[ad_1]
Saudi Arabia, Russia Ties Under Strain Over Oil-Production Cuts
[ad_2]
Tag: Mohammed bin Salman
-
Florida man freed from Saudi prison
[ad_1]
Florida man freed from Saudi prison – CBS News
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
[ad_2]
-
The secret Saudi plan to buy the World Cup
[ad_1]
Saudi Arabia offered to pay for new sports stadiums in Greece and Egypt if they agreed to team up with the oil-rich Gulf heavyweight in a joint bid to host the 2030 football World Cup, POLITICO can reveal.
In exchange, the Saudis would get to stage three-quarters of all the matches, under the proposed deal.
The dramatic offer — likely worth billions of euros in construction costs — was discussed in a private conversation between Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in summer 2022, according to a senior official familiar with the matter.
A second senior official with knowledge of private discussions on the bid told POLITICO that Saudi Arabia is prepared to “fully underwrite the costs” of hosting for Greece and Egypt, but 75 percent of the huge 48-team tournament itself would be held in the Gulf state.
It is not clear whether the offer was taken up. But the three countries are now working on a joint proposal to host the 2030 tournament, a move which has triggered a backlash against Greece.
Riyadh’s megabucks offer to Greece, reported here for the first time, will fuel criticism that Saudi Arabia is effectively attempting to use its astronomical wealth to buy the World Cup by creating a trans-continental coalition to cleverly take advantage of the voting system.
In an attempt to persuade the members of football’s world governing body, FIFA, of the virtues of the Saudi-led bid, the proposed tournament would see matches held across three continents, providing geographical balance. A Middle East-only World Cup bid would be unlikely to succeed just eight years after Qatar hosted the tournament in 2022.
The Saudis’ main rivals are a joint Spain, Portugal and Ukraine bid from Europe, and a South American bid from Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile.
The decision on who hosts the 2030 World Cup comes down to a public vote of the entire FIFA Congress, made up of more than 200 member associations from around the globe. If African countries, attracted by Egypt’s presence and Saudi investment around Africa, rally behind the bid, and Asian nations do the same, while Greece siphons off some European votes, the Saudi-led proposal will stand a strong chance of winning.
POLITICO approached all three governments for comment. The Greek and Saudi governments declined to comment and the Egyptian government did not respond to POLITICO’s requests. FIFA also declined to comment.
‘New world order’
Holding the World Cup would be the culmination of Saudi Arabia’s ambitious strategy to dominate major sporting events. Successes include winning the rights to host world championship boxing bouts, European football and Formula One motor races, while creating its own rebel golf tour. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund also bought a prominent English football club and the country will host football’s Asian Cup for the first time in 2027.
But Saudi Arabia’s desire to stage the World Cup goes beyond reasons of sporting prestige, according to one regional expert.
Lionel Messi of Argentina lifts the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Winner’s Trophy after the team’s victory during the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 | Julian Finney/Getty Images “Saudi Arabia is strategically trying to position itself as an AfroEurasian hub — the center of a new world order,” Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economy at Skema Business School in Paris, said of the Saudi-fronted bid. “This positioning would enable Saudi Arabia to exert significant power and influence across a vast geographic area, which it is seeking to achieve by building relationships with key partners.”
“The multipolar staging of a World Cup with Egypt and Greece would be neither altruism nor largesse. Rather, it would form part of a wider plan, which the government in Riyadh is enabling through the potential gifting of stadiums,” he added.
The Saudi move to host the tournament has sparked disgust among human rights watchdogs, who point out the country’s brutal treatment of the LGBTQ+ community and migrant workers.
“Saudi Arabian repression should not be rewarded with a World Cup,” said Minky Worden, director of global initiatives at Human Rights Watch. “So long as Saudi Arabia discriminates against LGBT people and punishes women for human rights activism, and does not have protections for the migrant laborers who would build the majority of the new stadiums and facilities, the country cannot meet the human rights requirements that FIFA already has in place.”
The 2022 Qatar World Cup was blighted by criticism of the Gulf state over its treatment of migrant workers.
Bad memories
In Greece, paying for sports infrastructure is a touchy subject, where it is seen as a monument to government profligacy.
Back in 2004, Athens hosted the Olympic Games, with Greece splurging around €9 billion. However, much of the infrastructure was left abandoned after the Olympic flame went out.
As the country entered a decade-long depression and had to resort to bailout programs to avoid bankruptcy, the Olympics became a source of anger for Greeks who questioned whether the Games pushed their country further into recession. Nearly two decades after the Olympics extravaganza, many of the 30 venues remain unused, while some have been demolished.
Since coming to power in 2019, Greece’s conservative New Democracy government has sought to deepen ties with the Saudis and other Gulf countries, as a response to arch-rival Turkey’s expansionist policy in the region.
Mitsotakis has visited Riyadh multiple times, Greece has delivered military equipment and soldiers to Saudi Arabia and, in July last year, Athens became the first EU capital visited by bin Salman since he personally approved, according to declassified U.S. intelligence, the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Bin Salman, who is back in the West’s good books thanks to an energy crisis triggered by Russia’s war on Ukraine, signed a number of bilateral agreements in Athens last summer, while pledging to make Greece an energy hub for the distribution of “green hydrogen.”
Saudi Arabia has traditionally enjoyed close diplomatic ties with Egypt. Bin Salman met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo last June where he signed billions of euros worth of investment deals and discussed “bilateral, regional cooperation.”
The decision on World Cup 2030 hosting will be made in 2024, with the bidding process set to open officially later this year.
Nektaria Stamouli and Nicolas Camut contributed reporting.
[ad_2]
Ali Walker
Source link -
Saudi Arabia can ‘bridge the gap’ between the U.S. and China, finance minister says
[ad_1]
Saudi Arabia can help be a conduit between the U.S. and China at a time of heightened geopolitical tensions, Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed al-Jadaan said Monday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
The comments came amid questions over what the minister was most worried about in 2023. He called for calm and cooperation, noting his country’s ability to maintain an open dialogue with all major political powers amid Russia’s war in Ukraine, competition between Washington and Beijing, and a volatile energy market.
“I really think that we need to focus on collaboration, cooperation, avoiding more geopolitical tensions, and calling for calm and political solutions to geopolitical tensions,” al-Jadaan told CNBC’s Hadley Gamble.
“We made our position very clear on these issues — whether it is in the general assembly in the United Nations or other forums.”
Mohammed Al-Jadaan, Saudi Arabia’s finance minister, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland
Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Asked about Saudi Arabia’s ability to facilitate dialogue between adversarial powers like the U.S. and China, al-Jadaan said: “I would say absolutely yes. We have a very strategic relationship with the U.S., and we have a close relationship with China, and we think we can bridge the gap.”
The Saudi kingdom and the United States have a relationship that dates back to the 1930s, and which has been summed up in broad terms as one of oil in exchange for security. The U.S. has military installments in Saudi Arabia, selling advanced weaponry and providing training and joint operations with the Saudi military.
The Biden administration’s critical stance toward the kingdom poured some cold water on the nearly century-old relationship of late, with Saudi Arabia subsequently refusing to pump more oil for the global market to balance out the loss of Russian supply, despite pleas from the White House. The loss of Russian oil and gas to Western markets comes from sanctions imposed by the U.S. and EU over Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
China, meanwhile, has for years been making inroads — especially economically — as Saudi Arabia’s top trading partner and the largest buyer of its oil. Riyadh’s relationship with Beijing is more functional and economic than strategic, meaning it is not likely to supplant the U.S.’s role in the kingdom anytime soon.
However, Saudi Arabia in recent years has been buying more Chinese weapons, in particular the ones that Washington has been less than willing to sell its Gulf ally, like lethal drones. Technology transfers and Chinese infrastructure projects are also growing in the kingdom, as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman seeks to diversify his country’s alliances and make it more independent.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Saudi Arabia in December, and the two countries signed a strategic partnership agreement that the Chinese foreign ministry at the time called “an epoch-making milestone in the history of China-Arab relations.”
[ad_2]
-
How Gulf tensions drove Qatar to seek friends in Brussels
[ad_1]
Press play to listen to this article
Voiced by artificial intelligence.
They’re dazzlingly rich, and they expect to be in charge for a long, long time.
The monarchs leading Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia might seem from the outside like a trio of like-minded Persian Gulf autocrats. Yet their regional rivalry is intense, and Western capitals have become a key venue in a reputational battle royale.
“All of these governments … really want to have the largest mindspace among Western governments,” said Jon B. Alterman, director of the Middle East Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.
As the Gulf states seek to wean themselves off the oil that made them rich, they know they’ll need friends to help transform their economies (and modernize their societies).
“They think it’s important not to be tarred as mere hydrocarbon producers who are ruining the planet,” Alterman added.
With an erstwhile vice president of the European Parliament in jail and Belgian prosecutors asking to revoke immunity from more MEPs, allegations of cash kickbacks and undue influence by Qatari interests look likely to ensnare more Brussels power players.
The Qatari government categorically denies any unlawful behavior, saying it “works through institution-to-institution engagement and operates in full compliance with international laws and regulations.”
Against the background of regional rivalries, that engagement has become increasingly robust. While tensions with Riyadh have eased over the past few years, Qatar’s mutual antagonism with the United Arab Emirates has been particularly severe.
Qatar’s survival strategy
Regional rivalries burst beyond the Middle East in 2017 in a standoff that would reshape regional dynamics.
Until then, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had been essentially frenemies. As members of the Gulf Coordination Council, they’d been working toward building a common market and currency in the region — not so different from the European Union.
But different responses to the Arab Spring frayed relations to a breaking point.
The Qatar-based Al Jazeera news network gave a platform to the Muslim Brotherhood, the Islamist party that rode a wave of unrest into power in Egypt and challenged governments throughout the Arab world. And Doha didn’t just offer a bullhorn — it gave the Muslim Brotherhood direct financial backing.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, considered the Muslim Brotherhood to be a terrorist group.
Along with Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE severed diplomatic ties with Doha in June 2017, barring Qatar’s access to airspace and sea routes; Saudi Arabia closed its border, blocking Qatar’s only land crossing.
Among the demands: close Al Jazeera, end military coordination with Turkey and step away from Iran. Qatar refused — even though it was crunch time for building infrastructure ahead of the 2022 World Cup and 40 percent of Qatar’s food supplies came through Saudi Arabia.
Fighting what it called an illegal “blockade” became an existential mission for Doha.
“The only thing Qatar could do was make sure everyone knew Qatar exists and is a nice place,” said MEP Hannah Neumann, chair of the Parliament’s delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula (DARP).
“They really stepped up the diplomatic efforts all around the world to also show, ‘We are the good ones,’” said Neumann, of the German Greens.
Qatar needed Brussels because it had already lost an even bigger ally: Washington. Not only did then-President Donald Trump take the side of Qatar’s rivals in the fight; he also appeared to take credit for the idea of isolating Qatar — even though the U.S.’s largest military base in the region is just southwest of Doha.
Elsewhere, Qatar had already been working with the London-headquartered consultancy Portland Communications since at least 2014 — as its World Cup hosting coup was becoming a PR nightmare, with stories emerging over bribed FIFA officials and exploited migrant workers.
Exploding onto the EU scene
In Brussels, Doha leaned on the head of its EU Mission, Abdulrahman Mohammed Al-Khulaifi, who had moved to Belgium in 2017 from Germany, to step up European relations.
Within days of the fissure, Al-Khulaifi appeared in meetings at NATO, and within months opened a think tank called the Middle East Dialogue Center to hone Doha’s image as an open promoter of debate (in contrast, it contended, to its neighbors) and pressure the EU to intervene in the Mideast.
By the next year, he was speaking on panels about combating violent extremism — alongside Dutch and Belgian federal police. By late 2019, Al-Khulaifi hosted the first meeting of embassy’s Qatar-EU friendship group with a “working dinner.”
“The situation following the blockade has pushed Qatar to establish closer relations outside the context of the regional crisis with, for example, the European Union,” Pier Antonio Panzeri, then chair of the Parliament’s human rights subcommittee, told Euractiv in 2018.
The following year, Panzeri would attend the Qatari-hosted “International Conference on National, Regional and International Mechanisms to Combat Impunity and Ensure Accountability under International Law,” and heap praise on the country’s human rights record.
Panzeri is now in a Belgian prison, facing corruption charges; his NGO, Fight Impunity, is under intense scrutiny for being a possible front.
Neumann said that Qatar’s survival strategy has paid off. “Absolutely, it worked,” she said. “I think it’s fair enough, if they didn’t do it with illegal means.”
Directly or indirectly, Qatar clocked several big victories during this period, including multiple resolutions in Parliament on human rights in Saudi Arabia and a call to end arms exports to Riyadh in the wake of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Doha also inked a cooperation arrangement with the EU in March 2018, setting the stage for closer ties.
Frenemies once again
Since Saudi Arabia and Qatar signed a deal to end the crisis two years ago, Riyadh-Doha relations have generally thawed. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, 37, traveled to Qatar in November for the World Cup and embraced Qatar’s emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, 42, while wearing a scarf in the host’s colors.
However, relations between Qatar and the United Arab Emirates — led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, 61 — remain chilly.
As the Gulf transforms, the United Arab Emirates “has come to see that role as being a status quo power,” said Alterman. On the part of its neighbor, “Qatar has come to see that role as aligning with forces of change in the region, and that’s created a certain amount of mutual resentment.”
Qatar’s smaller scale contributes to Doha’s sense of internal security, fueling its openness to engaging with groups that others see as an existential threat.
Qataris see themselves as “champions of the Davids against the Goliath,” said Andreas Krieg, an assistant professor at King’s College London who has worked in the past as a consultant for the Qatari armed forces. Civil society organizations founded by “a range of different opposition figures, Saudi opposition figures in the West, have been supported financially by Qatar as well,” Krieg added. (Khashoggi, one of the era’s most prominent Saudi opposition figures, had connections to the state-backed Qatar Foundation.) “Hence why Qatar was always seen as sort of a thorn in the side of its neighbors.”
And while the €1.5 million cash haul confiscated by Belgian federal police looks like an eye-popping sum, it certainly pales in comparison to the amount the Gulf states spend on legal lobbying in Brussels. And that sum, in turn, pales in comparison to what those countries spend in Washington.
“Brussels isn’t that important,” Krieg said. “If you look at the money that these Gulf countries spend in Washington, these are tens of millions of dollars every year on think tanks, academics … creating their own media outlets, investing strategically into Fox News, investing into massive PR operations.”
Nonetheless, the EU remains a key target. Abu Dhabi is strengthening its “long-standing partnership” with Brussels on economic and regional security matters “through deep, strategic cooperation with EU institutions and Member States,” said a UAE official, in a statement.
“Brussels was always a hub to create a narrative,” said Krieg.
And right now, each of the region’s power players is deeply motivated to change that narrative.
Alterman invoked a broad impression of the Gulf countries as “people who have more money than God who want to take the world back to the 7th Century.”
But that’s wrong, he said. “This is all about shaping the future with remarkably high stakes, profound discomfort about how the world will relate to them over the next 30 to 50 years — and frankly, a series of rulers who see themselves being in power for the next 30 to 50 years.”
[ad_2]
Sarah Wheaton
Source link -
World leaders descend on Qatar for World Cup 2022 kickoff
[ad_1]
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, Palestine’s Mahmoud Abbas are among those arriving in Doha.
World leaders, politicians, diplomats and royalty have begun to arrive in Qatar before the 2022 FIFA World Cup kickoff on Sunday.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Doha on Saturday, followed by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who was spotted at Hamad International Airport on Sunday, Qatar News Service reported.
Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also touched down in the host nation late on Saturday before Sunday evening’s opening match between Qatar and Ecuador.
Prince Mohammed’s arrival in Qatar comes after Saudi Arabia and Doha resumed diplomatic ties in January 2021 following years of frosty relations.
Saudi Arabia, playing in Group C, will take on Argentina on November 22.
Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will also attend the opening ceremony, Egyptian state TV quoted the presidency as saying on Sunday.
Those not attending in person have sent messages of support.
On Friday, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Qatar’s emir, received a call from Russian President Vladimir Putin. He called the emir’s office to congratulate the host country and wish the Qatari national team success in their coming games.
Qatar’s Bassam al-Rawi celebrates after scoring in the AFC Asian Cup against Iraq at Al Nahyan Stadium, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, in 2019 [File: Suhaib Salem/Reuters] The official opening ceremony is slated to kick off at Al Bayt Stadium at 5pm (14:00 GMT) on Sunday before the inaugural Qatar-Ecuador match at 7pm (16:00 GMT).
Ecuador’s Byron Castillo in action with Argentina’s Nicolas Gonzalez during the South American qualifiers for the World Cup in Guayaquil, Ecuador in March 2022 [File: Jose Jacome/Pool/Reuters] The emir’s office said the opening event will be attended by “a number of Their Majesties, Highnesses, and Excellencies Heads of States and Heads of Delegations of brotherly and friendly countries”.
Qatar, competing in Group A in their debut World Cup appearance, will face Senegal on November 25 and the Netherlands on November 29.
[ad_2]
-
U.S. Moves To Shield Saudi Crown Prince In Jamal Khashoggi’s Killing
[ad_1]
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration declared Thursday that the high office held by Saudi Arabia’s crown prince should shield him from lawsuits for his role in the killing of a U.S.-based journalist, a turnaround from Joe Biden’s passionate campaign trail denunciations of Prince Mohammed bin Salman over the brutal slaying.
The administration said the prince’s official standing should give him immunity in the lawsuit filed by the fiancée of slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and by the rights group he founded, Democracy for the Arab World Now.
The request is non-binding and a judge will ultimately decide whether to grant immunity. But it is bound to anger human rights activists and many U.S. lawmakers, coming as Saudi Arabia has stepped up imprisonment and other retaliation against peaceful critics at home and abroad and has cut oil production, a move seen as undercutting efforts by the U.S. and its allies to punish Russia for its war against Ukraine.
The State Department on Thursday called the administration’s decision to try to protect the Saudi crown prince from U.S. courts in Khashoggi’s killing “purely a legal determination.”
And despite backing up the crown prince in his bid to block the lawsuit against him, the State Department “takes no view on the merits of the present suit and reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of the heinous murder of Jamal Khashoggi,” the administration’s court filing late Thursday said.
Saudi officials killed Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. They are believed to have dismembered him, although his remains have never been found. The U.S. intelligence community concluded Saudi Arabia’s crown prince had approved the killing of the widely known and respected journalist, who had written critically of Prince Mohammed’s harsh ways of silencing of those he considered rivals or critics.
The Biden administration statement Thursday noted visa restrictions and other penalties that it had meted out to lower-ranking Saudi officials in the death.
“From the earliest days of this Administration, the United States Government has expressed its grave concerns regarding Saudi agents’ responsibility for Jamal Khashoggi’s murder,” the State Department said. Its statement did not mention the crown prince’s own alleged role.
Hatice Cengiz, slain Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancee, attends a press conference calling for the Trump administration to release details about his killing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, March 3, 2020. – US lawmakers vowed Tuesday to force the release of an intelligence report on the killing of Saudi dissident writer Jamal Khashoggi, accusing President Donald Trump of blocking it to protect the kingdom. (Photo by SAUL LOEB / AFP) (Photo by SAUL LOEB/AFP via Getty Images) SAUL LOEB via Getty Images
Biden as a candidate vowed to make a “pariah” out of Saudi rulers over the 2018 killing of Khashoggi.
“I think it was a flat-out murder,” Biden said in a 2019 CNN town hall, as a candidate. “And I think we should have nailed it as that. I publicly said at the time we should treat it that way and there should be consequences relating to how we deal with those — that power.”
But Biden as president has sought to ease tensions with the kingdom, including bumping fists with Prince Mohammed on a July trip to the kingdom, as the U.S. works to persuade Saudi Arabia to undo a series of cuts in oil production.
Khashoggi’s fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, and DAWN sued the crown prince, his top aides and others in Washington federal court over their alleged roles in Khashoggi’s killing. Saudi Arabia says the prince had no direct role in the slaying.
“It’s beyond ironic that President Biden has singlehandedly assured MBS can escape accountability when it was President Biden who promised the American people he would do everything to hold him accountable,” the head of DAWN, Sarah Leah Whitson, said in a statement, using the prince’s acronym.
Biden in February 2021 had ruled out the U.S. government imposing punishment on Prince Mohammed himself in the killing of Khashoggi, a resident of the Washington area. Biden, speaking after he authorized release of a declassified version of the intelligence community’s findings on Prince Mohammed’s role in the killing, argued at the time there was no precedent for the U.S. to move against the leader of a strategic partner.
The U.S. military long has safeguarded Saudi Arabia from external enemies, in exchange for Saudi Arabia keeping global oil markets afloat.
“It’s impossible to read the Biden administration’s move today as anything more than a capitulation to Saudi pressure tactics, including slashing oil output to twist our arms to recognize MBS’s fake immunity ploy,” Whitson said.
ISTANBUL, TURKEY – OCTOBER 08: A man holds a poster of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi during a protest organized by members of the Turkish-Arabic Media Association at the entrance to Saudi Arabia’s consulate on October 8, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Fears are growing over the fate of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi after Turkish officials said they believe he was murdered inside the Saudi consulate. Saudi consulate officials have said that missing writer and Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi went missing after leaving the consulate, however the statement directly contradicts other sources including Turkish officials. Jamal Khashoggi a Saudi writer critical of the Kingdom and a contributor to the Washington Post was living in self-imposed exile in the U.S. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images) Chris McGrath via Getty Images
A federal judge in Washington had given the U.S. government until midnight Thursday to express an opinion on the claim by the crown prince’s lawyers that Prince Mohammed’s high official standing renders him legally immune in the case.
The Biden administration also had the option of not stating an opinion either way.
Sovereign immunity, a concept rooted in international law, holds that states and their officials are protected from some legal proceedings in other foreign states’ domestic courts.
Upholding the concept of “sovereign immunity” helps ensure that American leaders in turn don’t have to worry about being hauled into foreign courts to face lawsuits in other countries, the State Department said.
Human rights advocates had argued that the Biden administration would embolden Prince Mohammed and other authoritarian leaders around the world in more rights abuses if it supported the crown prince’s claim that his high office shielded him from prosecution.
Prince Mohammed serves as Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler in the stead of his aged father, King Salman. The Saudi king in September also temporarily transferred his title of prime minister — a title normally held by the Saudi monarch — to Prince Mohammed. Critics called it a bid to strengthen Mohammed’s immunity claim.
Eric Tucker and Aamer Madhani contributed.
[ad_2]
-
Jared Kushner Had a Friendly Little Reunion With His Saudi Pals (the Ones Who Gave Him a $2 Billion Check)
[ad_1]
As you might have heard, the United States’ relationship with Saudi Arabia is extremely strained at the moment, on account of an October 5 oil production cut that not only benefited Russia financially, but also increased already-rising energy costs for Americans. Yet one person’s friendship with the kingdom has never been better, and it probably will not surprise you to hear that that person is former first son-in-law Jared Kushner, who had a happy little reunion with his Saudi pals this week.
On Tuesday, Kushner showed up for the first day of a three-day conference nicknamed Davos in the Desert, which is taking place in Riyadh and is put on by the Public Investment Fund, Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which appeared to roll out the red carpet for the Boy Prince of New Jersey:
Twitter content
This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from.
If the Public Investment Fund sounds familiar to you, that might be because it’s the organization that wrote Kushner’s newly formed private-equity firm a $2 billion check last year. That made the news not just because $2 billion is a very large sum of money, but because the fund’s board—which happens to be led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman—reportedly ignored the concerns of the fund’s due diligence panel, which concluded that no one in their right mind would give the former first son-in-law a dime. Among other things, the panel noted that management was “inexperience[d],” that the kingdom would be responsible for “the bulk of the investment and risk,” that Kushner’s fee seemed “excessive,” and that the firm’s operations were “unsatisfactory in all aspects.”
That the fund gave Kushner $2 billion to invest anyway—and at least $25 million to pocket regardless of performance—led many to conclude that the check was a thank-you to Kushner for his defense of MBS over the murder of Saudi dissident and US resident Jamal Khashoggi. (As a reminder, Kushner reportedly urged Donald Trump to support the prince, arguing that the whole situation—wherein a man was kidnapped, killed, and dismembered via bone saw—would blow over. Later, he defended MBS in his memoir, writing that he chose to set aside his concerns about the grisly murder and focus on all the supposedly positive things the guy had done.) While Kushner has insisted that his going to bat for bin Salman had absolutely nothing to do with the large some of money he subsequently received, others are not convinced.
In June, the House Oversight Committee launched an investigation into the $2 billion investment. As Rep. Carolyn Maloney wrote in a letter to Kushner that month: “The Committee is concerned by your decision to solicit billions of dollars from the Saudi government immediately following your significant involvement in shaping U.S.-Saudi relations.” She added that, among other things, his close ties with MBS “create the appearance of a quid pro quo for your foreign policy work during the Trump Administration.”
The US Treasury, Commerce, and State departments all previously told The New York Times that their top officials would not be attending Davos in the Desert. While Kushner is not the only American businessman to make the trip—the CEOs of Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and Blackstone are all there, as is the founder of Bridgewater Associates—he’s definitely the only one who personally helped bin Salman get out of an extremely sticky situation, and might have been rewarded for doing so.
In other Saudi news, Kushner’s father-in-law hosted a heavily criticized Saudi-funded tournament at his golf course in Bedminster, New Jersey, over the summer. In response to outrage from families of 9/11 victims, he falsely and bizarrely claimed that “nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11.” Like father like son-in-law!
[ad_2]
Bess Levin
Source link -
Saudis Sentence U.S. Citizen To 16 Years Over Tweets: Family
[ad_1]
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An American citizen has been arrested in Saudi Arabia, tortured and sentenced to 16 years in prison over tweets he sent while in the United States, his son said Tuesday.
Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a 72-year-old retired project manager living in Florida, was arrested last November while visiting family in the kingdom and was sentenced earlier this month, his son Ibrahim told The Associated Press, confirming details that were first reported by the Washington Post. Almadi is a citizen of both Saudi Arabia and the U.S.
There was no immediate comment from Saudi officials.
State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel, speaking to reporters in Washington, confirmed Almadi’s detention Tuesday.
“We have consistently and intensively raised our concerns regarding the case at senior levels of the Saudi government, both through channels in Riyadh and Washington DC as well and we will continue to do so,” he said. “We have raised this with members of the Saudi government as recently as yesterday.”
It appeared to be the latest in a series of recent cases in which Saudis received long jail sentences for social media posts critical of the government.
Saudi authorities have tightened their crackdown on dissent following the rise of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is seeking to open up and transform the ultraconservative kingdom but has adopted a hard line toward any criticism.
JEDDAH, SAUDI ARABIA – SEPTEMBER 27: The new Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman meets with King of Saudi Arabia Salman bin Abdulaziz (not seen) after the change in the cabinet with the Royal Decree of Saudi Arabia in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on September 27, 2022. The new cabinet, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman became Chairman of the Council of Ministers and Khalid bin Salman became the Minister of Defense. (Photo by Royal Court of Saudi Arabia / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A Saudi court recently sentenced a woman to 45 years in prison for allegedly damaging the country through her social media activity. A Saudi doctoral student at Leeds University in England was sentenced to 34 years for spreading “rumors” and retweeting dissidents, a case that drew international outrage.
Ibrahim says his father was detained over 14 “mild tweets” posted on Twitter over the past seven years, mostly criticizing government policies and alleged corruption. He says his father was not an activist but a private citizen expressing his opinion while in the U.S., where freedom of speech is a constitutional right.
President Joe Biden traveled to the oil-rich kingdom in July for a meeting with Prince Mohammed, in which he said he confronted him about human rights. Their meeting — and a widely criticized fist-bump — marked a sharp turnaround from Biden’s earlier vow to make the kingdom a “pariah” over the 2018 killing of Saudi journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
Ibrahim said his father was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Oct. 3 on charges of supporting terrorism. The father was also charged with failing to report terrorism, over tweets that Ibrahim had posted.
His father was also slapped with a 16-year travel ban. If the sentence is carried out, the 72-year-old would be 87 upon his release and barred from returning home to the U.S. unless he reaches the age of 104.
Ibrahim said Saudi authorities warned his family to stay quiet about the case and to not involve the U.S. government. He said his father was tortured after the family contacted the State Department in March.
Ibrahim also accused the State Department of neglecting his father’s case by not declaring him a “wrongfully detained” American, which would elevate his file.
“They manipulated me. They told me to stay quiet so they can get him out,” Ibrahim said, explaining his decision to go public this week. “I am not willing to take a gamble on the Department of State anymore.”
[ad_2]
-
OPEC output cut ‘unhelpful and unwise,’ US Treasury chief says
[ad_1]
The oil cartel OPEC’s choice to pare back oil supply will harm the global economy and especially developing countries, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told the Financial Times in an interview published Sunday.
“I think OPEC’s decision is unhelpful and unwise — it’s uncertain what impact it will end up having, but certainly, it’s something that, to me, did not seem appropriate, under the circumstances we face,” Yellen said, adding that “we’re very worried about developing countries and the problems they face.”
The cartel of 13 oil-producing countries on Wednesday agreed to reduce production by 2 million barrels a day as of November, in the context of an already tight market and rising world inflation in part caused by high energy prices.
OPEC’s move marks a victory for Russia against the EU and the U.S. — Russia’s a major oil producer and an OPEC+ country that cooperates with the cartel. Ever since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the West has been imposing economic sanctions against Russia, including on its oil sector, and encouraging other countries around the world to follow suit. Despite this effort, Moscow continues to sell its oil to countries like India, China and Turkey.
OPEC took the decision despite a flurry of trips by EU and U.S. leaders to Saudi Arabia in recent weeks to try to convince the country’s crown prince and new Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman to ramp up oil production to fight inflation.
The world oil price already started to rise after the announcement on Wednesday, moving from around $86 to over $93 per barrel.
Meanwhile, Moscow congratulated “the truly balanced, thoughtful and planned work” of OPEC countries which served to “oppose the actions of the United States,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in a TV interview broadcasted on Sunday.
[ad_2]
Sarah Anne Aarup
Source link
