city:riyad

Why is Saudi Arabia Restricting German Business in the Kingdom? | Al Bawaba

▻https://www.albawaba.com/news/why-saudi-arabia-restricting-german-business-kingdom-1139232

By Eleanor Beevor

Over the past week, business analysts have balked at the news that Saudi Arabia appears to have imposed a boycott on German businesses wishing to strike deals with the Saudi state. Though the “boycott” is not enshrined in policy yet, multiple reports have quoted both German and Saudi sources confirming an impasse.

And until there is confirmation otherwise, rumours of the boycott should be taken seriously. It appears that attempts to divest state projects away from German companies have been in the making for a while – infrastructure projects that seemed likely to go to German firms have changed hands in the last few weeks. Dr. Courtney Freer, a Research Officer at the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics told Al Bawaba:

Boycott mulled for months

“I do think that Riyadh will follow through on blocking German businesses, at least from government tenders. This decision has likely been mulled over for months, as diplomatic ties between the two have gotten worse. I imagine this measure will primarily hurt large German companies active in the kingdom like Siemens, Bayer, and potentially Daimler; these companies’ employees will also of course be affected as well inside the kingdom.”

What is striking is how narrow the grievances are that reportedly sparked the boycott. Der Spiegel quoted German business owner Detlef Daues, 65% of whose business revenues come from Saudi Arabia, as saying that Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman has been “deeply offended” by German government statements and policy of late. Specifically, Prince Mohammed is still apparently upset by a remark six months ago by the then-German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel.

 

File photo taken April 10, 2018, shows Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman posing upon his arrival at the 
Elysee Presidential palace for a meeting with French President in Paris. (AFP File Photo/Ludovic Marin)

The Gulf Impasse’s One Year Anniversary & the Changing Regional Dynamics – Gulf International Forum

Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, Ph.D., Fellow for the Middle East, Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy.

▻http://gulfif.com/the-gulf-impasse

A year has passed since the Qatar News Agency was hacked and implanted with ‘fake news’. Ten days later this hacking was followed by the diplomatic and economic embargo of Qatar by four regional states – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and Egypt. The element of surprise strategy applied by the Quartet was intended to shock the Qatari government into acceding to their demands. Now, one year later this approach is misplaced as Qatar proved more resilient than anticipated. Rather than isolating Qatar regionally and internationally, the crisis has widened the cracks in the Gulf into a chasm and has generated unintended consequences that risk inflicting generational damage on its political and social fabric. As with the Iraqi invasion and occupation of Kuwait in 1990, the blockade of Qatar is an era-rupturing event that will reverberate through the regional politics and international relations of the Gulf for years to come.

Evolving Threat Perceptions
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was formed in 1981 largely in response to regional security threats triggered by the Iranian Revolution in 1979 and the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War in 1980. The six states that came together in Abu Dhabi to form the GCC often differed in their foreign policy outlook. The five smallest Gulf States shared varying degrees of wariness toward Saudi Arabia, reflecting in part a history of border disputes. For example, Kuwait was put under Saudi blockade in the 1920s and 1930s, Oman and Abu Dhabi had territorial disputes with Saudi Arabia from the 1950s to the 1970s, and as recently as 1992 and 1993 skirmishes occurred on the Saudi-Qatari border. Simmering unease in smaller Gulf capitals at the prospect of Saudi domination of GCC structures hampered attempts to construct collective military and security policies such as the Peninsula Shield Force or a common internal security agreement.

And yet, throughout the three major wars in the Gulf – the Iran-Iraq War (1980-88), the Gulf War (1991), and the war and subsequent US-led occupation of Iraq (2003-11), the GCC remained a bastion of relative stability in a region gripped by conflict and insecurity. During this tumultuous period, all six GCC states retained a common threat perception enabling them to overcome instances of intra-GCC friction, such as Saudi and Emirati attempts to reverse the 1995 succession of Qatar’s Emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani or the Emirati walkout from the planned GCC monetary union in 2010 after Riyadh was chosen over Abu Dhabi as the site of the prospective GCC central bank. Indeed, GCC states have always worked best together in the face of external threats that draw together the six ruling families’ common interest in political survival – evidenced by the decision in 2011 to revive and dispatch the Peninsula Shield Force to Bahrain to assist in the restoration of order and the creation of a $10 billion GCC fund to assist Bahrain and Oman in the wake of Arab Spring unrest.

Moujtahid et un opposant saoudien : MBS est blessé et va bientôt apparaitre – Site de la chaîne AlManar-Liban
▻http://french.almanar.com.lb/913515

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L’opposant saoudien et le chef du parti du Renouveau islamique (Hezb al-Tajdid al-Islami) Mohammad Al-Masaarai a assuré que le prince héritier saoudien Mohamad Ben Salmane a bel et bien été blessé, lors des tirs qui ont eu lieu le 21 avril dernier dans l’un des palais du roi Salmane dans le quartier al-Khazami à Riyad , mais sa blessure n’est pas mortelle.

Suite des rumeurs sur ~mbs en #arabie_saoudite

Des propos d’Emmanuel Macron passent mal en #Arabie_Saoudite
▻https://www.lejdd.fr/international/hariri-retenu-en-arabie-saoudite-les-propos-demmanuel-macron-ne-passent-pas-a-

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L’Arabie Saoudite n’a pas apprécié qu’Emmanuel Macron explique que le Premier ministre libanais Saad #Hariri avait été « retenu » en novembre dernier à Riyad après sa démission.

Macron capitalise sur l’affaire Hariri, par Rai Al Youm - Actuarabe
▻http://actuarabe.com/macron-affaire-hariri

http://actuarabe.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/hariri-makron-bin-salman-selfi.jpg

En se rendant à Riyad et en « convaincant » le Prince héritier d’Arabie saoudite de laisser Hariri partir en France, le Président français n’a pas seulement rendu un grand service au Liban et à Hariri, mais aussi au Royaume d’Arabie saoudite en le sortant d’une impasse politique et diplomatique périlleuse. Il lui a permis de diminuer ses pertes au maximum en sachant que la façon dont avait été convoqué Hariri puis détenu était sans précédent et inacceptable.

Cet aveu franc et clair du Président Macron embarrasse Hariri, qui a perdu un tiers de ses sièges au Parlement libanais. Il se consacre actuellement à former un gouvernement après avoir reçu les voix de 111 députés, dont la plupart appartiennent paradoxalement au Hezbollah et à ses alliés. Il faut savoir que le programme électoral de Hariri était dirigé contre le Hezbollah et l’axe de la résistance qu’il dirige, ce qui est bien désolant.

Without France, Lebanon would probably be at war, Macron says | Reuters

►https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-lebanon-saudi/without-france-lebanon-would-probably-be-at-war-macron-says-idUSKCN1IT1P1

“If France wasn’t listened to then there probably would be a war in Lebanon at this moment as we speak. It’s French diplomacy, it’s our action,” Macron said in an interview with broadcaster BFM TV, visibly irritated after being asked if his foreign policy over the last year had achieved anything.

Macron said an unscheduled stopover in Riyadh to convince Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, followed by an invitation to Hariri to come to France, had been the catalyst to ending the crisis.

“I remind you that a prime minister was held in Saudi Arabia for several weeks,” he said, a comment that could irk Riyadh which, like Hariri, denied he was ever held against his will.

Macron dined with Hariri and Prince Mohammed in Paris in April after a conference to rally international support for an investment program to boost the Lebanese economy.

France offers citizenship to ’Spider-Man’ migrant
Hariri, who visited Riyadh in February for the first time since the November crisis, is working to form a new coalition after a May 6 parliamentary election that strengthened his rival Hezbollah and its political allies.

The First Saudi-Iranian War Will Be an Even Fight – Foreign Policy
▻http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/05/07/the-first-saudi-iranian-war-will-be-an-even-fight

https://foreignpolicymag.files.wordpress.com/2018/05/gettyimages-669659392.jpg

Since 2011, first in Syria and then in Yemen, proxy forces of Iran and Saudi Arabi have been in constant, brutal competition. Both sides seem to have concluded that a direct war isn’t in their interest, with neither having ever directly attacked the other. But there has always been a risk of escalation — and that risk will heighten dramatically on Tuesday if President Donald Trump withdraws from the Iran nuclear deal, as seems likely. That could lead to an increase in military provocations by Iran in the region, and embolden any Saudi response.

It’s far easier to assess the likelihood of direct conflict between Tehran and Riyadh, however, than to predict a winner. The outcome of the first Saudi-Iranian war would ultimately depend on the shape it ended up taking.

The two countries differ markedly in the size and capabilities of their forces. Iran has the larger military, with two forces — the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the Artesh regular military — composed of complementary air, naval, and land branches. The Artesh has an estimated 350,000 active-duty soldiers and controls most of Iran’s more sophisticated conventional capabilities, especially in the air and maritime domains. By comparison, the IRGC, with an estimated force of 125,000, has maintained a focus on asymmetric warfare but also oversees Iran’s growing unmanned aerial vehicle fleet and strategic ballistic missile programs. Additionally, through its special forces division, known as the Quds Force, the IRGC commands Iran’s foreign military operations and relations with client allies, such as in Syria and Iraq.

Since the 1980s, intermittent sanctions and political pressure from the United States have severely degraded Iran’s ability to procure military technology and weapons from other countries, which has made some of its military capabilities relatively outmoded and weak. Iran’s defense spending (around $12.3 billion in 2016) is modest compared with Saudi Arabia’s as one of the top defense budgets in the world ($63.7 billion in 2016 and $69.4 billion in 2017), and its defense technology generally falls well below that of other regional states. Iran’s air forces fly dated platforms, such as F-5 and F-14 Tomcat variants, which have been updated domestically from aircraft inherited from the pre-revolution Pahlavi state, but struggle with intermittent inoperability. Similarly, Iran’s mechanized armor is mostly a hodgepodge of pre-1979 U.S. stock (such as the M60A1) and older Soviet tanks (such as the T-72S) procured from Russia during the 1990s.

Israel and the U.S. are triggering a risky, unnecessary war of choice in the Middle East

Triggering a Risky, Unnecessary War of Choice in the Middle East
But neither Israel’s prime minister, nor other regional U.S. allies, have any assurances America will stick around to manage the dangerous fallout from the Iran deal’s implosion

Daniel Levy May 10, 2018

▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-israel-and-the-u-s-are-triggering-a-risky-unnecessary-war-in-the-m

We will probably never know the extent of responsibility Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bears for the U.S. withdrawal, under President Trump, from the Iran nuclear deal.
U.S.- Iranian relations have certainly long been poisonous, independent of Israel. Congressional enthusiasm for the deal was always low and, within the GOP, support for it near non-existent.
Still, Netanyahu and the campaign he spearheaded certainly helped to create part of the backdrop to Trump‘s announcement; indeed, in his announcement, Trump gave Israel direct credit for supposedlysupplying “definitive proof” that Iran’s nuclear intentions were never peaceful. Not for the first time, a U.S. presidential text read like it was written in Jerusalem. 

Israel will now have to live with the consequences of that success. Following Trump’s announcement, the nuclear deal is now on a clear path to unravelling completely, with only a small chance of reversing that trajectory.
Iran has been honoring the stipulations of the JCPOA, something that Netanyahu and the deal’s many critics said would never happen, and they have produced no evidence to the contrary.
The concerns which the U.S. and Israel had raised regarding the limitations of the deal, and with which Europeans, at least, were sympathetic – the sunset clause arrangements regarding Iranian nuclear energy, ballistic missile development, and especially the challenges posed by Iran regionally – all will now have to be addressed in an atmosphere of growing crisis.
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That atmosphere will only be heightened now the nuclear issue is presumably back on the table, while tensions are escalating on Israel’s northern border, and the value of American international commitments have been significantly devalued. 
Without batting an eye-lid, President Trump has effectively just called his European allies (as well as the Chinese and Russians) a bunch of morons for negotiating what he described as a “horrible,” "one-sided," “decayed,” "rotting" and “defective” deal.
Despite his recent protestations that a shortcoming of the nuclear deal was its failure to address Iran’s regional ambitions, Netanyahu was among those who pushed hardest to keep the nuclear and regional files separate in any P5+1 dealings with Iran. He has now helped bring those two together.
After Trump’s withdrawal decision there might be an attempt to create a semblance of continuity – Europeans and Iranians might explore avenues for retaining the deal which was, after all, blessed by the UN, and they could attempt to address the additional concerns raised by the U.S. But the odds are heavily stacked against that succeeding, if it is even attempted. 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech on Iran’s nuclear program, in Tel Aviv, April 30, 2018.JACK GUEZ/AFP
Europe cannot salvage the deal without the U.S. Thus far, Iran has implemented its side of the bargain without the reciprocal economic easing really materializing – that is primarily because European banks and companies feared being frozen out by U.S. financial institutions. Now what was speculation and risk management from European business has become fact, even fewer in the European private sector will risk extensive business dealings with Iran.

A strong economic stand by Europe against U.S. direct and secondary sanctions, possibly even at the WTO, might make a difference. There are few signs that Europe is preparing such a response. 
On the Iranian side the smart money will be on this strengthening those who cautioned against any expectations from the West in general, and the U.S. in particular, to honor agreements. 
To try and claim, as the White House has done recently, that this exit could be a prelude to a better deal is to stretch incredulity to breaking point.
The logic of Trump’s announcement is that he and his team expect one of three scenarios to play out - regime change in Iran, capitulation by Iran or confrontation with Iran.
The music suggests that that the U.S. is betting on scenarios one or two. Neither option has much going for it other than wishful thinking. American-driven attempts at regime change have a very poor record indeed in the Middle East, and anyone who thinks that Iran will agree to terms dictated by Washington, Riyadh and Jerusalem has not been paying attention.
All of which points in the direction of an increasing likelihood of the gloves coming off and of direct confrontation between some combination of the key protagonists (the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia on one side, Iran, Hezbollah and allied militias, including in Iraq, on the other.)

Army Green Berets Secretly Help Saudis Combat Threat From Yemen Rebels - The New York Times

▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/03/us/politics/green-berets-saudi-yemen-border-houthi.html

By Helene Cooper, Thomas Gibbons-Neff and Eric Schmitt
May 3, 2018
WASHINGTON — For years, the American military has sought to distance itself from a brutal civil war in Yemen, where Saudi-led forces are battling rebels who pose no direct threat to the United States.

But late last year, a team of about a dozen Green Berets arrived on Saudi Arabia’s border with Yemen, in a continuing escalation of America’s secret wars.

With virtually no public discussion or debate, the Army commandos are helping locate and destroy caches of ballistic missiles and launch sites that Houthi rebels in Yemen are using to attack Riyadh and other Saudi cities.

Details of the Green Beret operation, which has not been previously disclosed, were provided to The New York Times by United States officials and European diplomats.
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They appear to contradict Pentagon statements that American military assistance to the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen is limited to aircraft refueling, logistics and general intelligence sharing.

There is no indication that the American commandos have crossed into Yemen as part of the secretive mission.

But sending American ground forces to the border is a marked escalation of Western assistance to target Houthi fighters who are deep in Yemen.

Beyond its years as a base for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Yemen has been convulsed by civil strife since 2014, when the Shiite Muslim rebels from the country’s north stormed the capital, Sana. The Houthis, who are aligned with Iran, ousted the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the Americans’ main counterterrorism partner in Yemen.

In 2015, a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia began bombing the Houthis, who have responded by firing missiles into the kingdom. Yet there is no evidence that the Houthis directly threaten the United States; they are an unsophisticated militant group with no operations outside Yemen and have not been classified by the American government as a terrorist group.

The Green Berets, the Army’s Special Forces, deployed to the border in December, weeks after a ballistic missile fired from Yemen sailed close to Riyadh, the Saudi capital. The Saudi military intercepted the missile over the city’s international airport, and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman renewed a longstanding request that the United States send troops to help the kingdom combat the Houthi threat.

La France doit mettre en place un contrôle parlementaire effectif des ventes d’armes
▻http://obsarm.org/spip.php?article302

A l’occasion de la visite de Mohammed Ben Salman à Paris, Tony Fortin, chargé d’études à l’Observatoire des armements, appelle, dans une tribune au « Monde », les parlementaires à faire la lumière sur les ventes de matériels militaires français à Riyad. Si le drame yéménite tient encore une place marginale dans le débat public, la France n’échappera pas longtemps à son examen de conscience. En ligne de mire, nos ventes d’armes aux forces de la coalition. On pourrait rétorquer comme Florence Parly, ministre (...)

#L'Observatoire_dans_les_médias

En Arabie saoudite, le discours clair du cardinal Tauran - La Croix
▻https://www.la-croix.com/Religion/Catholicisme/Pape/En-Arabie-saoudite-discours-clair-cardinal-Tauran-2018-04-17-1200932291

En visite en Arabie saoudite, le président du Conseil pontifical pour le dialogue interreligieux a prononcé un important discours, inédit dans ce pays qui prône un islam des plus rigoristes.

Le cardinal Jean-Louis Tauran, président du Conseil pontifical pour le dialogue interreligieux, est depuis le vendredi 13 avril à Riyad, la capitale de l’Arabie saoudite, pour une visite de huit jours.

À cette occasion, le cardinal français a rencontré, samedi 14 avril, le cheikh Mohammed Al-Issa, secrétaire général de la Ligue islamique mondiale, qui avait effectué une visite au Vatican en septembre 2017.

« Toutes les religions doivent être traitées de la même manière, sans discrimination, parce que leurs fidèles, tout comme des citoyens qui ne professent aucune religion, doivent être traités de la même manière », a fait remarquer le cardinal Tauran, selon des propos rapportés par L’Osservatore romano, dans une allusion au sujet toujours actuel de la « pleine citoyenneté » pour tous.

Le cardinal, qui a aussi rencontré dans une structure diplomatique des chrétiens travaillant sur place qu’il a encouragés, a également plaidé pour « des règles communes pour la construction des lieux de culte », estimant que « si nous n’éliminons pas le système de deux poids deux mesures de notre comportement en tant que croyants et qu’institutions et organisations religieuses, nous alimenterons l’islamophobie et la christianophobie ».

« Ce qui nous menace c’est le choc des ignorances et des radicalismes »

Un discours, certes habituel dans la bouche du président du Conseil pontifical pour le dialogue interreligieux, mais porté haut et fort pour la première fois dans la patrie du wahhabisme, l’un des courants les plus rigoristes de l’islam, où la construction d’églises demeure rigoureusement interdite.
[…]
« Nous ne disons pas que toutes les religions se valent, a-t-il précisé, mais que tous les croyants ceux qui cherchent Dieu et toutes les personnes de bonne volonté qui n’ont pas d’affiliation religieuse, sont d’égale dignité. Chacun doit être laissé libre d’embrasser la religion qu’il veut. »

« La religion peut être proposée mais jamais imposée, et ensuite acceptée ou refusée », a-t-il aussi souligné, rappelant qu’« il y a des radicalismes dans toutes les religions ».

« Les fondamentalistes et les extrémistes sont sans doute des personnes zélées mais qui ont malheureusement dévié d’une compréhension solide et sage de la religion, a-t-il développé. De plus, elles considèrent ceux qui ne partagent pas leur vision comme des mécréants qui doivent se convertir ou être éliminés afin de maintenir la pureté. »

L’Arabie saoudite prête à épauler la coalition en Syrie
▻https://www.latribune.fr/depeches/reuters/KBN1HO2LF/l-arabie-saoudite-prete-a-epauler-la-coalition-en-syrie.html

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L’armée saoudienne pourrait intervenir en Syrie dans le cadre de la coalition sous commandement américain si les Etats-membres décident de l’élargir, a annoncé mardi le ministre saoudien des Affaires étrangères.

« Nous discutons avec les Etats-Unis, et nous le faisons depuis le début de la crise, d’un déploiement de troupes en Syrie », a déclaré Adel Al Djoubeir, s’adressant à la presse à Ryad en compagnie d’Antonio Guterres, secrétaire général de l’Onu.

Riyad avait déjà fait une proposition en ce sens à Barack Obama, a-t-il ajouté.

A Paris, Macron et Mohammed Ben Salman ont affiché leur « excellente relation »
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/international/article/2018/04/11/a-paris-macron-et-mohammed-ben-salman-ont-affiche-leur-excellente-relation_5

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Le président français et le prince héritier saoudien ont annoncé, mardi, la tenue d’une conférence humanitaire sur le Yémen à Paris. Les deux hommes ont aussi rapproché leurs positions sur la question iranienne.

L’humanitaire, c’est bien sûr par ce bout-là qu’il faut prendre la question du Yémen.

Et sur l’Iran

Lors de leur rencontre à Riyad en novembre 2017, leur échange avait été pour le moins vif, Mohammed Ben Salman n’appréciant guère les efforts français visant à sauver l’accord de juillet 2015 entre les « 5 + 1 » (les membres permanents du Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies plus l’Allemagne) et Téhéran gelant le programme nucléaire iranien.
Aujourd’hui, MBS se sent encore renforcé par le soutien du président américain, Donald Trump. Mais M. Macron reconnaît partager les préoccupations de Riyad sur le développement du programme balistique iranien et sa politique de déstabilisation régionale. « Nous avons une vue tactique différente sur l’accord, mais nous avons une vision stratégique cohérente » pour stabiliser la région, a précisé Emmanuel Macron.

#cohérence avec MbS, comme cohérence avec les cathos…

INFO FRANCEINFO. À quelques heures d’un dîner à l’Élysée, Mohammed ben Salmane visé par une plainte à Paris pour « complicité d’actes de torture »
▻https://www.francetvinfo.fr/monde/proche-orient/yemen/info-franceinfo-a-quelques-heures-dun-diner-a-lelysee-mohamed-ben-salma

https://www.francetvinfo.fr/image/75ir2i91g-3fe5/1500/843/14775074.jpg

Alors qu’il est en voyage officiel à Paris depuis dimanche 8 avril, le prince héritier d’#Arabie_saoudite, #Mohammed_ben_Salmane, fait l’objet d’une #plainte avec constitution de partie civile, déposée lundi 9 avril auprès de magistrats du pôle spécialisé sur les #crimes_de_guerre du tribunal de grande instance de Paris, spécialisés dans les crimes de guerre.

L’avocat pénaliste français #Joseph_Breham représente l’association yéménite de défense des Droits de l’homme à l’origine de cette plainte. Il accuse l’homme fort du régime saoudien de « complicité d’actes de #torture » pour son rôle joué dans la guerre contre les rebelles houthis au #Yémen. Depuis le début de ce conflit, en 2015, l’Arabie saoudite aurait déployé 150 000 militaires et une centaine d’avions de combat dans le pays. L’intervention de la coalition militaire, menée par Riyad, a déjà fait plus de 10 000 morts et 50 000 blessés. [...]

Dans la plainte de quinze pages que nous avons pu consulter, l’héritier du trône et ancien ministre de la Défense d’Arabie saoudite est accusé d’avoir sciemment pris pour cible des populations civiles yéménites avec des frappes sur des camps de déplacés, sur des marchés, des immeubles résidentiels et des hôpitaux. [...]

La plainte évoque aussi l’utilisation d’#armes_à_sous-munitions, une catégorie d’armes interdite par une convention internationale approuvée par 108 États, dont l’Arabie saoudite ne fait pas partie. Ainsi que des « #disparitions_forcées » et des prisons secrètes qui seraient tenues par des Émiratis.

#crimes_contre_l'humanité

#Arabie_Saoudite : la problématique visite de MBS en France
▻https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/international/080418/arabie-saoudite-la-problematique-visite-de-mbs-en-france

Officiellement, l’Élysée ne veut parler que de « partenariat technologique » lors de la visite du prince héritier saoudien Mohammed Ben #Emmanuel_Macron reçu par le prince hériter Mohammed Ben Salman lors de son escale à Riyad en novembre 2017 © SPA Salmane en France du 8 au 10 avril. Officieusement, l’exécutif est sous la pression pour ses ventes d’armes au Royaume qui alimentent le conflit au #Yémen.

#International #armement #armes #Mohammed_ben_Salmane

As Saudi prince arrives, ties with France more complex than before

▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-saudi/as-saudi-prince-arrives-ties-with-france-more-complex-than-before-idUSKCN1H

But analysts note the 32-year-old Prince Mohammed has emphasized closer ties with U.S. President Donald Trump just at a time when Macron has in turn sought to improve relations with Iran and vowed to preserve the nuclear deal.

Several Western and Arab diplomats describe the November exchange as tense. According to three officials, the meeting was dominated by Prince Mohammed threatening to curb relations with France if Macron did not alter his desire to dialogue with Iran, Riyadh’s regional rival, and push business interests there.

Macron, the officials said, reminded Prince Mohammed of France’s position in the world as a nuclear power, permanent member of the Security Council member and that France was free to do what it wanted.

Massive United States-Saudi Infrastructure Fund Struggles to Get Going - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/04/business/blackstone-infrastructure-fund-saudi.html

Last May, the private equity firm Blackstone announced that it was creating a $40 billion fund that would invest in infrastructure projects in the United States. The fund’s largest backer was the government of Saudi Arabia, which agreed to kick in half the cash.

Ten months later, the highly anticipated fund has yet to complete an initial round of fund-raising, much less start investing in infrastructure.

Although the Saudis promised to contribute up to $20 billion, Blackstone is required to raise a dollar from other investors for every dollar the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund puts in. So far, only two other investors have publicly committed to the fund, with their contributions totaling $575 million, according to data provider Preqin, which tracks such investments.

In the short term, Blackstone’s goal now is to raise a total of $15 billion — much less than it trumpeted during President Trump’s visit to Riyadh last spring — according to a document posted on the website of a Pennsylvania pension plan that has agreed to invest in the fund.

#usa #arabie_saoudite

AMC plans up to 100 theaters in Saudi Arabia by 2030
▻http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-amc-saudi-arabia-20180404-story.html

AMC Theatres, the world’s largest cinema operator, said Wednesday that it plans to open up to 100 theaters in 25 Saudi Arabian cities by 2030, the latest sign of the chain’s desire to become a major player in the kingdom’s nascent entertainment industry.

Leawood, Kan.-based AMC and the entertainment subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund have signed a deal to operate cinemas in the kingdom, with up to 40 locations expected to open in 15 cities within five years, the theater company said. (...)

The first new theater in Saudi Arabia, an AMC Cinema in Riyadh’s King Abdullah Financial District, is set to open April 18. AMC, whose biggest shareholder is Chinese conglomerate Dalian Wanda Group, hopes to control 50% of the Saudi Arabian theater industry.

#arabie_saoudite #cinéma

Trump, Saudi Arabia in lockstep: Give Syria up to Assad, ignore Gaza -

Trump’s talk with the Saudi crown prince made him conclude that there’s nothing Washington can do in Syria; they also see eye to eye on the weekend’s events in Gaza and the question of Hamas’ status

▻https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-trump-saudi-arabia-in-lockstep-give-syria-up-to-assad-ignore-gaza-

They also see eye to eye on the weekend’s events in the Gaza Strip and the question of Hamas’ status. Last Friday, the United States opposed a Kuwaiti motion in the UN Security Council to condemn Israel for the violence. Riyadh did its part by refusing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ request that it convene an emergency Arab summit to discuss the killing of Palestinians in Gaza. The kingdom gave Abbas the cold shoulder, saying the regular Arab League summit would take place in a few weeks anyway, so no additional summit was needed.
The disinterest Mohammed and Trump both showed in the events in Gaza, combined with their capitulation to reality in Syria, reveals a clear American-Saudi strategy by which regional conflicts will be dealt with by the parties to those conflicts, and only those with the potential to spark an international war will merit attention and perhaps intervention.
>> Gaza carnage is a victory for Hamas – and a propaganda nightmare for Israel ■ With riots and live fire, Gaza just went 25 years back in time >>
An example of the latter is the battle against Iran, which will continue to interest both Washington and Riyadh because they consider it of supreme international importance, not just a local threat to Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Syria, in contrast, doesn’t interest the world, and to the degree that it poses a threat to Israel, Israel’s 2007 attack on Syria’s nuclear reactor and its ongoing military intervention in Syria show that it neither needs nor even wants other powers involved.
>> Ten years of silence on Syria strike. Why now? ■ A turning point in Israel’s history ■ Before successful strike, Israel’s most resounding intel failure
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is also no longer seen as a global threat, or even a regional one. Therefore, it’s unnecessary to “waste” international or pan-Arab effort on it. If Egypt can and wants to handle the conflict from the Arab side, fine. But for now, that will be it.

Où et pourquoi le Prince héritier d’Arabie saoudite a-t-il rencontré le chef des services de renseignement israéliens ? Al-Quds Al-Arabi - Actuarabe
▻http://actuarabe.com/ou-et-pourquoi-le-prince-heritier-darabie-saoudite-a-t-il-rencontre-le-ch

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L’institution militaire israélienne a soudainement décidé de révéler la rencontre entre le Prince héritier d’Arabie saoudite, Mohammed Ben Salman, et le chef du Conseil de sécurité nationale en Israël, Meir Ben-Shabbat. Cette annonce a été faite par le chef d’état-major de l’armée d’occupation, Gadi Eizenkot, en personne durant plusieurs entretiens avec des quotidiens israéliens.

En fait, cette nouvelle n’est pas une grande surprise car les deux parties, Israël et l’Arabie saoudite, ont préparé progressivement le public concerné. L’annonce de la visite « d’un haut responsable saoudien » en Israël n’était qu’un épisode de ce feuilleton et on disait à l’époque que ce « haut responsable » n’était autre que le Prince héritier Mohammed Ben Salman lui-même, mais le moment n’était pas encore venu de dévoiler son nom.

Patriot Missiles Are Made in America and Fail Everywhere – Foreign Policy
▻http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/03/28/patriot-missiles-are-made-in-america-and-fail-everywhere

https://foreignpolicymag.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/gettyimages-83352316.jpg

On March 25, Houthi forces in Yemen fired seven missiles at Riyadh. Saudi Arabia confirmed the launches and asserted that it successfully intercepted all seven.

This wasn’t true. It’s not just that falling debris in Riyadh killed at least one person and sent two more to the hospital. There’s no evidence that Saudi Arabia intercepted any missiles at all. And that raises uncomfortable questions not just about the Saudis, but about the United States, which seems to have sold them — and its own public — a #lemon of a missile defense system.

Les Houthis tirent de nouveaux missiles en direction de Riyad, par Abdel Bari Atwan dans @raialyoum - Actuarabe
▻http://actuarabe.com/les-houthis-tirent-de-nouveaux-missiles-en-direction-de-riyad

http://actuarabe.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/atwan-ok8-400x2642-400x264.jpg

La comparaison entre Saada au Nord du Yémen et la Ghouta orientale peut paraître choquante et inappropriée à cause de l’éloignement géographique et des circonstances politiques différentes, mais il y a de nombreux points communs, notamment les missiles lancés depuis ces deux régions et qui menacent la stabilité des deux capitales : Riyad, la saoudienne, et Damas, la syrienne.

Le gouvernement syrien, soutenu par son allié russe, a décidé d’éliminer les groupes armés de la Ghouta avec des bombardements aériens et terrestres qui ont duré presque deux mois. Il a obtenu de grandes avancées dans ce domaine, en sécurisant la capitale Damas et en supprimant la source des missiles ; mais la situation du gouvernement saoudien est bien plus compliquée.

Arabia Saudí intercepta siete misiles desde Yemen | El Mundo | DW | 26.03.2018
▻http://www.dw.com/es/arabia-saud%C3%AD-intercepta-siete-misiles-desde-yemen/a-43127261

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Durante la destrucción de los proyectiles el domingo por la noche algunas partes cayeron sobre zonas habitadas y en Riad al menos una persona murió, mientras que otras dos resultaron heridas.

(ma première brève pêchée par le nouveau Newsmap – très réactif aux suggestions… - lors de mes essais, d’où le côté exotique : article en espagnol sur Deutsche Welle concernant l’#Arabie_saoudite et le #Yemen)

Au passage, on notera que comme l’interception a (forcément) réussi ce sont les débris qui ont provoqué mort(s) et blessés…

He Owns Much of Ethiopia. The Saudis Won’t Say Where They’re Hiding Him. - The New York Times
▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/16/business/saudi-arabia-purge.html

But the gilded life of Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Al Amoudi took a sharp turn in November. Sheikh Amoudi, the gregarious 71-year-old son of a Yemeni businessman and his Ethiopian wife, was swept up with hundreds of billionaires, princes and other well-connected figures in what the Saudi government says is an anti-corruption campaign that has seized more than $100 billion in assets.

Many other detainees, who were initially kept at a Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, have been released, including Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the well-known international investor. Sheikh Amoudi’s cousin Mohammed Aboud Al Amoudi, a property developer, was also let go.

But Sheikh Amoudi, once called the world’s richest black person by Forbes, has not been freed, leaving a vast empire that employs more than 70,000 people in limbo. He controls businesses from Ethiopia, where he is the largest private employer and the most prominent backer of the authoritarian government, to Sweden, where he owns a large fuel company, to London, which he has used as a base to set up a number of companies.

#prison_dorée #arabie_saoudite

Saudis Said to Use Coercion and Abuse to Seize Billions - The New York Times

▻https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/11/world/middleeast/saudi-arabia-corruption-mohammed-bin-salman.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Hom

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Businessmen once considered giants of the Saudi economy now wear ankle bracelets that track their movements. Princes who led military forces and appeared in glossy magazines are monitored by guards they do not command. Families who flew on private jets cannot gain access to their bank accounts. Even wives and children have been forbidden to travel.

In November, the Saudi government locked up hundreds of influential businessmen — many of them members of the royal family — in the Riyadh Ritz-Carlton in what it called an anti-corruption campaign.

Most have since been released but they are hardly free. Instead, this large sector of Saudi Arabia’s movers and shakers are living in fear and uncertainty.

During months of captivity, many were subject to coercion and physical abuse, witnesses said. In the early days of the crackdown, at least 17 detainees were hospitalized for physical abuse and one later died in custody with a neck that appeared twisted, a badly swollen body and other signs of abuse, according to a person who saw the body.

In an email to The New York Times on Sunday, the government denied accusations of physical abuse as “absolutely untrue.”

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To leave the Ritz, many of the detainees not only surrendered huge sums of money, but also signed over to the government control of precious real estate and shares of their companies — all outside any clear legal process.

The government has yet to actually seize many of the assets, leaving the former detainees and their families in limbo.

One former detainee, forced to wear a tracking device, has sunk into depression as his business collapses. “We signed away everything,” a relative of his said. “Even the house I am in, I am not sure if it is still mine.”

As the architect of the crackdown, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, prepares to travel to the United States this month to court American investment, Saudi officials are spotlighting his reforms: his promise to let women drive, his plans to expand entertainment opportunities and his moves to encourage foreign investment. They have denied any allegations of abuse and have portrayed the Ritz episode as an orderly legal process that has wound down.

But extensive interviews with Saudi officials, members of the royal family, and relatives, advisers and associates of the detainees revealed a murkier, coercive operation, marked by cases of physical abuse, which transferred billions of dollars in private wealth to the crown prince’s control.

Corruption has long been endemic in Saudi Arabia, and many of the detainees were widely assumed to have stolen from state coffers. But the government, citing privacy laws, has refused to specify the charges against individuals and, even after they were released, to clarify who was found guilty or innocent, making it impossible to know how much the process was driven by personal score settling.

Part of the campaign appears to be driven by a family feud, as Crown Prince Mohammed presses the children of King Abdullah, the monarch who died in 2015, to give back billions of dollars that they consider their inheritance, according to three associates of the Abdullah family.

And although the government said the campaign would increase transparency, it has been conducted in secret, with transactions carried out in ways that avoid public disclosure, and with travel bans and fear of reprisals preventing detainees from speaking freely.

Most people interviewed for this article spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid the risk of appearing to criticize Crown Prince Mohammed.

The government said in its email that “the investigations, led by the Attorney General, were conducted in full accordance to Saudi laws. All those under investigation had full access to legal counsel in addition to medical care to address pre-existing, chronic conditions.”

The government, and several Saudi officials contacted separately, declined to answer further questions about the crackdown.

They have argued, however, that it was a necessarily harsh means of returning ill-gotten gains to the treasury while sending a clear message that the old, corrupt ways of doing business are over. And they have defended the process as a kind of Saudi-style plea bargain in which settlements were reached to avoid the time and economic disruption of a drawn-out legal process.

In a separate statement on Sunday announcing new anti-corruption departments in the Attorney General’s office, the government said that King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed “are keen to eradicate corruption with utmost force and transparency.”

But the opaque and extralegal nature of the campaign has rattled the very foreign investors the prince is now trying to woo.

“At the start of the crackdown they promised transparency, but they did not deliver it,” said Robert Jordan, who served as American ambassador to Saudi Arabia under President George W. Bush. “Without any kind of transparency or rule of law, it makes investors nervous that their investments might be taken and that their Saudi partners might be detained without any rationale to the charges.”