(today)
Sherman took an even harder line on potential nuclear assistance, noting that Saudi Arabia has resisted the sort of safeguards to which other U.S. partners such as the United Arab Emirates have agreed. He argued that a nuclear-armed Saudi Arabia could be just as dangerous as a nuclear-armed Iran.
“Just because the Saudis are not Shiites does not mean that they are Zionists,” Sherman said.
(today / May 30, 2023)
„I say this to be as clear as I can within the framework of the fog that exists for us, too,“ Hanegbi said. „We are not really aware, right now, of what is happening in the Saudi-American corridors.“
The Israeli official suggested that any new U.S. weapons to Riyadh would have to comply with Washington’s commitment to preserving an Israeli “qualitative military edge” in the region, and predicted that any Saudi civilian nuclear program would first have to clear U.S. counter-proliferation regulations.
(6 Jun, 2019)
More terrible than any of that is the blindingly obvious danger that providing nuclear expertise to Riyadh will push Iran, their sworn enemy and regional rival, into developing its own nuclear capabilities. Supposedly the whole point of Trump’s campaign of threats and sanctions is to deter Tehran from doing just that. To provoke Iran in this fashion is astonishingly stupid – and hypocritical.
It is simply not good enough to say that two planned Saudi reactors, for which multibillion dollar tenders will be sought next year, are intended for civilian, not military use. So far at least, Riyadh has reportedly refused to offer standard guarantees that it will eschew uranium enrichment and plutonium reprocessing, two well-worn pathways to nuclear weapons, or accept independent inspections.
(25 Oct, 2021)
A former senior Saudi intelligence officer has claimed that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is a “psychopath with no empathy” who once boasted that he could kill the kingdom’s ruler at the time, King Abdullah, and replace him with his own father.
In an interview on US television, Saad Aljabri, who fled Saudi Arabia in May 2017 and is living in exile in Canada, also said he had been warned by an associate in 2018, after the murder of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, that a Saudi hit team was heading to Canada to kill him.
(28.03.2019)
The Donald Trump administration has granted permission to unspecified US companies to sell nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia and provide technical assistance, US Energy Secretary Rick Perry told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday.
The companies have asked the administration to keep the approvals secret.
The oil-rich kingdom is set to build at least two nuclear power plants, with several countries, including the US, South Korea, and Russia, all vying for the project. However, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also stated that his country would also seek to develop nuclear weapons if its Iranian rivals obtained it.
(June 7, 2017)
The established pattern of constraints on Iran’s nuclear program could be held as the gold standard for the rest of the international community. This option is readily available to the United States and the partners with which it negotiated the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA): China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union. The international community should draw on that agreement and turn its standards into general, global ones, applying them to all countries seeking to enrich uranium or attempting to use plutonium for any purpose.
(12.09.2022)
According to a diplomatic source, Prime Minister Yair Lapid presented the Germans with intelligence that ‚proves the Iranians are cheating as we speak,‘ claiming the Americans‘ hardened their stance in response to the information
(25.05.2018)
Black Cube’s political work frequently intersects with Israel’s foreign policy priorities. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for example, has campaigned vociferously against the Iran deal.
“They would never work against Israeli interests,” said the source who was familiar with Black Cube‘s Iran work. He likened the firm to an “almost privatized wing of Mossad.”
He also suggested there was little chance that the Israeli government or its intelligence agencies were unaware of Black Cube’s work to discredit the Iran deal.
(November 11, 2013)
France’s sabotage of a compromise agreement on Iran’s nuclear program is a textbook case of how the new Saudi-Israeli alliance can disrupt President Barack Obama’s strategy for resolving Middle East disputes through diplomacy, not war.
Over the summer, Saudi officials including intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan visited European capitals dangling financial deals and energy concessions to countries if they would line up behind Saudi and Israeli desires for military intervention in the Syrian civil war and heightened economic warfare against Iran.
The carrots were particularly appealing to the French who are struggling with a sluggish economy, high unemployment and a recent credit downgrade. So, the flash of Saudi petro-dollars got the attention of the French government.
(September 18, 2003)
UN officials said there have been rumours going back 20 years that the Saudis wanted to pay Pakistan to do the research and development on nuclear weapons.
In 1988, Saudi bought from China intermediate-range missiles capable of reaching any part of the Middle East with a nuclear warhead.
Four years ago, Saudi Arabia sent a defence team to Pakistan to tour its secret nuclear facilities and to be briefed by Abdul Qader Khan, the father of Pakistan‘s nuclear bomb.
(July 15, 2022)
Riyadh is believed to have a covert relationship with Israel but has yet to officially disclose those diplomatic ties. In 2020, then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly flew to Saudi Arabia for a covert meeting with the kingdom’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – a claim that was denied by Riyadh’s top diplomat.
(25 February 2015)
Being able to use Saudi airspace would allow Israeli planes a shortcut to reach Iran without having to fly around the Persian Gulf, taking up precious time and fuel.
According to the dispatch, Israel and Saudi Arabia also share intelligence on Iran’s nuclear program at a very intimate level and the Saudis are no less worried by details coming out of the Geneva talks than Israeli leaders, who have loudly spoken out against the talks.
(28.03.2023)
Saudi Arabia is reportedly demanding that the White House unfreeze some weapons deals from the Trump administration that were put on hold when US President Joe Biden took office.
Saudi Arabia is also reportedly seeking a defense treaty with the US, akin to NATO, and US approval for a civilian nuclear program in exchange for full normalization with Israel.
(May 25, 2023)
Within his own party, 60% of Democratic and Democratic-leaning voters say they back Biden for the top of next year’s Democratic ticket, 20% favor activist and lawyer Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and 8% back author Marianne Williamson.
„They still treat me as a fringe candidate and they say ‘he doesn‘t have a chance’ and they don‘t even put me in the polls a lot of times. And I‘m way ahead of DeSantis. My numbers are much better than his but he‘s treated as a legitimate candidate. That‘s ok. They don‘t have to treat me different…all we have to do is win the election.“
(17. September 2021)
Ich habe es schon mal geschrieben, ich wiederhole es:
Es ist wie früher, es ist wie im Faschismus: Hilfe muss von außen kommen.
(26. Mai 2023)
Für Sicherheit und Frieden in Europa sei es erforderlich, dass Deutschland „eine Führungsrolle“ einnehme in der Nato und in der EU, die sich in die Lage versetzen müsse, sich militärisch zu verteidigen.
Von Deutschland, das machen alle drei baltischen Regierungschefs klar, wünschen sie sich eine Unterstützung für eine klare Beitrittsperspektive der Ukraine zur Nato, etwa eine formelle Einladung auf dem Gipfel in Vilnius.
World leaders are already discussing their plans to help Ukraine after its victory in the full-scale war with Russia, it will take a lot of resources and funds to restore the destroyed territories, President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen said while visiting Ukraine‘s pavilion Before the Future at the 18th International Architecture Exhibition La Biennale di Venezia on Friday, according to the press service of the Restoration Ministry of Ukraine.
„The air raid siren in Kyiv region lasted for more than three hours today. The enemy attacked the area with shaheds. The police of Kyiv region are documenting the consequences of an enemy attack on the region. In one of the residential complexes, as a result of the attack, people received shrapnel wounds, head injuries and bruises,“ Nebytov said on the Telegram channel.
The mayor, citing data from the city medical services, said that no residents of the buildings hit by the aircraft were seriously hurt. He added that two people requested medical assistance at the scene, but no one had to be taken to the hospital.