Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | AFP | OPEC heavyweight Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced an expansionary budget for 2019 but projected a shortfall for the sixth year in a row due to low oil prices. The new budget comes with the oil-rich kingdom reeling under strong international pressure over the murder …
Read More »US Senate advances vote on ending military support for Saudis in Yemen
Washington, United States | AFP | The US Senate sent a fresh warning to President Donald Trump and Saudi Arabia Wednesday by greenlighting a vote that could end US military support for Riyadh’s war in Yemen. Anger at the human cost of the war, as well as outrage over the …
Read More »CIA chief to brief lawmakers on Khashoggi murder
Washington, United States | AFP | CIA director Gina Haspel has agreed to brief a “small group” of US lawmakers about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the chair of the Senate foreign relations committee said Monday. The briefing will take place on Tuesday at 11:00 am (1600 GMT), …
Read More »Erdogan takes Saudi prince to task, demands extraditions
Buenos Aires, Argentina | AFP | Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan demanded Saturday that Saudi Arabia extradite suspects in the killing in Istanbul of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, taking to task the kingdom’s crown prince who was basking in his quick return to the world stage at the G20. Crown Prince Mohammed …
Read More »World leaders welcome Saudi prince at G20, Putin delighted
Buenos Aires, Argentina | AFP | World leaders including a beaming Vladimir Putin welcomed Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Friday at the G20 summit, showing he was no pariah less than two months after the murder of a dissident journalist by a Saudi hit team. In an …
Read More »Now, Gabon president in Morocco to convalesce
Rabat, Morocco | AFP | Gabon’s President Ali Bongo arrived in Morocco on Thursday to convalesce after a month’s treatment at a Saudi hospital for an illness that has not been officially revealed. The 59-year-old leader of the oil-rich West African state had been in hospital in Saudi Arabia since …
Read More »Pompeo, Mattis urge Senate to maintain Saudi military support
Washington, United States | AFP | Two top officials from President Donald Trump’s administration sought to persuade lawmakers Wednesday to maintain America’s increasingly contentious support for Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen, arguing that pulling back would worsen the brutal conflict. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Defense …
Read More »Saudi energy giant Aramco signs deals worth $27.5 bln
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | AFP | Saudi energy giant Aramco has signed 31 agreements and memoranda of understandings worth $27.5 billion with local and international suppliers, CEO Amin Nasser said Monday. “We signed $27.5 billion (24 billion euros) in a total of 31 commercial collaborations,” Nasser said in a statement …
Read More »Gabon bans opposition party from state media for three months
Libreville, Gabon | AFP | Gabon authorities said Saturday they have banned an opposition party from state media for three months over statements about the health of President Omar Bongo, who has been in a Saudi hospital for a month. Bongo, 59, was rushed to hospital …
Read More »Saudi prince MBS lands in UAE on first foreign tour since Khashoggi murder
Dubai, United Arab Emirates | AFP | Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman embarked Thursday on a regional tour starting with the United Arab Emirates, his first official trip abroad since critic Jamal Khashoggi’s murder tipped the kingdom into crisis. Prince Mohammed will visit a “number of brotherly” Arab states …
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