King Salman - Page 2

Saudi Arabia is curbing the powers of its feared religious police, prohibiting officers from pursuing suspects or making arrests, various news outlets report.

Yemen’s internationally-recognized President Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi claimed 85 percent of the territory seized by Iran-backed Houthi insurgents, and forces loyal to previous president Ali Abdullah Saleh, has been recaptured.

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday as part of a five-day Middle East trip that will also include visits to Egypt and Iran.

The Associated Press has reviewed media reports and official comments from nations that reported the deaths of their citizens during the annual Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca and found this year’s total standing at 1,621, with hundreds still missing.

A stampede in Mecca on the last day of the hajj pilgrimage took the lives of over 100 Iranian citizens, as the total death toll from the incident has surged to over 700 people, and the leaders of the regime in Tehran are furious with Saudi officials for their alleged negligence.

A Saudi Arabian government official has been secretly appointed to run a U.N. human rights advisory panel.

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.

Recently thawed relations between the U.S. and Iran are pushing Saudi Arabia to turn away from their western ally and into the arms of Russia and China. The U.S.-led nuclear accords with Iran have proven to be a major catalyst for this.

The Saudi King has added to his list of outlandish demands on locals as he takes a brief holiday on the French Riviera. His Royal Highness has reportedly demanded that no female police officers be stationed near the beach where he

VALLAURIS, France, July 26 (UPI) — More than 100,000 people have signed a petition against a decision to close a strip of beach in France for personal use by the visiting king of Saudi Arabia. The beach is located on

U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told reporters on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia supports the Iran nuclear deal despite its concerns with Iran’s malign activities in the Middle East.

In his first interview with an Arabic-language news organization on Wednesday, President Obama spoke with Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat about various issues related to the Middle East, the Iranian nuclear program, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states hit the Obama White House with a stunning vote of no confidence on Monday, as Saudi King Salman and three other regional leaders announced they would skip President Obama’s Camp David summit, scheduled for later this week.

Saudi King Salman has been on something of a good-manners mission of late, disciplining members of the royal family and its employees for rude behavior. The latest to earn his ire, and get a pink slip in the bargain, was Mohammed al-Tobayashi, the head of royal protocol. Tobayashi made the mistake of thinking “royal protocol” included slapping a photographer in public.

Saudi Arabia is still rich, but they are burning through their foreign reserve cash at a record pace due to lower oil prices and an unwillingness to cut the domestic spending that ensures the survival of the royal family. With the nation hemorrhaging cash, Saudi Arabia’s total foreign reserves fell by 5 percent, or $36 billion in just the last two months.

(Reuters) – Saudi King Salman appointed a new heir and made his young son second in line to rule on Wednesday, a major shift in power toward two princes who have overseen a more assertive stance at a time of almost unprecedented regional turmoil.

A Saudi princess with a penchant for lavish hotel stays and extravagant shopping sprees has a history of dodging her bills. Vanity Fair followed Princess Maha bint Mohammed bin Ahmad al-Sudairi’s devious trail of nearly $30 million in evaded bills.

The government of Saudi Arabia executed three people on Tuesday via beheadings. The total number of beheadings in the strict Muslim country totals 48 in 2015 already, more than half the total beheadings in 2014.

Saudi Arabia’s new king, Salman bin Abdulaziz, openly discussed “Islamized terrorism” in his statement to an Organization of Islamic Conference entitled “Islam and Combatting Terrorism.”

The Grand Imam of Cairo’s al-Azhar University, who is perhaps the most prominent cleric in Egypt, has called for the crucial need for reform in the teaching of Islam to the country’s people.

Citigroup: Oil could plunge to $20 per barrel; Iran’s threatens oil transports, blaming Saudis for falling oil prices; More on the growing Muslim versus Muslim wars

(Reuters) – In making a blaze of largesse and the dismissal of relatively liberal clerics two of his first acts as monarch, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman has signaled his approach to big future challenges may differ from that of his liberalizing late brother.

Barack Obama didn’t have time to travel to France in observance of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. He doesn’t have time to meet with Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, either.But it seems Obama is willing to make time to visit Saudi Arabia — and bearing quite a gift in the process.

The resignation of United States-backed Yemen President Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi was deemed a strategic “win for Iran” and al-Qaeda, according to House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) in an interview on CNN Thursday. The war-torn nation’s Prime Minister Khaled Bahah also resigned.