Tag: Saudi Arabia

China steps up, a new era has dawned in world politics

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Saturday, 11 March 2023 — Indian Punchline

by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Under Chinese mediation, Saudi Arabia and Iran have reached an agreement to resume diplomatic relations, Beijing, March 10, 2023

The agreement announced on Friday in Beijing regarding the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran and the reopening of their embassies is a historic event. It goes way beyond an issue of Saudi-Iranian relations. China’s mediation signifies that we are witnessing a profound shift of the tectonic plates in the geopolitics of the 21st century.

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Saudi FM: No Normalization, No Arab NATO, No Cooperation with ‘Israel’

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Saturday, 16 July 2022 —  Internationalist 360°

Al Mayadeen

In a statement on Saturday evening, Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan denied much of what US President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid remarked during their bilateral meeting, which was thought to be mainly about the normalization of relations with “Israel” and increasing oil production.

The Jeddah Summit for Security and Development kicked off this afternoon in Saudi Arabia, in the presence of Biden and leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council, as well as Egypt, Jordan, and Iraq.
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US Officially Makes Israel the New Middle Eastern Hegemon

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Tuesday, 28 June 2022 —  Internationalist 360°

Salman Rafi Sheikh

ISR4652231

Two years ago, when the Abraham Accords were signed and Donald Trump hailed them as a truly historic moment, there were very few who believed anything substantial could come out of them. Even a US intelligence report of the Department of Homeland Security warned that these pacts could lead to an increase in terrorism. But this has been far from the case. As it stands today, the Biden administration has revamped enthusiasm for a sort of Abraham Accords 2.0., which would extend the Arab-Israel normalisation to Saudi Arabia, the most powerful state in the Arab world.

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Iran-backed Houthi is the winner in Yemen

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Friday, 8 April 2022 — Indian Punchline

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (R) received Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council , Riyadh, April 7, 2022

These are early days and Yemen has witnessed many a ceasefire in its tortuous civil war that began in September 2014 when Houthi forces took over the capital city Sanaa, which was followed by a rapid Houthi takeover of the government. There is a feeling of déjà vu about the 2-month long Ramadan ceasefire that has been announced.

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As US Renews Support for Saudi War in Yemen, Civilian Death Toll Nearly Doubles

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Thursday, 17 February 2022 — MintPress News

HAJJAH, YEMEN – Two parallel but very different meetings took place recently — one in search of peace, the other to plan more war. In Oman’s capital, Muscat, an official delegation headed by Ansar Allah, met with Omani and European officials to negotiate de-escalation and humanitarian assistance in Yemen. Meanwhile, the United States and the Saudi-led Coalition held meetings to plan a ground escalation in Sana’a and Hajjah province in Yemen’s southeast to coincide with airstrikes against residential neighborhoods in other cities throughout the north, which have killed and injured dozens of people and caused extensive damage to property and infrastructure.
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COP26: why advanced countries must proportionately make by far the biggest cuts in carbon emissions–factual briefing

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31 October 2021 — MROnline

| UNDER THREAT Reduced sea ice due to climate change might cut the polarbear population by twothirds by 2050 Photo Andreas Weith | MR Online UNDER THREAT: Reduced sea ice due to climate change might cut the polar-bear population by two-thirds by 2050. (Photo: Andreas Weith)

by John Ross

Originally published: Learning from China (October 29, 2021 )  |

The COP26 conference on climate change is discussing an issue which will profoundly affect every person on our planet. Climate change, together with nuclear war, is one of the two issues which can overturn the present basis of human civilisation. Because of the extreme seriousness of this issue, the COP26 conference should therefore be an arena for strictly objective international scientific discussion and international cooperation. Fortunately, as will be seen, strictly objective scientific evidence on the issue of climate change has been put forward in the run up to the conference.

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Watch: Warton’s War on Yemen

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13 October 2021 — Declassified UK

Tomorrow (14 Oct) we launch our new film “Warton’s War on Yemen” live at 5pm on our YouTube channel followed by a Q&A at 6.30pm, registration required.

In this revealing film we investigate an arms factory in Warton, Lancashire making warplanes to bomb Yemen – the world’s worst humanitarian disaster. Interviewing local residents and a former Foreign Office lawyer, our team tracks down a secretive supply flight that Britain’s largest arms company BAE Systems sends every week from Warton to Saudi Arabia, and questions whether the air war could continue without UK support.

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Biden Doctrine appears in Persian Gulf

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13 September 2021 — Indian Punchline

M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Iran’s Vice-President & head of the Atomic Energy Organization Mohammad Eslami (second from right) met International Atomic Energy Agency director general Rafael Grossi, Tehran, Sept 12, 2021

The incipient signs of a US retrenchment from Saudi Arabia have appeared in a series of moves in the past 2-3 weeks. On a parallel track, the Biden Administration is factoring in that new Iranian government is returning to the negotiating table at Vienna on nuclear issues.

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Saudi-Iran reset will take time

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11 May 2021 — Indian Punchline

M.K. Bhadrakumar

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (R) received Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani (L), Jeddah, May 11, 2021

The Saudi-Iranian contacts that began last month in secrecy has gained gravitas. The unannounced trip to Jeddah last night by the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani and the exceptional courtesies he received, with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman greeting him at the airport, calls attention to the winds of change sweeping Gulf region. Sheikh Tamim returned to Doha by the crack of dawn but it was a substantive visit.

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The British Cabal Behind a Gulf Dictatorship

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23 April 2021 — Consortium News

Senior figures in the British establishment have secretly served as “privy councillors” to a highly repressive dictatorship in the Gulf state of Oman, Phil Miller reports.

Sultan Qaboos Grand Mosque in Muscat, Oman. (CC BY 2.0, Wikimedia Commons)

By Phil Miller
Declassified U.K.

The repressive ruler of a close U.K. ally in the Gulf secretly received decades of advice on security, foreign and economic policy from a group of privy councillors who were drawn almost exclusively from the British establishment, it has emerged.

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Coup attempt in Jordan leaves a trail

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5 April 2021 — Indian Punchline

By M.K. Bhadrakumar

“What happens in the Middle East has a way of making itself felt everywhere around the world,” Jordan’s King Abdullah II ibn Al-Hussein while addressing the European Parliament, Strasbourg, 15th January 2021

A coup attempt is an orphan unless it succeeds. Therefore, all we can say is that a coup was in the making in Jordan. In a televised news conference on Sunday in Amman, all that Deputy Prime Minister Ayman al-Safadi would admit was that “These were efforts that threatened Jordan’s security and stability, and these efforts were foiled.”

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US, Lobbyists and Arm Dealers Scramble to Reposition Amid Impending Saudi Defeat in Yemen

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25 March 2021 — Mint Press News

WASHINGTON — In his last months in office, former President Donald Trump gave American defense contractors like Lockheed Martin and Reaper drone manufacturer General Atomics Aeronautical Systems billions in projected earnings through a controversial $23 billion arms deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a deal now “under review” by the Biden administration.

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Ten years on, Syria is almost destroyed. Who’s to blame?

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20 March 2021 — Indian Punchline
Syria in ruins after ten years of conflict (File photo)

In George Orwell’s novel Animal Farm, the ruling pigs led by Napoleon constantly rewrote history in order to justify and reinforce their own continuing power. The rewriting by the western powers of the history of the ongoing conflict in Syria leaps out of Orwell.

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Yemen war a quagmire for Saudi Arabia

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9 March 2021 — Indian Punchline

M.K. Bhadrakumar

Houthi fighters claim to have taken control of 10 out of fourteen districts of the strategic northern city of Marib, Yemen

With the world’s largest oil export terminal coming under missile and drone attack — a giant Saudi Aramco complex capable of exporting roughly 6.5m barrels a day, nearly 7% of global oil demand — the war in Yemen surges in the global media. During the night on Saturday, the Houthis fired eight missiles and 14 drones towards Ras Tanura on Saudi Arabia’s east coast. And Brent crude oil price shot up to highs not seen since before coronavirus was declared a pandemic.

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Britain’s role in the death & injury of Yemeni civilians

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14 December 2020 — Airstrikes (formerly Drone Warfare)

Above: typical of the destruction wrought by coalition air strikes

July – December 2020

After taking the UK government to court over its arms sales to the Saudis, the latest CAAT newsletter (Issue 258 Winter 2020) recalls that in July 2020 the Government said that it had made the required assessment as to “whether the Saudi-led coalition had committed violations of IHL in the past, during the Yemen conflict” and its conclusion is that these are ‘isolated incidents’.

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First NATO-ME War Overturns Regional Order

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24 March 2020 — Voltaire Network

by Thierry Meyssan

While Europeans and Arabs are being absorbed by the coronavirus, Anglo-Saxons are changing the world order. Under US command, the United Kingdom took control of the Red Sea entrance; the United Arab Emirates turned on Saudi Arabia and inflicted a bitter defeat on South Yemen, while the Houthis did the same in North Yemen. Yemen is now split into two separate states and the territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia is threatened.

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How black swans are shaping planet panic

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11 March 2020 — Asia Times

A case can be made that the current financial panic will only subside when the ultimate black swan – Covid-19 – is contained.

by Pepe Escobar

Two black swans swim in a lake of a park in Shenyang. Photo: AFP

Is the planet under the spell of a pair of black swans – a Wall Street meltdown, caused by an alleged oil war between Russia and the House of Saud, plus the uncontrolled spread of Covid-19 – leading to an all-out “cross-asset pandemonium” as billed by Nomura?

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Saudi Arabia Retreats From The Troubles Its Clown Prince Caused

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6 December 2019 — Moon of Alabama

When the Saudi King Salman promoted his son Mohammad bin Salman (MbS) to Defense Minister and then Crown Prince the expectations were high. But three of the major projects Muhammad launched since then soon ran into trouble. Now initiatives are under way to limit the damage he caused. The end of the five year old Saudi war on Yemen is coming into sight. The public offering of the Saudi state owned ARAMCO oil company is finally happening but with a much lower valuation than originally planned. The thirty month spat with Qatar is under repair.

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