person:bandar bin sultan

Saudi Arabia, Germany turn page on diplomatic dispute -
The spat was triggered last November when Germany’s foreign minister at the time, Sigmar Gabriel, condemned ’adventurism’ in the Middle East

Reuters
Sep 26, 2018 5:39 PM

▻https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/saudi-arabia-germany-turn-page-on-diplomatic-dispute-1.6511068

Germany and Saudi Arabia have agreed to end a prolonged diplomatic row that prompted the kingdom to pull its ambassador from Berlin and punish German firms operating in the country.
The spat was triggered last November when Germany’s foreign minister at the time, Sigmar Gabriel, condemned “adventurism” in the Middle East, in comments that were widely seen as an attack on increasingly assertive Saudi policies, notably in Yemen.
The comments, which aggravated already tense relations caused by a moratorium on German arms exports to Saudi Arabia, led Riyadh to withdraw its ambassador and freeze out German companies, particularly in the lucrative healthcare sector.

Gabriel’s successor Heiko Maas, egged on by German industry, had been working for months to resolve the dispute. Earlier this month, Berlin signed off on the delivery of four artillery positioning systems to Saudi Arabia, a step that officials say accelerated the rapprochement.
Standing alongside his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir at the United Nations on Tuesday, Maas spoke of “misunderstandings” that had undermined what were otherwise “strong and strategic ties” between the countries, saying “we sincerely regret this”.
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“We should have been clearer in our communication and engagement in order to avoid such misunderstandings between Germany and the kingdom,” he said. “We’ll do our best to make this partnership with the kingdom even stronger than before.”
Jubeir said he welcomed Maas’ statement and invited him to the kingdom to intensify their ties. He spoke of a “a new phase of close cooperation in all areas” between Berlin and Riyadh.
Officials told Reuters that the Saudi ambassador, Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan, son of longtime Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, was expected to return to Berlin soon.
After weeks of delay, the new German ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Joerg Ranau, is now expected to receive his accreditation and take up his position in Riyadh.
“The Gordian knot has been broken,” said Volker Treier, foreign trade chief at the German chambers of commerce and industry (DIHK), who is in Riyadh to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the local chamber.
“The optimism is back. Diplomacy triumphed,” he said. “Everyone we have met here has made clear they want to work closely with us again.”
The dispute hit trade between the countries. German exports to Saudi Arabia fell 5 percent in the first half of 2018. And companies like Siemens Healthineers, Bayer and Boehringer Ingelheim complained that they were being excluded from public healthcare tenders.
In a strongly-worded June letter to Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, European and U.S. pharmaceutical associations warned that the restrictions could hurt Saudipatients and dampen future investment in the kingdom.
The dispute with Germany predates one that erupted between Canada and Saudi Arabia this summer after the Canadian foreign minister, in a tweet, called for the release of human rights activists in Saudi Arabia.
The kingdom responded by expelling the Canadian ambassador, recalling its own envoy, freezing new trade and investment, suspending flights and ordering Saudi students to leave Canada.
Saudi Arabia’s role in the Yemen war, in which Arab forces are fighting Iran-aligned Houthis, remains controversial in Germany.
Chancellor Angela Merkel’s new government went so far as to write into its coalition agreement earlier this year that no arms could be sent to countries involved in the conflict. It is unclear how recent arms deliveries fit with this ban.

Ramadan et ses pubs (3/3) : la princesse conduit le changement en Arabie saoudite. – Culture et politique arabes
▻https://cpa.hypotheses.org/6608

C’est rarement mentionné mais il se trouve que l’héroïne de la couverture de Vogue Arabia est, à la ville, l’épouse du très très sulfureux prince Bandar bin Sultan, longtemps à la tête, entre autres activités, des services secrets du Royaume et à ce titre très certainement au courant de la répression de celles et de ceux qui luttaient pour les droits des femmes au Royaume.

#cpa

Les 28 pages:
▻http://intelligence.house.gov/sites/intelligence.house.gov/files/documents/declasspart4.pdf

Pour financer le programme secret de la CIA en Syrie, les États-Unis ont (une fois de plus) compté sur l’argent séoudien, à hauteur de plusieurs milliards de dollars.

U.S. Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/world/middleeast/us-relies-heavily-on-saudi-money-to-support-syrian-rebels.html

American officials have not disclosed the amount of the Saudi contribution, which is by far the largest from another nation to the program to arm the rebels against President Bashar al-Assad’s military. But estimates have put the total cost of the arming and training effort at several billion dollars.

Et l’article indique que l’armement de la rébellion par les Séoudiens et les Qataris a commencé au tout début de 2012 (« plus d’un an » avant « le printemps 2013 »). Il n’y avait alors pas de programme de la CIA, dit l’article, mais c’est tout de même la CIA qui organise la contrebande d’armes vers la Syrie (c’est hors-programme, alors ?)…

When Mr. Obama signed off on arming the rebels in the spring of 2013, it was partly to try to gain control of the apparent free-for-all in the region. The Qataris and the Saudis had been funneling weapons into Syria for more than a year. The Qataris had even smuggled in shipments of Chinese-made FN-6 shoulder-fired missiles over the border from Turkey.

The Saudi efforts were led by the flamboyant Prince Bandar bin Sultan, at the time the intelligence chief, who directed Saudi spies to buy thousands of AK-47s and millions of rounds of ammunition in Eastern Europe for the Syrian rebels. The C.I.A. helped arrange some of the arms purchases for the Saudis, including a large deal in Croatia in 2012.

The Alliance Between Israel And Saudi Arabia
▻http://www.mintpressnews.com/the-alliance-between-israel-and-saudi-arabia/209548

In particular, according to information of a Jerusalem Post correspondent citing diplomatic sources of both countries, since the beginning of 2014 there have been as many as five secret meetings between the Saudis and Israelis, in India, Italy and the Czech Republic. Reports appeared in the Arab press that senior members of the Israeli security forces, including the head of Mossad, secretly visited Riyadh and held discussions there with their Saudi equivalents. Apparently there were even negotiations between the then director general of the Saudi Intelligence Agency, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, with senior officials of the Israeli secret services in Geneva.

On June 5, 2015 Director-General of the Israeli Foreign Ministry Dore Gold met Saudi met with General Anwar Majed Eshki at a conference in Washington, when the latter presented his strategic MER plan. Key highlights of this document are devoted to establishing cooperation between the Arab countries and Israel and the need for joint efforts to isolate the Iranian regime.

King Salman of Saudi Arabia commissioned prince and media magnate Al-Waleed bin Talal to start a dialogue with the Israeli intellectual community with the aim of reestablishing contact with the neighbouring country. Prince Talal called on all inhabitants of the Middle East, which were torn apart by war, to end their hatred of the Jewish people. He also declared that his visit to Jerusalem signifies the beginning of ‘peace and brotherliness’ between Israel and its Arab neighbours. Arab media reported that Saudi Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi confirmed that his country is ready to export ‘black gold’ to any place in the world, including Israel. Saudi Minister pointed out that the majority of the Arab world does not see any obstacles to trade relations. In August 2014 the head of the Saudi Foreign Ministry Prince Saud Al Faisal declared at the world assembly of Islamic scholars in Jeddah: “We must reject planting hatred towards Israel and we should normalize relations with the Jewish state.” Dore Gold, mentioned above, told the news agency Bloomberg: “Our standing today on this stage does not mean we have resolved all the differences that our countries shared over the years. But our hope is we will be able to address them fully in the years ahead and Riyadh can become a strategic partner of the Jewish state”.

Saudi King Salman purging monarchy of Abdullah’s inner circle - Middle East - Israel News | Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/.premium-1.654210

After the first purge carried out by Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in January, a few days after the death of his predecessor King Abdullah, comes the second round. It is not likely to be the last.

The first to be ousted was Abdullah’s inner orbit of loyalists, including his bureau chief, Khaled al-Tuwaijri, his two sons, Mashal (governor of Mecca) and Turki (governor of Riyyad), his intelligence chief Khalid bin Bandar and the latter’s father, Bandar bin Sultan, who headed the National Security Council.

The current round aims to ensure the line of succession. Among others, Salman ousted the crown prince, Muqrin bin Abdulaziz – Abdullah’s favorite – replacing him with the powerful Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef. The king appointed his son, Mohammed bin Salman, as deputy crown prince – that is, the man who will inherit the kingdom if Mohammed bin Nayef departs.

These moves are not surprising. From the beginning of Salman’s rule, it was clear that Prince Muqrin, once the failed intelligence chief, would not remain crown prince for long. Even Mohammed bin Salman’s appointment as deputy crown prince was expected, and not only because of his diplomatic skills and expertise on terrorism, which he acquired in numerous courses he took at the FBI Academy.

The distancing of Abdullah’s loyalists and strengthening of the Sudairi branch of the ruling family, of which Mohammed bin Nayef is a member, is part of a settling of scores with King Abdullah, whose reign saw a waning of the influence of the Sudairi princes – the sons of Hassa al-Sudairi, one of the 10 wives of Saudi Arabia’s first king, Abdulaziz (Ibn Saud).

If there is a surprise appointment, it is that of Adel al-Jubeir as foreign minister, replacing Saud al-Faisal, who designed and implemented Saudi Arabia’s foreign policy for four decades. Al-Faisal, 75, has Parkinson’s disease and it seems his request to leave office was authentic. Jubeir is the first Saudi foreign minister who is not a member of the royal family.

No change in foreign policy due

These appointments are part of internal housekeeping; they do not change the kingdom’s foreign policy. King Salman, despite his own health issues – he apparently suffers from Alzheimer’s – immediately made his mark when he intensified official public discourse against Iran, supported the establishment of an Arab intervention force and initiated the attack on the Houthis in Yemen to root out Iran’s influence in that country.

The strong man in the kingdom is no doubt Nayef, who will continue to serve both as interior minister and head of the National Security Council. He is the man who will implement foreign policy, one of whose principles is the effort to establish a “Sunni axis” against Iran.

As part of this effort, Saudi Arabia has changed its policy toward Turkey, and despite the rift between Egypt and Turkey, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was invited to visit the king. Nayef, who met with Erdogan in Turkey before that visit, set its agenda.

It seems that as part of the efforts toward a “Sunni axis,” Saudi Arabia will encourage Hamas to cut itself off entirely from Iran and return to the “Arab fold,” despite the ongoing enmity between Egypt, Saudi Arabia’s ally, and Hamas.

Salman’s son Mohammed, who is defense minister, is in his 30s, too young to be seen as successor to the throne, but that could change.

The main challenge before the new regime is to absorb the strategic changes expected to accompany the emerging nuclear agreement with Tehran, and the rapprochement between Iran and the United States. If and when sanctions on Iran are lifted, new oil will flow that is expected to grab an important share of the Saudi market. Saudi Arabia will also have to build up its influence in Syria and Iraq as a bulwark against Iranian power in those countries, especially if Iran proposes its own solution to the crisis in Syria.

Moussaoui Calls Saudi Princes Patrons of #Al_Qaeda
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/04/us/zacarias-moussaoui-calls-saudi-princes-patrons-of-al-qaeda.html

WASHINGTON — In highly unusual testimony inside the federal supermax prison, a former operative for Al Qaeda has described prominent members of Saudi Arabia’s royal family as major donors to the terrorist network in the late 1990s and claimed that he discussed a plan to shoot down Air Force One with a Stinger missile with a staff member at the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

The Qaeda member, Zacarias Moussaoui, wrote last year to Judge George B. Daniels of United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, who is presiding over a lawsuit filed against Saudi Arabia by relatives of those killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He said he wanted to testify in the case, and after lengthy negotiations with Justice Department officials and the federal Bureau of Prisons, a team of lawyers was permitted to enter the prison and question him for two days last October.

#Saoud #Arabie_Saoudite

Saudi king stamps his authority with staff shake-up and handouts - FT.com
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8045e3e0-a850-11e4-bd17-00144feab7de.html?ftcamp=crm/email/2015130/nbe/WorldNews/product&siteedition=intl#axzz3QZiH9nJa

The 79 year-old Salman announced projects, including investment in utilities worth SAR20bn ($5.3bn), and granted state employees a two-months’ salary bonus, among other benefits, the official Saudi news agency reported. Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya channel estimated the overall spending pledge at almost $30bn.
Addressing his people, the king tweeted that: “You deserve more and whatever I do will never meet your right.”

[...]

Changes of top security posts — significant given the regional threats the country faces from Sunni jihadi militants — saw the intelligence chief, Khalid bin Bandar, replaced by a commoner, retired General Khalid bin al-Humaidan. The national security chief, Bandar bin Sultan, was removed from his post, and the National Security Council he headed was dissolved.
The NSC was one of 12 committees responsible for political, economic and security policies that were disbanded by the king and replaced with two councils.
The nine-member Council for Political and Security Affairs will be chaired by the interior minister, Prince Mohammed bin Naif, who was named deputy crown prince when Salman ascended to the throne.
[...]

The king’s son, the 30-year-old Mohammed bin Salman, who was appointed defence minister last week, will head the 22-member Council for Economic and Development Affairs, which looks set to replace the work of the now defunct Supreme Economic Commission.

[...]
The removal of the chiefs of the justice ministry and the religious police, who have been described as relative liberals, gives a conservative stamp to social policy. New ministers of education, health, information and agriculture were also appointed.

Other key portfolios remain unchanged, including Ali al-Naimi, oil minister, finance minister Ibrahim al-Assaf, and Saud al-Faisal in the foreign ministry.
The changes include a reshuffling of the pack of powerful royals.
The king’s son, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, who already played an important role at the oil ministry, was promoted to deputy oil minister.
Salman also removed two of the late king’s sons, Turki and Mishaal bin Abdullah, from their respective posts as governors of Riyadh and Mecca. They were replaced by members of former King Faisal’s branch of the family.
However, Abdullah’s most influential son, Muteb, remains in position as minister for the powerful praetorian national guard.
Salman also appointed a lawyer, Mohammed Jadaan, as new head of the stock market regulator, which will oversee the opening of the $500bn bourse to foreign investors this year.
The change at the bourse, in the face of significant domestic concern about foreign influence, is one of several economic reforms that will define the modernisation legacy of Abdullah.
The precarious security situation in the kingdom was underlined on Friday when gunmen opened fire on two US citizens in the eastern al-Ahsa province. It was unclear who carried out the attack.
A police spokesman told the official news agency that one of the victims had been wounded while driving in a region where the kingdom’s minority Shia community have been protesting for an end to discrimination.
An increase in attacks against foreigners has caused concern among the expatriate community. Riyadh quelled an al-Qaeda insurgency between 2003 and 2006 that targeted westerners.

King Salman Reshuffles Cabinet, Fires Late King’s Sons From Key Roles
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/king-salman-reshuffles-cabinet-fires-late-king%E2%80%99s-two-sons

Saudi Arabia’s new King Salman on Thursday further cemented his hold on power, with a sweeping shakeup that saw two sons of the late King Abdullah fired, and the heads of intelligence and other key agencies replaced alongside a cabinet shuffle.

Top officials from the Ports Authority, the National Anti-Corruption Commission and the conservative Islamic kingdom’s religious police were among those let go.

[…]

Meanwhile, a separate decree said Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a nephew of Abdullah, was removed from his posts as secretary-general of the National Security Council and adviser to the king.

Prince Bandar was the kingdom’s ambassador to the United States for 22 years until 2005 before moving to Saudi Arabia’s Security Council.

Two sons of the late monarch were also fired: Prince Meshaal, governor of the Mecca region, and Prince Turki, who governed the capital Riyadh, according to the decrees broadcast on Saudi television.

Foreign nations’ proxy war in Syria creates chaos - David Ignatius
à retitrer : « I will send weapons to al-Qaeda if it will help »
▻http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-foreign-nations-proxy-war-creates-syrian-chaos/2014/10/02/061fb50c-4a7a-11e4-a046-120a8a855cca_story.html

A leading figure was a Qatari operative who had helped arm the Libyan rebels who deposed Moammar Gaddafi. Working with the Qataris were senior figures representing Turkish and Saudi intelligence.

But unity within the Istanbul operations room frayed when the Turks and Qataris began to support Islamist fighters they thought would be more aggressive. These jihadists did emerge as braver, bolder fighters — and their success was a magnet for more support. The Turks and Qataris insist they didn’t intentionally support the extremist group Jabhat al-Nusra or the Islamic State. But weapons and money sent to more moderate Islamist brigades made their way to these terrorist groups, and the Turks and Qataris turned a blind eye.

“The operations room was chaos,” recalls one Arab intelligence source. He says he warned a Qatari officer, who answered: “I will send weapons to al-Qaeda if it will help” topple Assad. This determination to remove Assad by any means necessary proved dangerous. “The Islamist groups got bigger and stronger, and the FSA day by day got weaker,” recalls the Arab intelligence source.

The Saudi effort was run until late 2013 by Prince Bandar bin Sultan, at that time head of Saudi intelligence. Bandar was enthusiastic but undisciplined, adding to the chaos. Pushed by the United States, the Saudis in February replaced Bandar and gave oversight of the Syria effort to Interior Minister Mohammed bin Nayef. The program was less chaotic but no more effective in checking the rise of Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State.

Retenir au passage que les Américains n’y sont pour rien, et que les Séoudiens n’y sont pas pour grand chose non plus (il n’est pas écrit que Bandar participait au soutien actif d’Al Qaeda, contrairement aux qataris, seulement qu’il « ajoutait au chaos » pour son « enthousiasme et son manque de discipline »).

Avec Joe Biden, nouvelle narrative américaine ?
▻http://seenthis.net/messages/298867

Iraq crisis: How Saudi Arabia helped Isis take over the north of the country - Patrick Cockburn
►http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/iraq-crisis-how-saudi-arabia-helped-isis-take-over-the-north-of-the-c

How far is Saudi Arabia complicit in the Isis takeover of much of northern Iraq, and is it stoking an escalating Sunni-Shia conflict across the Islamic world? Some time before 9/11, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, once the powerful Saudi ambassador in Washington and head of Saudi intelligence until a few months ago, had a revealing and ominous conversation with the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove. Prince Bandar told him: “The time is not far off in the Middle East, Richard, when it will be literally ’God help the Shia’. More than a billion Sunnis have simply had enough of them.”

The fatal moment predicted by Prince Bandar may now have come for many Shia, with Saudi Arabia playing an important role in bringing it about by supporting the anti-Shia jihad in Iraq and Syria. Since the capture of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) on 10 June, Shia women and children have been killed in villages south of Kirkuk, and Shia air force cadets machine-gunned and buried in mass graves near Tikrit.

D’autres sources annonçant le retour de Bandar après une absence « pour raisons de santé ».

Prince Bandar bin Sultan back to the forefront
▻http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/2014/03/25/Saudi-intelligence-chief-back-to-the-forefront-.html

Prince Bandar bin Sultan is on his way back to Riyadh where he will resume his tasks as head of Saudi Intelligence, reported news portal NOW Lebanon.

An informed Saudi source confirmed the report to Al Arabiya News.

“This is without doubt bad news for Tehran, Damascus and Hezbollah, particularly that anti-Saudi media has been propagating false information for the past two months that Prince Bandar’s absence has been due to his dismissal and due to a Saudi decision to back away from its policies regarding the regional conflict,” said the source in Riyadh.

القمة الأميركية السعودية : المصالح ستبقى مـتوافقة
▻http://www.al-akhbar.com/node/203568

ولعل التغييرات في البنية القيادية السعودية تكتسي بعداً خاصاً إذا ما ربطت بتوقيت عودة بندر بن سلطان الوشيكة إلى السعودية، في ظل تسريبات أن مغادرته للملكة خلال الاسابيع الماضية كانت حقاً بسبب وضع صحي استدعى إجراء جراحة له في الولايات المتحدة، التي انتقل منها إلى المغرب، حيث أمضى فترة نقاهة اختتمها خلال الأيام الماضية باستقبال ولي عهد أبو ظبي الشيخ محمد بن زايد آل نهيان، وشقيقه سلمان بن سلطان، بالتزامن مع اتصالات مع جميع الأطراف المحسوبة عليه في المنطقة، يبلغها فيها عودته إلى قيادة جهاز الاستخبارات السعودي خلال أيام.

Foreign hand suspected in #Volgograd bombing
▻http://www.thehindu.com/news/international/world/foreign-hand-suspected-in-volgograd-bombing/article5577170.ece

More than two weeks after a double suicide bombing killed 34 and injured more than 60 people in the Russian city of Volgograd on New Year eve nobody has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Chechen rebel warlord Doku Umarov, the self-proclaimed leader of the “Caucasus Emirate” is the prime suspect. Umarov, who in the past laid claim to many high-profile terror strikes in recent years, has called for wrecking the Winter Olympics in Russia’s Sochi next month, denouncing them as “Satanist dances on the bones of our ancestors.”

Many experts also see a foreign hand in the deadly attacks.

A statement issued by the Russian Foreign Ministry heighted the speculation.

“The criminal forays in Volgograd, as well as terrorist attacks in the U.S., Syria, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Nigeria and other countries, have been organised according to the same pattern and have the same promoters,” the statement said.

Some commentators were quick to point the finger at Saudi Arabia, which has a long history of supporting Chechen separatists in the 1990s and the first decade of the 21st century.

After the Volgograd blasts Russian and international media recalled that Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief Prince Bandar bin Sultan, who made two secretive trips to Russia last year to meet President Vladimir Putin, reportedly threatened to unleash Chechen terrorists operating in Syria on Russia’s Winter Olympic if Moscow did not abandon its support for Syria’s embattled President Bashar al-Assad.

“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics in the city of Sochi on the Black Sea next year,” the Saudi spy supremo was quoted by the Lebanese newspaper As-Safir as telling Mr Putin. “The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us, and they will not move in the Syrian territory’s direction without coordinating with us.”

The Volgograd attacks came less than three weeks after Prince Bandar’s second meeting with Mr Putin.

“In the opinion of some experts the double terror strike in Volgograd has a Syrian origin and means that Russia and Saudi Arabia had failed to come to agreement,” said Dozhd (Rain), a private TV channel broadcasting from Moscow.

“There is no documented proof of the reports [about Prince Bandar’s threat], but there is neither any doubts that Wahhabi terrorism in Russia has been receiving support from the Persian Gulf Salafi regimes, above all Saudi Arabia,” Russia’s mainstream Izvestia daily said.

#terrorisme

Dahiyeh Residents Blame Saudi for Recent Bombing
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/dahiyeh-residents-blame-saudi-recent-bombing

While people differed over most details, they seemed to all agree on the identity of the perpetrators: Salafi takfiris. Overheard often among the crowds was the name Bandar bin Sultan, the infamous Saudi intelligence chief. Some people were shouting “Death to the House of Saud,” as many people believe Prince Bandar is the preeminent sponsor of the extremist groups they accuse of carrying out the attack.

Sur les accusations libanaises contre l’Arabie séoudite, voir mon article suite à l’attentat contre l’ambassade d’Iran :
►http://orientxxi.info/lu-vu-entendu/attentats-contre-l-ambassade-d,0429

Très intéressant tour des conjectures géopolitiques qui agitent actuellement le Liban : Lines of the Game : One Civil War in Lebanon and Syria
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/lines-game-one-civil-war-lebanon-and-syria

The Russia-Iran-Syria axis is seeking a diplomatic siege to put pressure on Riyadh. Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan. They had agreed to continue meeting in the past. Moscow realizes that the “prince of the fronts” could become the “prince of settlements.”

Bandar is pragmatic to the extreme, according to some of his associates, which include Russians. He can negotiate everything and is willing to do anything. He does not mind if Russia helps out with the US, even inside the kingdom, where the struggle over power rages on.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s Gatsby, Master Spy
▻http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/11/16/prince-bandar-bin-sultan-saudi-arabia-s-gatsby-master-spy.html

The Arab Spring stunned the Saudis, the chaos that followed terrified them, and they haven’t found any effective way to restore calm.

Even in little Lebanon, the Saudis and their men have been outmaneuvered time and again by the Iranians and their Hezbollah allies. When Bandar gave up his post as ambassador in Washington 2005, he took on the ill-defined job of national security advisor to the king. And one of his first acts, in 2006, was to offer behind-the-scenes encouragement to the Israelis in their ferocious war on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon. Then Hezbollah fought them to a draw, emerging bloodied but unbowed, and with more credibility than ever.

So weirdly skewed is Bandar’s vision of Lebanon at this point that for a while he promoted Samir Geagea, the semi-mystical former commander of a savage Maronite Christian militia, to be the next president of the country. Other warlords who’ve worked with Bandar complain they can no longer get the Saudi intelligence chief on the phone. He supposedly disappears for days at a time. Saudi King Abdullah, it’s said in Beirut, doesn’t even want the word “Lebanon” spoken in his presence.

Prince Bandar: Riyadh to “shift away” from US over #syria, #Iran
▻http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/prince-bandar-riyadh-shift-away-us-over-syria-iran

#Saudi_Arabia's intelligence chief has said the kingdom will make a “major shift” in dealings with the United States in protest at its perceived inaction over the Syria war and its overtures to Iran, a source close to Saudi policy said on Tuesday. Prince Bandar bin Sultan told European diplomats that Washington had failed to act effectively on the Syrian crisis and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was growing closer to Tehran, and had failed to back Saudi support for the Bahraini (...)

#medieval_times #Top_News #United_Stated

Syria: Battle for Qalamoun May Be Felt in Lebanon ▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2013/10/syria-opposition-qalamun-battle-qusair.html

The Qalamoun battle may have repercussions on the Lebanese interior because Liwa al-Islam, which is led by Zahran Alloush, has become the main opposition force on Lebanon’s eastern slopes in Arsal al-Ward, the Rankous Plain, and Hawsh al-Arab. That threat is serious because Alloush, who has set up his base of operations in the area, has returned from a visit to Saudi Arabia last week, where he met his financial and military authority, the director of Saudi intelligence Prince Bandar bin Sultan.

Bandar holds a strong military card with which to pressure the Lebanese interior: the deployment on the outskirts of the Bekaa of 3,000 to 5,000 Liwa al-Islam fighters and an armed battalion having 23 T-72 tanks.

Saudi Arabia’s Pointless Theatrics « LobeLog.com
▻http://www.lobelog.com/saudi-arabias-pointless-theatrics

by Thomas W. Lippman

Unless the people who run Saudi Arabia know something nobody else does, it’s difficult to see what they hope to achieve by turning down a seat on the United Nations Security Council that the kingdom had worked assiduously to gain. It appears to be the kind of theatrical but pointless gesture the Saudis have always avoided — not on a par with shutting down the U.S. government for no gain, perhaps, but absurd in its own way. The world might have expected this from the late, unlamented Muammar Qadhafi, but not from Saudi Arabia.

Do the Saudis actually believe that the Security Council, chastened by Riyadh’s disapproval, will now force Israel to pull out of the West Bank, or unite to drive Bashar al-Assad out of power in Syria, or head off a possible rapprochement between the United States and Iran? Surely they know better. If they harbor such strong resentment against the Security Council, would they not have more influence over the group’s performance from the inside? And why seek the seat in the first place if they thought the elite group they were trying to join was impotent and feckless, as the statement from the Saudi Foreign Ministry announcing the decision said it was? It is hard to dispute the New York Times’s characterization of the decision as “a self-destructive temper tantrum.”

Saudi Arabia has traditionally pursued its international objectives through quiet diplomacy rather than open confrontation or grand gestures. It may well be that the Saudis would have been uncomfortable on the Security Council, where they might have been forced to take public positions on issues outside their relatively narrow range of interests — on territorial disputes in the Pacific, for example, or peacekeeping deployments in Africa. Did no one in Riyadh think that during the two years the kingdom campaigned for the election to one of the prized non-permanent seats? Apparently not, because the kingdom’s diplomats in Riyadh and New York were celebrating the election as a great success until they were sandbagged on Friday by the Foreign Ministry statement.

Asia Times Online :: Middle East News, Iraq, Iran current affairs
By Pepe Escobar / 6 septembre 2013
▻http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-05-060913.html

(...) Free bombing. For three months. With inbuilt free upgrading. Operation Tomahawk With Cheese but also bacon, onions, chilies, mayo, guacamole, the works. All courtesy of Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar bin Sultan - aka Bandar Bush - plus minions Emirates and Qatar. What’s not to like? The inestimable Vijay Prashad, author of The Poorer Nations, has been using his calculator:

Exhibit A: Saudis have put ’’on the table’’ their offer to pay for the entire US assault on Syria. Exhibit B: in case of an attack on Syria, the price of oil is slated to go from $109 to $125 per barrel (base case scenario), with an upside scenario of $150 per barrel. Saudi Arabia will produce 9.8 million barrels of oil a day. Which means if the spike is only the base case scenario, Saudi will gross a super-profit of $156.8 million per day. If it is the upside scenario, then the Saudi super-profits will be $401.8 million per day. Not a bad arbitrage game from Mr Bandar and his gang of Saudi “democrats”.

Addendum: each Tomahawk costs only US$1.5 million. With a prospective free flow of Bandar Bush’s cash, no wonder there’s a compatible free flow of Krug at Raytheon’s HQ.

Confronted with the sumptuous marriage of the industrial-military complex and the House of Saud producing lethal cruise offspring duly employed as al-Qaeda’s Air Force, a pesky detail like hardcore Chechen jihadis forming their own militia, The Mujahedin of the Caucasus and the Levant, is, well, irrelevant. As irrelevant as the fact that these jihadis are run by none other than Bandar Bush, who bragged to President Vladimir Putin he can turn them on and off at will.

So if these Chechens are Bandar’s minions, they are also Friends of Obama/Kerry/Rice/Power. Just like the jihadis who are fighting to take over the “crusader” village of Maloula - where people still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus - so they can proceed to gleefully behead a few Christian infidels.

#Armes_chimiques : une enquête met en cause les rebelles
►http://www.lecourrier.ch/113608/armes_chimiques_une_enquete_met_en_cause_les_rebelles

Deux journalistes indépendants, connus pour leur travail au Proche-Orient, ont mené leur propre enquête sur les allégations d’utilisation d’armes chimiques à Ghouta. Selon les informations collectées par l’Etasunienne Dale Gavak, collaboratrice de la BBC et d’AP en poste à Amman, et par le jeune reporter jordanien Yahya Ababneh, le drame pourrait être dû à un accident dans l’arsenal des rebelles. Leur article, publié par le 29 août par le site d’information indépendant Mint Press News, accuse l’Arabie saoudite d’avoir fourni ces armes aux rebelles.

Yahya Ababneh, qui seul s’est rendu sur le terrain, dit s’être entretenu avec des dizaines de témoins, habitants ou rebelles, à Damas et à Ghouta, la banlieue de la capitale où, selon Médecin sans frontières, au moins 355 personnes sont mortes le 21 août dernier, probablement victimes d’un agent neurotoxique. Il ressort de ces entretiens que des armes toxiques auraient été entassées dans un tunnel par un Saoudien du nom d’Abu Ayesha, dirigeant d’un bataillon rebelle1.

Une intéressante analyse du Akhbar sur les ambitions syriennes de Bandar bin Sultan :
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/bandar-prince-jihad-expect-syrian-shift-power

But Bandar himself represents a problem for Saudi. Unlike the calm diplomacy pursued by Riyadh – even if only superficially – Bandar usually has very unrealistic expectations.

[…]

In Syria, Bandar bin Sultan did not deviate from his usual approach. He has set very high expectations, and today, according to some who met him over the past few weeks, he sees no issue more important than Syria. For instance, Bandar rarely mentions Yemen, Iraq, or Lebanon, except from the standpoint of defeating Iran and Hezbollah in the Levant.

Bandar is optimistic about Syria, and has told those who met with him recently that he has been given up to eight months to arm and consolidate the rebel ranks to tip the balance of power on the Syrian battlefield. Bandar did not say that he wants to dramatically reverse this balance of power, but only to alter it to deny the Syrian regime the upper hand in any upcoming political negotiations.

Bandar has purported that the coming two months will see the efforts to train and arm the opposition start to bear fruit. But the Saudi intelligence chief also spoke to his visitors about the difficulties he is facing, including the fragmentation of the fighters and the inability to train more than 300 rebels each month. Concerning arms, Bandar complained about how the weapons he sends often ends up in the hands of al-Qaeda fighters and their ilk.

France, Saudi Arabia Increase Syria Coordination Post-Qusair
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/06/france-saudi-arabia-coordinate-syria-efforts-qusair-geneva.html

The battle for Aleppo, for which the Syrian army is preparing, has become a joint French-Saudi concern. Another concern that French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius shared yesterday [June 11] with Saudi intelligence chief Bandar bin Sultan and Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal was how to avoid turning the upcoming Geneva conference into a defeat of the Syrian opposition. That concern is reasonable in light of the current balance of power following the military victory by the Syrian army and Hezbollah in Qusair.

Il a donc été décidé que le Centaure de César, qui est super-haram, sera prochainement détruit par une foule de parisiens hystériques :

http://paris1900.lartnouveau.com/paris06/centaure/1cent4.JPG

Tiens, puisqu’on en parle, maintenant que le prince Sultan, ministre de la défense et père du prince Bandar, est mort : ça devient quoi, la faramineuse affaire de corruption al-Yamamah ?
►http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Yamamah_arms_deal

Je suppose que c’est enterré avec le prince.