Archiv: the Arab and Islamic regions and cultures: the Saudi Ruler and extras


18.02.2025 - 04:14 [ Middle East Eye ]

As Trump looks to turn page on Gaza and Ukraine, all roads lead to Riyadh

Saudi Arabia is neutral ground for Trump to restore high-level ties to Russia, but the crown prince is opposing his Gaza plans

14.02.2025 - 19:24 [ Reuters ]

Saudi Arabia spearheads Arab scramble for alternative to Trump‘s Gaza plan

The role of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, widely known as MbS, is shaping up to be key.
„We are telling the Americans we have a plan that works. Our meeting with MbS is going to be critical. He is taking the lead,“ said a Jordanian official.

12.02.2025 - 12:45 [ CBS News ]

Trump pushes Gaza plan in meeting with Jordan‘s King Abdullah II

„I don‘t have to threaten that. I do believe we‘re above that,“ Mr. Trump said. That contradicted his previous suggestion that holding back aid was a possibility.

12.02.2025 - 12:29 [ Le Monde ]

Gaza: Trump forces King Abdullah II of Jordan into diplomatic contortions

There was something painful about watching Jordanian King Abdullah II at the White House on Tuesday, February 11, his eyes nervously twitching as he tried not to upset his host, Donald Trump. Journalists asked him, several times over: Was his country, Jordan, ready to receive a part of the Gazan population on its soil, as the American president wants to remove them from Palestinian territory?

The king refused to answer. In his impeccable English, he cautiously took refuge behind Egypt‘s broader international stature.

12.02.2025 - 12:14 [ Middle East Eye ]

Jordan‘s King Abdullah avoids contradicting Trump‘s claim to authority over Gaza

“I think we have to keep in mind that there is a plan from Egypt and the Arab countries,” Abdullah said when prompted to speak by the president.

“We‘re being invited by [Crown Prince] Mohammed bin Salman to discussions in Riyadh..“

05.02.2025 - 20:03 [ Al Jazeera ]

‘Non-negotiable’: Saudi Arabia flatly rejects Trump’s Gaza takeover plan

“His Highness [Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman] has affirmed this position in a clear and explicit manner that does not allow for any interpretation under any circumstances.

“His Highness stressed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not stop its tireless work towards the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, and the Kingdom will not establish diplomatic relations with Israel without that.”

05.02.2025 - 19:28 [ Le Monde ]

World reactions to Trump‘s proposal for US to ‚take over‘ Gaza Strip

„The US will take over the Gaza Strip, and we will do a job with it too,“ Trump said. „We‘ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings, level it out, create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs.“

01.02.2025 - 00:58 [ New York Times ]

U.S. Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels

(January 23, 2016)

In addition to Saudi Arabia’s vast oil reserves and role as the spiritual anchor of the Sunni Muslim world, the long intelligence relationship helps explain why the United States has been reluctant to openly criticize Saudi Arabia for its human rights abuses, its treatment of women and its support for the extreme strain of Islam, Wahhabism, that has inspired many of the very terrorist groups the United States is fighting. The Obama administration did not publicly condemn Saudi Arabia’s beheading this month of a dissident Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, who had challenged the royal family.

31.01.2025 - 23:38 [ Middle East Eye ]

Exclusive: Palestinian Authority tells US it is ready to ‚clash‘ with Hamas for control of Gaza

Ziad Abu Amr, one of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s longtime advisors, would become the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip, heading the committee. He would be appointed deputy to Palestinian Prime Minister Muhammad Mustafa but endowed with massive new powers.

Abu Amr was born in the Gaza Strip in 1950. He could be palatable to the Trump administration because he is also a US citizen. He obtained his PhD from Georgetown University and served as deputy Palestinian prime minister from 2013 to 2024.

28.01.2025 - 19:43 [ Axios ]

Scoop: White House envoy met senior Palestinian official in Saudi Arabia

Why it matters: This was the first meeting between a Trump administration official and a Palestinian official since November‘s election.

– The meeting between Witkoff and Hussein al-Sheikh took place amid efforts by the Trump administration to end the war in Gaza and push for a Saudi-Israeli peace deal that includes a path toward a Palestinian state.

28.01.2025 - 19:29 [ Middle East Monitot ]

Saudi envoy to UK: No normalisation with Israel without Palestinian state

He added that Palestine has been fought over for 6,000 years, and that “it is not an easy thing to find, whether it’s during the Crusades […] I can’t think of anywhere that’s had that much done to it.”

However, he stressed that “good things are never easy. And anyone who is objecting to what almost the whole world sees as the solution cannot be right. So, you know, again, that’s why I’m not optimistic, because we have a lot of problems along the way.”

Al Saud asserted that “there’s no other solution” other than a two-state solution.

13.01.2025 - 12:30 [ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ]

What a second Trump administration may mean for the Saudi nuclear program

(January 6, 2ß25)

Riyadh has been very clear on the kind of nuclear partnership it expects, and it is no secret that its favored option is cooperation with South Korea, similar under a 123 agreement (a nuclear cooperation document that establishes the legal basis and prerequisites for nuclear deals with the United States) allowing it to enrich uranium domestically. The problem, however, lies in the last bit of the sentence. The United States currently insists on an agreement that requires the Saudis forgo enrichment and reprocessing capabilities—two pathways to building a bomb. The reelection of Trump might be the Saudis’ chance to tip the balance in their favor.

21.12.2024 - 07:14 [ TKP.at ]

Gaza-Deal zwischen Saudis und Netanjahu?

„Als Gegenleistung für ihre Unterstützung und ihr Geld, so sagte mir der Israeli, würden die Vereinigten Staaten der saudischen Führung ein erweitertes Verteidigungsabkommen anbieten, das Saudi-Arabien in ihren nuklearen Schutzschirm einbeziehen würde – für den Fall, dass der Iran, Israels letzter verbliebener Feind, in den Besitz einer Atombombe gelangen sollte. “
(…)
„Der Israeli sagte mir, dass das saudische Paket einen zusätzlichen Anreiz enthält: Die Saudis würden wegschauen, wenn die Israelis Bombenangriffe durchführen, einschließlich der Bombardierung militärischer Ziele im zerrissenen Syrien, und würden Israel Zugang zu einem Flugplatz innerhalb der saudischen Grenzen gewähren. Auf diese Weise könnten israelische Bomben, die zumeist von den Vereinigten Staaten geliefert werden, innerhalb von Minuten, nicht Stunden, auf wichtige iranische Ziele abgefeuert werden.“

21.12.2024 - 01:56 [ New York Times ]

Israel Found the Hamas Money Machine Years Ago. Nobody Turned It Off.

(December 16, 2023)

Israeli leaders believed that Hamas was more interested in governing than fighting. By the time the agents discovered the ledgers in 2018, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, was encouraging the government of Qatar to deliver millions of dollars to the Gaza Strip. He gambled that the money would buy stability and peace.

Mr. Levy recalled briefing Mr. Netanyahu personally in 2015 about the Hamas portfolio.

21.12.2024 - 00:37 [ Seymour Hersh ]

THE NEW CEASEFIRE EQUATION: Saudi Arabia’s entry into talks between Israel and Hamas may change Gaza’s future

In return for its support and money, the Israeli told me, the Saudi leadership would be offered an expanded defense treaty by the United States that would include Saudi Arabia in its nuclear umbrella—its zone of protection—in case Iran, Israel’s last standing enemy, were to acquire a nuclear bomb.
(…)
There is an added inducement in the Saudi package, the Israeli told me: the Saudis would look the other way as the Israelis conduct bombing raids, including bombing of military targets inside fractured Syria, and would give Israel access to an airfield within Saudi borders. This would bring Israeli bombs, most supplied by the United States, within minutes, and not hours, of key Iranian targets.

21.12.2024 - 00:12 [ Middle East Eye ]

Israel, Saudi Arabia closer to normalisation deal: Report

(December 18, 2024)

Israel and Saudi Arabia have reached a breakthrough in talks around normalising relations, Haaretz reported on Tuesday, adding that the normalisation could be related to an elusive ceasefire deal that would bring about an end to Israel‘s war on Gaza.

Sources familiar with the negotiations told Haaretz that rather than Israel agreeing to Saudi Arabia‘s demand for the recognition of a Palestinian state, the two sides agreed that Israel would give a vague commitment on a „path towards Palestinian statehood“.