Two lawsuits pitting Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler against a former intelligence czar threaten to expose highly sensitive US government secrets, prompting Washington to consider a rare judicial intervention, documents show. The cases in US and Canadian courts centre on corruption allegations levelled by state-owned Saudi companies against Saad Aljabri, a former spymaster who long […]
Saudi
Saudi prince sees Blinken in low-key US reception
Saudi Arabia’s deputy defense minister met Wednesday with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on a low-key visit to Washington focused partly on Yemen as the United States takes a greater distance with its ally. Khalid bin Salman — the younger brother of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who US intelligence says ordered the murder of […]
Saudi suspends UAE flights due to virus variant
Saudi Arabia has suspended flights to three countries, including the neighbouring United Arab Emirates, to protect against a coronavirus variant, the interior ministry said Saturday. The move comes seven weeks after the oil-rich kingdom permitted fully immunised citizens to travel abroad, after a ban on foreign trips that lasted more than a year. The UAE, […]
Saudi suspends UAE flights due to virus variant
Saudi Arabia has suspended flights to three countries, including the neighbouring United Arab Emirates, to protect against a coronavirus variant, the interior ministry said Saturday. The move comes seven weeks after the oil-rich kingdom permitted fully immunised citizens to travel abroad, after a ban on foreign trips that lasted more than a year. The […]
Saudi announces plan to launch second national airline
Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler announced plans Wednesday to launch a second national airline, state media said, despite an already crowded aviation market struggling with the coronavirus pandemic. The airline, part of a push to turn the kingdom into a logistics hub, would be in addition to state-owned Saudi Arabian Airlines, which has suffered losses […]
Saudi envoy to Qatar takes up post as rift eases
Saudi Arabia’s new ambassador to Qatar took up his post on Monday, presenting his credentials after the two Gulf countries re-established ties in January following a bitter three-year feud. Saudi envoy Prince Mansour bin Khalid bin Farhan Al-Saud was received by Qatar’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani, in the capital Doha, according to […]
Saudi to allow 60,000 vaccinated residents to perform hajj
Saudi Arabia announced Saturday it will allow 60,000 vaccinated residents of the kingdom to perform the annual hajj, state media reported. The hajj ministry said this year’s pilgrimage would be “open for nationals and residents of the kingdom, limited to 60,000 pilgrims”, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. “Those wishing to perform the hajj […]
Saudi ambassador to Germany says all options on the table against Iran
BERLIN: The Saudi ambassador to Germany said on Thursday all options were on the table in retaliation to attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil facilities over the weekend that the kingdom has blamed on Iran. Asked about the possibility of a military strike against Iran, he said: “Of course everything is on the table but you […]
Attacks on Saudi oil facilities knock out half the kingdom’s supply
Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group said it attacked two plants at the heart of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry on Saturday, knocking out more than half the Kingdom’s output, in a move expected to send oil prices soaring and increase tensions in the Middle East. The attacks will cut the kingdom’s output by 5.7 million barrels per day (bpd), […]
A Saudi app that promotes Arabic reading
DUBAI: The most crucial year in a child’s education may be the age of 8, or third grade, according to a study by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.The organization, which focuses on improving the wellbeing of American children, found this to be the developmental phase when children transition from “learning to read” to “reading to […]