The oil-rich Gulf states are growing sensitive to the criticism that they aren’t taking in any Syrian refugees, and they’re responding by telling the Western world to accept more of them.
Majed Hassan Ashoor, First Secretary at the Saudi Arabia Embassy in India, escaped into the night only days after he was accused of using two Nepali maids as sex slaves. Activists descended upon the embassy when the news broke.
The Saudi Binladin Group is a huge company that has, until now, been the Saudi government’s “favorite contractor for important or sensitive work, including defense and security projects,” as Reuters puts it.
The big Gulf oil kingdoms refuse to take any Syrian refugees, even though they are much closer to the war zone than Europe, and passage to the Gulf would be far less hazardous than risking death in overcrowded boats on the Mediterranean.
Yemen’s internationally recognized President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who is in self-exile in Saudi Arabia, backed out of United Nations-brokered talks this week with Iran-linked Houthi rebels, according to the leader’s office.
Saleh Abdullah Kamel, a Saudi banker who is now worth billions of dollars thanks to his success with Sharia-compliant financing, has donated $10 million to Yale University as part of a successful effort to build an Islamic Law Center at the Ivy League school.
Contents: Huge construction crane in Saudi Arabia’s Mecca Grand Mosque crashes, killing dozens; 1979 takeover of Grand Mosque led to al-Qaeda and 9/11
This week, Prime Minister David Cameron issued his much-anticipated climb-down by announcing that the UK will now be taking in as many as 20,000 refugees from Syria following weeks where our news broadcasts have predominantly followed the journey of migrants
A crane collapsed on the Grand Mosque in Mecca on Friday, killing at least 60 people who were visiting on their annual pilgrimage. 154 are believed to have been injured.
Egypt and Qatar have deployed about 1,800 ground troops to Yemen this week, with other members of the 10-country coalition formed by Saudi Arabia in March to combat the Iran-linked Houthi rebels in Yemen expected to follow suit.
A scathing editorial in German newspaper the Frankfurter Allgemeine has criticised Saudi Arabia and other Arab states for their inaction over the migrant crisis, and twisted priorities in Islamising Europe. In many cases, refugees and economic migrants have travelled thousands of miles
The Saudi government will not accept any migrants from Syria, but it will build 200 Saudi-run mosques in Germany to hinder any social integration of the Muslims into Germany’s liberal and low-conflict society.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The Islamic State group is extending its reach in Saudi Arabia, expanding the scope of its attacks and drawing in new recruits with its radical ideology. Its determination to bring down the U.S.-allied royal family has raised concerns it could threaten the annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage later this month.
Contents: Israel reopens its embassy in Cairo, Egypt after four years; Four more Arab countries join war in Yemen with ground troops
Iran-linked Houthis and their allies are willing to accept a United Nations Security Council resolution to end the brutal war in Yemen while Saudi Arabia appears unwilling to support a negotiated settlement in the near future, according to a leaked UN email.
National Geographic’s August issue, featuring a cover photo of Pope Francis in the Sistine Chapel, was “denied entry” into Saudi Arabia, according to a tweet from the Arabic edition editor-in-chief.
Qatar has deployed 1,000 soldiers into Yemen to help the Saudi-led coalition combat Iran-backed Houthi militants and those aligned with former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh, as part of a continuing quest to push out the opposition forces and reinstall the internationally-recognized government in Sanaa.
Contents: The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen suffers its deadliest day; In major escalation in Yemen war, Qatar is sending 1,000 troops; Britain’s RAF drones target and kill British nationals in Syria
The ongoing wars in the Levant area of the Middle East, particularly in Syria, have claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands, and many have chosen to flee in desperation. However, none of these migrants from war-torn countries seem to be traveling south to the Gulf, and for good reason.
Following the viral spread of images depicting the bodies of drowned Syrians on a Turkish beach–including a three-year-old boy named Alan Kurdi–the Canadian left has sprung to attention to decry what they describe as the Conservative government’s inaction towards assisting migrants and war refugees.
As hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees languish in camps or risk their lives to reach Europe, questions are being asked about why wealthy Gulf states have accepted so few. By the end of August, more than four million Syrians
Saudi Arabia is set to ink an agreement with U.S. government contractor Lockheed Martin for the defense giant to sell two warships to Riyadh.
A video of a man performing part of his pilgrimage to Mecca while riding a hoverboard has prompted a debate among Muslims regarding whether the device is permitted. At least one scholar has approved, as long as a disability prevents the man from completing the voyage on foot.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man suspected in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers residence at a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia has been captured, a U.S. official said Wednesday. Ahmed al-Mughassil, described by the FBI in 2001 as
Saudi Arabia faces another surge in the MERS coronavirus infections as citizens ready for the Hajj pilgrimage.
