to be working illegally in the kingdom without a visa. Many are held in al-Shumaisi, a huge complex designed to hold 32,000 inmates. It has four grey-walled wings for male inmates, two for females and one for children. Detainees are held in a crowded series of bunk bed-filled halls, which each hold around 80 people.

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Alleged breaches of international law by Saudi forces in Yemen exceed 500

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UK government figures revealed days after it justified resuming arms sales because incidents were isolated

The Ministry of Defence has revealed it has logged more than 500 Saudi air raids in possible breach of international law in Yemen, even though last week it justified resuming arms sales to Riyadh on the basis that only isolated incidents without any pattern have occurred.

The trade minister, Greg Hands, answering an urgent question in the Commons on last week’s resumption of UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia, refused to say how many bombing incidents had been reviewed by the UK before it agreed to grant UK arms export licences again.

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Climate activists slam Norman Foster over Saudi airport

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Architect is ignoring his own environment pledge, say critics

One of Britain’s most famous architects is under fire for agreeing to design an airport and terminal in Saudi Arabia despite signing a climate emergency manifesto that called for an “urgent need for action” on climate change.

Norman Foster’s design firm, Foster and Partners, was one of the founding signatories of the profession’s Architects Declare manifesto last year. However, The Architects’ Journal last week revealed that several new Foster and Partners projects in Saudi Arabia have caused controversy in the profession over their links to the aviation industry.

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Britain to resume sale of arms to Saudi Arabia despite Yemen fears

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Official review finds airstrikes on civilians were ‘isolated incidents’

Britain is to resume the sales of arms to Saudi Arabia that could be used in the Yemeni conflict just over a year after the court of appeal ruled them unlawful because ministers had not properly assessed the risk to civilian casualties.

In a written statement, the trade secretary, Liz Truss, said sales would restart after an official review concluded there had been only “isolated incidents” of airstrikes in Yemen that breached humanitarian law.

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