Free Republic

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, has called for Hamas to “hand over its weapons,” immediately free all hostages and cease ruling Gaza, the French presidency said on Tuesday after receiving a letter from him. The letter was addressed to President Emmanuel Macron of France and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, who will jointly chair a U.N. conference in New York next week to explore the creation of a Palestinian state. Mr. Macron has set a number of conditions for the possible French recognition of such a state at that meeting, including the disarmament of Hamas. “Hamas...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — President Trump got the royal treatment on his first stop in Saudi Arabia, as white Arabian horses flanked his motorcade — with adviser Elon Musk in tow. Dozens of Saudis rode on horseback carrying US and Saudi flags as Trump’s motorcade peeled into the Royal Court, where he got a warm welcome before going to a lunch in the palace adorned with chandeliers and marble floors. “I really believe we like each other a lot,” Trump told reporters after his arrival, referring to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as a friend. He later recalled...

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is doubling down in the new year, emboldened by the right-wing expansion in the world with the historic election of Donald J. Trump in the US, and several developments in Europe – in Romania, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, the UK… and many other nations. The ’most powerful person in Europe’ Meloni is riding this wave, reigniting her much-praised and much-maligned plan to send ‘asylum seekers’ (a.k.a. illegal migrants) to Albania for processing and posterior deportation. The right-wing government in Italy is bucking against the pressure from their own Globalist unelected Judicial system. Reuters reported: “Italy’s...

Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman told President Donald Trump in a phone call his country hoped to invest at least $600 billion in American ventures in the next four years, the Saudi Foreign Ministry confirmed on Thursday. Mohammed bin Salman held a congratulatory phone call with Trump and separately spoke to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday, celebrating the “strength of the U.S.-Saudi partnership in this time of momentous change.” The Crown Prince is widely considered the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia representing the interests of the elderly King Salman. The optimism and hopes for...

President Donald Trump pardoning two Metropolitan Washington DC police officers convicted in the death... A new wildfire in northern Los Angeles County forcing thousands to evacuate... A deadly train accident killing 13 people in India... Saudi Arabia's defacto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman speaking with President Donald Trump promising more investment and trade... President Donald Trump sending 1,500 US troops to the southern border... Trump designating the Ansar Allah Movement of Yemen commonly called "The Houthis" as a terrorist... The British Defense Minister dramatizing the presence of a Russian surveillance ship... The inflation surge in Russia continues... In Nashville...

Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), said Wednesday that there would be no “normalization” of relations with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state — a reversal of his position one year ago. In September 2023, as Breitbart News reported, MBS said that he wanted to see a “good life” for Palestinians emerge from any peace deal with Israel, but specifically excluded mention of a Palestinian state. While the Saudi foreign minister insisted on a Palestinian state, MBS — the real source of power in the kingdom — pointedly did not. But the Biden administration reportedly intervened,...

WASHINGTON — As Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for a parade of foreign dignitaries in recent weeks, some aides to President Joe Biden took notice — and umbrage — at what they saw as the former president playing pretender-in-chief. In less than two months, Trump has hosted Polish President Andrzej Duda, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, former Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso and David Cameron, the former British prime minister who now serves as the U.K.’s foreign secretary. He’s also talked with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and others by phone. It’s not unusual for a party...

In what could be a landmark in the Middle East’s history, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia on Sunday to meet the country’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Israeli media reported. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, currently on a tour of the region, was also reportedly present at the meeting in Neom, Saudi Arabia. Netanyahu was accompanied by the head of Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, Yossi Cohen, who is widely regarded to have played a key role in preparing the groundwork for the recent normalization of diplomatic relations between Israel and the Arab Gulf states, news...

As the Russian leader is strengthening ties with Persian Gulf leaders, "the durability of America's support for Ukraine is coming into question," Bloomberg wrote NEW YORK, December 6./TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming visit to Saudi Arabia illustrates that Washington's efforts to isolate Moscow have failed, the Bloomberg news agency wrote... Putin will visit two Middle Eastern countries-the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for bilateral talks on Wednesday, the Kremlin press service reported earlier. He will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman al Saud and President of the United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan...

Iran and Saudi Arabia have said that the Israeli regime's crimes and the United States' green light for the atrocities stand to invite "destructive insecurity" for the occupying regime and its supporters. The remarks were made on Wednesday in the first phone call to take place between President Ebrahim Raeisi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Mohammed Jamshidi, the Iranian chief executive's deputy chief of staff for political affairs, wrote on a message on X, formerly known as Twitter. "In the first phone call between Ayatollah Raisi & HRH Mohammed bin Salman, the 2 agreed on the need to...

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) on Sunday voiced agreement with the Biden administration’s decision to grant sovereign immunity to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, shielding the autocrat from a lawsuit over the 2018 killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. “What the administration has touted this week in granting sovereign immunity to Mohammed bin Salman is in keeping with the practice of custom of lawsuits involving foreign heads of state,” Cotton told “Fox News Sunday” host Shannon Bream. “It would have been a major break if those customs did not grant that kind of immunity.”

An unwritten pact binding the U.S. and Saudi Arabia has survived 15 presidents and seven kings through an Arab oil embargo, two Persian Gulf wars and the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Now, it is fracturing under two leaders who don’t like or trust each other. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the kingdom’s 37-year-old day-to-day ruler, mocks Biden in private, making fun of the 79-year-old’s gaffes and questioning his mental acuity... He has told advisers he hasn’t been impressed with Mr. Biden since his days as vice president, and much preferred former President Donald Trump ... Mr. Biden said on...

France's Senate voting last night on purchasing power legislation. "Emergency measures for the protection of purchasing power" is the way the legislation was described. The Senate amending the original version that passed the National Assembly focused on helping the poorer French but keeping in the key measure of a four percent hike for pensions and other government subsidies retroactive to July 1st. The Senate voted to help business in France as well so a commercial rent cap ot 3.5 percent a year was put in the Senate version... In the summer in the heat the protests continue they are very...

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shouted at President Joe Biden's national security adviser when he was pressed on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and said he would not help the U.S. out by pumping more oil. The staggering decline of U.S.-Saudi relations under the Biden administration was outlined in a Wall Street Journal report Last September, Biden National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan met with the Saudi Crown prince, who goes by his initials MBS, at a seaside palace. Sullivan brought up Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist who was murdered in 2018 in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. MSB shouted...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly three dozen House Democrats are pushing the administration to get tougher with Saudi Arabia, calling it a bad strategic partner after it has refused to help ease the world’s oil supply crunch during Russia’s Ukraine invasion. Rep. Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat and senior member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Rep. Jim McGovern, a Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the Committee on Rules, led lawmakers in a letter asking Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a “recalibration” of the U.S.-Saudi relationship. The Saudi Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for...

America, in these halcyon days of Old Joe Biden’s foundering regime, is in free fall, and the whole world knows it. As PJM’s inimitable Stephen Green put it recently, “The alleged American president’s response to the Ukraine War has been so detrimental to America’s own interests that everyone sees him as weak. Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that two of the Middle East’s richest petrostates wouldn’t even take Biden’s call,” that is, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The reasons for the unprecedented snub are clear: the Saudis and the UAE know that Biden is not a...

This is testimony to decline of American influence worldwide, and a Saudi recognition that Biden’s handlers have clearly made a decision to support Iran over Saudi Arabia. Saudi Crown Prince: ‘I do not care’ what Biden thinks MAR 9, 2022 5:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER 11 COMMENTS This is testimony to decline of American influence worldwide, and a Saudi recognition that Biden’s handlers have clearly made a decision to support Iran over Saudi Arabia. “Saudi crown prince says ‘do [sic] not care’ if Biden misunderstands him – The Atlantic,” Reuters, March 3, 2022: DUBAI (Reuters) – Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed...

French President Emmanuel Macron visitng the money rich Gulf Arab countries this weekend as he faces the Presidential elections in just over four months. The United Arab Emirates agreeing to buy 80 Rafale fighter jets. 12 French helicopters also part of the 19.2 billion US dollar deal. A bit of a boost following the debacle of the 90 billion submarine deal with Australia falling apart under the weight of the AUKUS security alliance to counter China in the "Indo-Pacific". Today President Macronmeeting Saudi Arabia's de-facto ruler Mohammed Bin Salman. France and Saudi Arabia with a 'joint initiative" on Lebanon where...

The Biden administration is holding meetings with Saudi Arabia on the issue of normalization with Israel, Walla! reported. According to the report, the US would like to see Saudi Arabia join the Abraham Accords. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan raised the issue in his meeting with the Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during his visit to the kingdom last month, three US and Arab sources familiar with the issue said. According to the sources, bin Salman did not reject outright the possibility....

WASHINGTON/LONDON/DUBAI - As the United States pressed Saudi Arabia to end its oil price war with Russia, President Donald Trump gave Saudi leaders an ultimatum. In an April 2 phone call, Trump told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that unless the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) started cutting oil production, he would be powerless to stop lawmakers from passing legislation to withdraw U.S. troops from the kingdom, four sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The threat to upend a 75-year strategic alliance, which has not been previously reported, was central to the U.S. pressure campaign that...