Free Republic

Washington (CNN)When the Biden administration announced a ban on dozens of Saudis from traveling to the US in response to intelligence that the kingdom's powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, had approved the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, it was rolling out a plan that had been spiked by the Trump administration and brought back to life once President Joe Biden took office. Dubbed the "Khashoggi Ban" by the State Department, the measure issued visa restrictions on 76 Saudis and their families. The plan had initially been drafted by the Trump administration, which shelved it over fears of alienating the...

In a televised statement, a spokesman for the rebel group, Brig. Gen. Yahya Sarea, said ballistic missiles and drones hit the oil giant’s facilities in Ras Tanura, a major port on Saudi Arabia’s Persian Gulf coast and one of its largest refineries, and military positions in nearby Dammam. Saudi state media later confirmed the Ras Tanura attack, quoting an unnamed Energy Ministry official saying that one petroleum tank farm was attacked Sunday morning. The official said shrapnel from a ballistic missile fell near Aramco’s residential area in Dhahran, which hosts thousands of employees and their families, but there were no...

Qatari terror broadcast network Al Jazeera clearly is celebrating declassifying of a four-page bogus intelligence report centering the murder of Muslim Brotherhood man and an aide of Osama Bin Laden – Jamal Khashoggi. On March 2, 2021, Al Jazeera released a report stating Somali-American member of the US Congress, Ilhan Omar has introduced a bill to sanction Saudi Crown Prince Muhammed Bin Salman by falsely accusing him of his “role in the murder of” Khashoggi. It may be mentioned here that, Ilhan Omar is a scandalous woman with numerous allegations centering immigration fraud and marrying her own brother. According to...

An examination of damage to an Israeli-owned cargo ship currently docked in Dubai indicates an explosion that hit it in the Gulf of Oman was caused by mines covertly attached to the ship, according to a Sunday TV report. Channel 13 news did not cite sources for the report, which contradicted earlier reported assessments in Israel that that blast was caused by missiles. An Israeli team is believed to be in Dubai to examine the ship following the suspected attack. The ship is undergoing repairs in Dubai. Limpet mines are a type of naval explosive that attach to targets using...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia agreed on Monday to let Israeli airliners cross its airspace en route to the United Arab Emirates after talks between Saudi officials and White House senior adviser Jared Kushner, a senior Trump administration official said. Kushner and Middle East envoys Avi Berkowitz and Brian Hook raised the issue shortly after they arrived in Saudi Arabia ...

RIYADH/JERUSALEM - A historic meeting between Israel’s prime minister and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince has sent a strong signal to allies and enemies alike that the two countries remain deeply committed to containing their common foe Iran. Last Sunday’s covert meeting in the Saudi city of Neom, confirmed by Israeli officials but publicly denied by Riyadh, conveyed a coordinated message to U.S. President-elect Joe Biden that Washington’s main allies in the region are closing ranks. It was the first publicly confirmed visit to Saudi Arabia by an Israeli leader and a meeting that was unthinkable until recently as the two...

Watch: Saudi man takes a ride on an endangered whale shark in the Red Sea Gulf News identified the daredevil man as Abu Badi, and said he was accompanied on the boat by some of his friends. One of them can be heard shouting, "Careful, it can swallow you." By: Trends Desk | New Delhi | Published: August 22, 2020 1:20:47 pm whale shark, man rides on whale shark, saudi man rides on whale shark, man sits on whale shark, odd news, saudi arabia news, viral videos, indian express, Breathtaking video clip showed a Saudi citizen is shown jumping on...

Washington (CNN) A former top Saudi intelligence official who fell out with the Saudi Crown Prince is alleging that an assassination squad traveled from Saudi Arabia to Canada to try to kill him just days after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was murdered by members of the same group, according to a new legal complaint filed Thursday by the alleged target, Dr. Saad Aljabri, in DC District Court. Aljabri accuses the Kingdom's powerful crown prince and defacto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS, of dispatching the hit team to murder him just over a year after Aljabri fled from Saudi Arabia...

FBI lawyers accidentally revealed the identity of a Saudi diplomat who agents have suspected helped deliver crucial support to the Al-Qaeda terrorists who carried out the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, according to a report. ... The Saudi official, Mussaed Ahmed al-Jarrah, had his name blocked out in all but one appearance in the document, with the FBI admitting to Yahoo it was a mistake. Jarrah was a Saudi Foreign Ministry official assigned to the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C., in 1999 and 2000. ...

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...

Riyadh (AFP) - Saudi Arabia has abolished flogging as a punishment, the supreme court announced, hailing the latest in a series of "human rights advances" made by the king and his powerful son. Court-ordered floggings in Saudi Arabia -- sometimes extending to hundreds of lashes -- have long drawn condemnation from human rights groups. But they say the headline legal reforms overseen by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman have brought no let-up in the conservative Islamic kingdom's crushing of dissent, including through the use of the death penalty. The Saudi supreme court said the latest reform was intended to "bring...

After having crashed nearly 70 percent in the first three months of 2020, benchmark WTI prices are trying to form a bottom around $20 per barrel. But this psychological threshold is looking increasingly shaky as global crude storage facilities are filling up at an unprecedented pace. OPEC and its partners officially ended their output cut deal today, following the words of Russian Energy Minister Novak that every producer is ‘’free to pump at will’’.

CAIRO, March 29 (Reuters) - The Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said early on Sunday that the kingdom's air defences intercepted two ballistic missiles on Saturday night launched by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi group towards Riyadh and the city of Jizan, Saudi state news agency (SPA) said citing the coalition's spokesman. The coalition's spokesman, Colonel Turki al-Malki, said in a statement that no fatalities had been recorded so far. He said destroying the missiles caused some shrapnel to fall on residential neighbourhoods in the two cities, SPA reported. The spokesman added that firing missiles at this time by the Houthis and...

Saudi Arabia expanded its flight and travel bans to 12 countries and the European Union on Thursday, hours after U.S. President Donald Trump issued a similar measure for most of Europe. In a statement published by the Saudi Press Agency, the country said it was temporarily suspending "the travel of citizens and expatriates and suspended flights" to European Union member states, Switzerland, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Djibouti and Somalia. Saudi Arabia said it was extending its ban to countries "where the threat of the spread of the novel coronavirus appeared" as part...

DUBAI/MOSCOW - Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday it would boost its oil supplies to a record high in April, raising the stakes in a standoff with Russia and effectively rebuffing Moscow’s suggestion for new talks. The clash of oil titans Saudi Arabia and Russia sparked a 25% slump in crude prices on Monday, triggering panic selling on Wall Street and other equity markets that have already been badly hit by the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Oil prices LCOc1 recovered some ground on Tuesday, but were still 40% down on the start of the year. U.S. President Donald Trump spoke...

NEW YORK - Oil prices crashed on Monday, suffering their biggest daily rout since the 1991 Gulf War, after the collapse of an OPEC+ supply agreement that now threatens to overwhelm the world with oil, inciting panic throughout the energy sector. After failing to come to an agreement to cut supply, Saudi Arabia and Russia over the weekend pledged instead to ramp up production, which could quickly flood global markets with oil at a time when demand has already weakened substantially. The market’s reaction has been furious, with crude futures plunging by nearly 20%, while energy stocks collapse as shale...

The arrests have raised questions about whether the crown prince was on the verge of taking full power from his father, King Salman. The scope of a new roundup of Saudi royals widened on Saturday with word that a fourth senior prince has been detained under orders from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, according to two Saudis close to the royal family, in a sign that he is determined to crack down on even whispers of dissent. The wave of arrests has ensnared a former head of army intelligence, Prince Nayef bin Ahmed, as well as at least three other...

The United Nations special envoy to Yemen, Martin Griffiths, has called for immediate de-escalation as a drastic surge in fighting threatens to exacerbate the country's long-running war and further complicate a fragile peace process. Some say it might jeopardise two years of efforts by the UN negotiators to secure peace between Houthi rebels and the UN-recognised government. The government has been fighting the rebels since 2014, when they overran the capital Sanaa. The conflict has left tens of thousands of people dead and triggered what the UN says is the world's worst humanitarian crisis. Al Jazeera's Mohammed al-Attab reports.

More than a dozen Saudi servicemen training at US military installations will be expelled from the United States after a review that followed the deadly shooting last month at a Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida, multiple sources told CNN. The Saudis are not accused of aiding the 21-year-old Saudi Air Force second lieutenant who killed three American sailors in the December shooting, two sources said, but some are said to have connections to extremist movements, according to a person familiar with the situation. A number are also accused of possessing child pornography, according to a defense official and the...

A federal judge was aghast over the Trump administration’s assertion it could indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen as an enemy combatant without providing access to a lawyer, saying the Justice Department’s defense of the practice amounted to “an end run” around the man’s Constitutional rights. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is weighing a request by the American Civil Liberties Union to allow the group access to the man in order to provide him legal representation. “He wants counsel, which is an assertion and a request that I don’t think I can ignore,” Judge Chutkan said Monday, adding that she plans...