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Peace talks between U.S. and Russian delegations aimed at ending the war in Ukraine are underway Monday in Saudi Arabia, according to media reports. The discussions come after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said a delegation from his country had "quite useful" meeting with an American team in Riyadh on Sunday. "Our team is working in a fully constructive manner, and the discussion is quite useful. The work of delegations continues. But no matter what we’re discussing with our partners right now, Putin must be pushed to issue a real order to stop the strikes – because the one who brought...

Posted on Tue, Aug. 24, 2004 Swiss Accuse Group of Backing al-Qaida JONATHAN FOWLER Associated Press GENEVA - Swiss investigators have found evidence that suspected members of a group backing al-Qaida were supplying fake documents to enable collaborators to enter Switzerland and other European countries illegally, the supreme court said Tuesday. The Federal Tribunal said one suspect, whose name was not released, was found to have links to both an unidentified al-Qaida recruiter who sent volunteers to the terror group's training camps and another unidentified individual convicted of terrorism offenses in France. The support group also provided cell phone numbers...

It’s an out-of-the-box undertaking. Ground has officially been broken in Saudi Arabia for what is expected to be the “world’s largest building.” The ambitious, $50 billion project — called the Mukaab — in the capital city, Riyadh, is part of a wave of futuristic construction across the Arab nation, the Sun reported. The skyline-redefining Mukaab will clock in at 1,300 feet high and 1,200 feet wide when completed — giving it enough volume to contain 20 Empire State Buildings, the outlet reported. Offering fine dining, retail space, offices and restaurants, the massive cube will be its own downtown-in-a-box with 2...

Salvator Mundi, a $450 million painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, has not been seen publicly since it sold at Christie’s in 2017, the year it became the most expensive artwork ever auction. And the reason for that, according to a new BBC report, is that it may be held in storage in Geneva. The good news, per the BBC, is that its owner, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman, may eventually make it publicly viewable. According to that report, the crown prince, often labeled MBS for short, plans to display it in a future museum in...

UK studio Foster + Partners is reportedly designing a two-kilometre-high skyscraper in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which if completed would be the world's tallest building.According to a report in UK architecture magazine Architects' Journal (AJ), the UK studio is designing the megatall skyscraper for a site to the north of the Saudi capital.The AJ reports that the skyscraper will be located near the city's international airport, which is currently being redeveloped by Foster + Partners.Skyscraper would be world's tallest buildingIf built, the skyscraper would become the world's tallest building, being over twice the height of the current record holder, the 828-metre-high...

Hamas should accept an “extraordinarily generous” proposal to release Israeli hostages it is holding in the Gaza Strip in exchange for a temporary cease-fire, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday, speaking at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Hamas is expected to respond to the U.S.-led proposal Monday in discussions with Egyptian and Qatari officials in Cairo. “Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel,” Blinken said during a panel discussion at the WEF. “And in this moment, the only thing standing between the people of Gaza and...

BUDAPEST, 20 February 2005 — Saudi Arabia has ordered its ambassador in Budapest back to Riyadh for consultations to protest an off the cuff remark in which Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany referred to Saudi footballers as “Arab terrorists.” Gyurcsany’s comment was made earlier this month when he hailed Hungary’s football team for having “fought with death-defying courage” against “Arab terrorists” in a friendly match against Saudi Arabia on Feb. 2. “We received official notice this week that the Saudi Arabian ambassador in Budapest was called back by his government for consultations,” Hungarian Foreign Ministry spokesman Viktor Polgar told AFP....

The Heritage Committee of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced on Sunday that one of the newest entries on the organization's list of global heritage sites is Tel a-Sultan in Jericho. The UNESCO member states decided that the tel will be considered a "Palestinian world heritage site." The decision was made in a vote that took place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The UN clarified that there are Jewish and Christian sites near the site that are not included in the list - but there is a value to protect them. Tel a-Sultan, also known as Tel Jericho,...

A Saudi businessman signed a 120 million riyal ($32 million) deal in Riyadh to purchase 12 camels, marking one of the biggest camels' purchase deals in the Gulf. The event coincided with Cristiano Ronaldo joining of Saudi Al-Nassr team. The deal was signed in Dahana Desert, which is hosting the King Abdulaziz Camel Festival. The businessman, Abdullah Al-Nahdi, who is an investor in the pharmacies sector, purchased 12 camels that came first in the festival from their owner, businessman Mohammed bin Jakhdab Al-Qahtani. Organized by the Camel Club, King Abdulaziz Camel Festival kicked off in December and concludes in mid-January....

President Joe Biden has defended an upcoming meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) after coming under attack by the left for not sticking to his campaign promise to turn Riyadh into a “pariah” state, saying he would only be seeing MBS during a broader “international meeting.” As part of his campaign, Biden promised to make “human rights the center of U.S. foreign policy” and as part of that, Saudi Arabia was condemned as a “pariah” for its role in the murder of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. has removed its most advanced missile defense system and Patriot batteries from Saudi Arabia in recent weeks, even as the kingdom faced continued air attacks from Yemen’s Houthi rebels, satellite photos analyzed by The Associated Press show. The redeployment of the defenses from Prince Sultan Air Base outside of Riyadh came as America’s Gulf Arab allies nervously watched the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, including their last-minute evacuations from Kabul’s besieged international airport.... ...Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby acknowledged “the redeployment of certain air defense assets” after receiving questions from the...

The mysterious flight between the two nations had many asking "Whodunnit?" A privately owned, unidentified Challenger 604 jet departed from Ben-Gurion International Airport, landing first in the Jordanian capital of Amman and then in the Saudi Arabian capital of Riyadh on Tuesday evening, causing many to question which Israeli decided to pay the Saudis a visit. The plane in question departed from Israel and flew to an airport in Amman, where it remained on the ground for about two minutes before taking off again and landing in the Saudi capital. After a little less than an hour, the plane, privately...

ANALYSIS/OPINION: A seemingly unrelated criminal case in Washington has reopened a popular Trump-Russia guessing game: Who is Joseph Mifsud? The FBI says the vanishing professor is a Russian spy. Trump backers, citing Mr. Mifsud’s extensive Western intelligence contacts, suspect he’s an FBI, CIA or MI6 plant. The Washington Times examined Mr. Mifsud’s extensive resume and frequent travels, revealing a skilled networker far more wedded to the West than the East. In May 2017, 10 months into the FBI Russia conspiracy probe, Mr. Mifsud spoke in Riyadh at a high-powered terrorism conference. On his panel was counterterrorism expert Michael Hurley, who...

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner will lead a US delegation to Israel at the end of the month to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, a senior administration official said on Thursday. Kushner has been leading President Donald Trump's effort to develop a peace plan for Israelis and Palestinians. After proposing a $60 billion aid package for the region last summer, he has yet to unveil a proposed political plan that gets at the thorniest issues in the decades-old conflict, with Netanyahu struggling to form a governing coalition. The official, speaking on condition...

Gunfire and explosions are reportedly heard outside the palace of the Saudi king in Riyadh. King Salman has been reportedly evacuated from the compound to a bunker at a military base in the capital. The number of assailants, their identity or affiliations is still unknown. But some sources say the attack is part of a coup led by princes who are opposed to the Saudi king.

Wildly conflicting social media reports tonight claim bullets were either fired as part of an attempted coup - or to shoot down a toy drone. A police spokesman said forces at a checkpoint in the Khozama district, where the palace is based, identified the drone and "dealt with it according to their orders", local media said. The explanation came after wildly conflicting reports on social media speculating on the cause of the shooting. Senior Saudi officials said King Salman was not in the palace at the time despite repeated Twitter reports he was moved to a military bunker in the...

Yemen’s rebel Houthi movement launched earlier on Wednesday drone strikes on a Saudi Aramco facility and on an airport in Saudi Arabia, Houthi-owned Al-Masirah TV channel reported on Wednesday. Aramco says that its plants are operating normally and safely, Reuters reports. The Iran-aligned Yemeni rebels, who have been fighting a Saudi-led Arab coalition in Yemen since 2015, said that they targeted on Wednesday morning local time the Abha airport in Asir and Aramco in Jazan, according to the Houthis’ Al-Masirah outlet. Saudi Aramco has a 400,000-bpd refinery in Jazan in the country’s southwest. The refinery is part of a project...

Concerns about Iran’s nuclear weapons program are heard these days more in Arabic than any other language, including Hebrew. In recent weeks, it seems that temperatures on both sides of the Persian Gulf have come to a boil. Temperatures in the Gulf, although usually high during the summer, reached a peak not due to global warming but because of increasing fear of Iran among Arab Gulf states. Indeed, concerns about Iran’s nuclear weapons program and negative involvement in the region are heard these days more in Arabic than any other language, including Hebrew. The current peak is associated with a...

Saudi Arabia, concerned over Iran's nuclear weapons program, could turn to Pakistan for the kingdom's own nuclear project, a report said. The Institute of National Security Studies said Riyad has been working to prepare a nuclear infrastructure meant to deter neighboring Iran. In a report by researcher Yoel Guzansky, the institute cited Pakistan as the most likely developer of a Saudi nuclear option. "Therefore, should Saudi Arabia find itself in a sensitive security situation, it may well be that it would seek to capitalize on its investment in the Pakistani program," the report, titled "The Saudi Nuclear Option, said. The...

Saudi Arabia's War in Yemen Has Been a Disaster This month marks three years since the start of the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen, but that is unlikely to be an occasion for celebration in Riyadh. The war is estimated to have cost the Saudis upwards of $100 billion, eroded the international image of the kingdom and failed to achieve its objectives of “eliminating Iranian influence” from Yemen. At the same time, the people of Yemen have suffered immensely from the U.S.-backed Saudi campaign, which killed thousands of Yemeni civilians, destroyed the country’s infrastructure, and has led to widespread disease and...