Saudi-US relationship improved under Trump administration: Envoy

Arab News
August 9, 2017

Jeddah, Aug 9: A huge improvement is witnessed in the Saudi-US relationship under the Trump administration, said the new Saudi ambassador to the US Prince Khaled bin Salman who recently presented his credentials to President Trump.

“I think that President Trump is determined to work with his allies in the region to counter Iranian expansionism and terrorism,” the envoy said in an interview with the Washington Post.

Addressing the Qatari crisis which has erupted in the region during the last two months, the Saudi prince said that Qatar’s policies are endangering the region’s national security. “I think Qatar’s policies have been a threat to our national security, especially when they interfere in our domestic politics and support extremists. In Syria, they have supported Al-Qaeda affiliates and some terrorist [Shiite] militias in Iraq,” he added hoping Qatar will stop funding extremism.

Prince Khaled rejected all claims made against his country regarding its support for extreme groups in Syria and said Saudi Arabia is “on the frontline of fighting terrorism,” whereas terror in Qatar is “government-funded.”

The interview also included Syria and its factions, where the prince confirmed that there are some moderate opposition groups such as the Free Syrian Army. “There are a lot of people in Syria who want to free themselves from the dictatorship of Bashar Assad. We are working with our allies to help stabilize Syria,” he said.

According to the Saudi envoy, more than 500,000 Syrians have been killed in the war. He affirmed that Riyadh and Washington are working together to put an end to the Syrian conflict, expressing his support of rid Syria of Assad altogether.

Prince Khaled, who is son of the current Saudi king and the brother of the new crown prince, denied the rumors surrounding his brother’s promotion. “I think His Highness (Mohammed) bin Nayef did an incredible job at counterterrorism. The king made the decision, supported by the Allegiance Council. Prince bin Nayef is in Saudi Arabia and is receiving guests,” he said slamming all allegations made against his brother about eyeing his cousin’s position forcing him out of his way to the throne. “We now have a dynamic young leadership, determined to push the country forward and to diversify our economy.”

Saudi Arabia is moving in the right direction in terms of human rights, said the envoy. “The last two years have been a time of big change in our country. Human rights have been moving forward, women’s rights have been moving forward. Saudi youth have been given a chance to play a part in our future,” he added.

The wise Saudi leadership recognizes the vital and essential role women are playing in the country’s future as it “can’t move forward without half of our population.”

Once agains, Saudi Arabia stood its ground regarding the Palestinian-Israeli conflict affirming that his country wants “to solve it (the issue) through the Arab peace initiative, and if Israel recognizes Palestine based on the 1967 borders, the Arab world has agreed to do so.”

As for the Sunni-Shiite conflict in Iraq, the prince insisted Iraqis to be treated equally in order not to lead to the creation of another bloody spring. “Sectarianism always leads to terrorism. The Sunnis and [Shiites] have to be treated equally as Iraqi citizens,” he added. “Iran wants Iraq to obey Iran. We support the independence of Iraq.”

The prince agreed that Daesh is a threat to Saudis and Muslims in general and need to be defeated in any way possible. “As Muslims, we in Saudi Arabia need to do whatever it takes to end this once and for all.”

As complicated as many people in the west think, Saudi Arabia did not start the war against Houthis in Yemen, denied the prince. “They started to march to the capital and take over Yemen before the Yemeni government asked Saudi Arabia to intervene and stop this attack,” he explained. The ball is [now] in the Houthis’ court. They have to drop their weapons and become part of Yemen, not part of Iran.”

Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz is part of its dangerous scheme in the region. Prince Khaled said the Iranian threat is concerning the entire world, not only Saudi Arabia. ”The Strait of Hormuz is important not just to our economy but to the international economy,” he said.

He added that US and its allies do realize the size of the Iranian threat to international security. “We are ready to work together to contain Iranian actions and expansionist policies,” he said.

September 11 attacks also took part of the interview, where the Saudi envoy renewed his country’s rejection of all false claims associating it with the attack. “We had nothing to do with 9/11. In 1996, Osama Bin Laden issued a declaration of war against the United States and Saudi Arabia. In 1994, we took away Bin Laden’s Saudi citizenship when he was in Sudan,” Prince Khaled told the Washington Post. “We think the same people who attacked the United States on 9/11 attacked us in Saudi Arabia multiple times.”

He said that Al-Qaeda had a plan in placing 15 Saudis among the attackers as they wanted to “create a split between Saudi Arabia and the United States.”

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News Network
November 10,2024

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The media office in the Gaza Strip, where the Israeli regime has been waging a genocidal war since last October, says as many as 188 Palestinian journalists have been killed since the onset of the brutal military onslaught.

The office provided the figure on Saturday, naming four journalists as the most recent victims of the onslaught.

It identified the foursome as Zahraa Mohammad Abu Sukheil, Ahmad Mohammad Abu Sukheil, Mustafa Khadr Bahar, and Abdel Rahman Khadr Bahar.

The office said it “strongly condemns the targeting, killing, and assassination of Palestinian journalists by the Israeli occupation and holds it fully responsible for committing this heinous crime.”

“We call on the international community, international organizations, and those involved in journalistic work worldwide to take action against the occupation, pursue it in international courts for its ongoing crimes, and pressure it to halt the genocide and the targeted killings of Palestinian journalists,” it said.

Earlier in the day, the office said the Israeli regime had bombed the tents sheltering journalists and displaced persons at the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Hospital in the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza for the ninth consecutive time.

The atrocity that claimed the lives of two people and injured 26 others came as part of “the genocidal crimes committed by the Israeli occupation army against hospitals, civilians, and displaced persons,” it said.

The media office held the regime and the United States, its biggest ally, as well as other countries aiding the genocide fully responsible for such systematic crimes.

At least 43,552 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 102,765 others wounded since the launch of the war that followed a retaliatory operation by Gaza’s resistance groups.

The fatalities include 44 people, who were killed across the coastal sliver, in the most recent phase of the military onslaught.

As many as 24 of the victims were killed in the northern part of the territory, where the regime has markedly intensified its deadly attacks for weeks.

They included an eight-year-old child and a five-year-old one, who lost their lives after Israeli warplanes targeted a group of minors filling up jerry cans with water alongside their mother at the Jabalia Refugee camp.

Gaza’s heath ministry, meanwhile, said a number of victims remained under the rubble and in the streets following Israeli airstrikes, saying ambulances and civil defense teams could not reach them due to the sheer extent of the destruction caused by the raids and obstruction caused by the regime.

Also on Saturday, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report, a United Nations-backed assessment, warned that famine was looming in northern Gaza amid escalated Israeli aggression and the regime’s near-total siege of the targeted areas.

The alert from the Famine Review Committee warned of "an imminent and substantial likelihood of famine occurring, due to the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Gaza Strip."

On October 17, the body projected that the number of people in Gaza facing "catastrophic" food insecurity between November and April 2025 would reach 345,000, or 16 percent of the population.

The IPC report classified that figure as Phase 5 -- a situation when "starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical acute malnutrition levels are evident."

The Israeli military, however, questioned the report's credibility.

"To date, all assessments by the IPC have proven incorrect and inconsistent with the situation on the ground," the army said in a statement, denouncing "partial, biased data and superficial sources with vested interests."

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News Network
November 4,2024

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Hundreds of Israeli settlers conducted a brutal attack in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

The settlers set fire to numerous homes and vehicles of Palestinians and then moved to the main road connecting Ramallah to other cities, targeting Palestinian cars passing by.

They stormed the city of al-Bireh, near Ramallah, and burned Palestinian property and vehicles.

A woman sustained injuries after the settlers hurled stones at her vehicle, according to Palestinian news outlets.

Tension has been running high across the West Bank because of Israel’s genocidal war in the Gaza Strip, which has killed at least 43,341 people, mostly women and children, since last year’s October.

The Monday settler attack came as the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas warned of Israel’s plans to annex the West Bank and drive Palestinians out.

“We warn of the grave danger posed by the plans led by the extremist occupation regime and illegal settler groups to displace the residents of Palestinian villages in the occupied West Bank,” Hamas official Mahmoud Mardawi said.

Israel's far-right minister Bezalel Smotrich called for the full annexation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip last week.

Smotrich asserted that Israel should unequivocally declare there would be no Palestinian state.

He repeated his proposal of expanding Israeli settlements within the West Bank and other occupied territories.

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News Network
November 14,2024

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The UN special rapporteur for Palestine has slammed Israel’s parliament for passing a law authorizing the detention of Palestinian children, who are “tormented often beyond the breaking point” in Israeli custody.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on the rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in a Thursday post on X, characterized the experiences of Palestinian minors in Israeli detention as extreme and often inhumane.

The UN expert highlighted the grave impact of this policy, noting that up to 700 Palestinian minors are taken into custody each year, a practice she described as part of an unlawful occupation that views these children as potential threats.

Albanese said Palestinian minors in Israeli custody are “tormented often beyond the breaking point” and that “generations of Palestinians will carry the scars and trauma from the Israeli mass incarceration system.”

She further criticized the international community for its inaction, suggesting that ongoing diplomatic efforts, which often rely on the idea of resuming negotiations for peace, have contributed to normalizing such human rights violations against Palestinian children and the broader population.

The comments by Albanese came in response to Israel’s parliament (Knesset) passing a law on November 7 that authorizes the detention of Palestinian children under the age of 14 for “terrorism or terrorist activities.”

Under the legislation, a temporary five-year measure, once the individuals turn 14, they will be transferred to adult prison to continue serving their sentences.

Additionally, the law allows for a three-year clause that enables courts to incarcerate minors in adult prisons for up to 10 days if they are considered dangerous. Courts have the authority to extend this duration if necessary, according to the Knesset.

The legislation underscores a shift in the treatment of minors and raises alarms among human rights advocates regarding the legal and ethical ramifications of detaining children and the conditions under which they may be held.

Thousands of Palestinians, including hundreds of children and women, are currently in Israeli jails—around one-third without charge or trial. Also, an unknown number are arbitrarily held following a wave of arrests in the wake of the regime's genocidal war on Gaza.

Since the onset of the Gaza war, the Israeli regime, under the supervision of extremist minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, has turned prisons and detention centers into “death chambers,” the ministry of detainees and ex-detainees’ affairs in Gaza says.

Violence, extreme hunger, humiliation, and other forms of abuse of Palestinian prisoners have been normalized across Israel’s jail system, reports indicate.

Over 270 Palestinian minors are being detained by Israeli authorities, in violation of UN resolutions and international treaties that forbid the incarceration of children, as reported by Palestinian rights organizations.

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