Secretary of State Rex Tillerson returned home from an extended trip to the Middle East on Friday, expressing a mixture of optimism that Qatar and the other Gulf states are finally willing to talk to each other and pessimism that they have anything meaningful to talk about.
Saudi Arabia is funding mosques across Europe that have become hotbeds of Islamic extremism, the former British ambassador to Riyadh has said.
A classified report found that radical Islamic groups in Britain are raising huge sums of money through public donations, the Government has revealed.
As a years-long civil war and a growing cholera epidemic wreak havoc in Yemen, United Nations officials expressed frustration and rang alarm bells Wednesday but offered little hope of a solution.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson spent Tuesday in Qatar after holding meetings in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to resolve the Gulf diplomatic crisis. As of yet, there has been little sign of progress from Tillerson’s extended mission to the Middle East, although the Saudi royal family thanked him for his efforts.
The U.S. and Qatar signed an agreement Tuesday to crack down on the financing of terrorism. The agreement was signed as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson looks to resolve a crisis in the Persian Gulf between Qatar and Saudi Arabia and its allies.
TEL AVIV — The New York Times seems to be gloating that its reportage on Donald Trump Jr. and a brief meeting with a Russian lawyer is purportedly negatively impacting the “good feeling” inside the Trump administration following the U.S. president’s diplomatic trip to Europe for the Group of 20 summit last week.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Six people convicted of drug trafficking and homicide were executed in Saudi Arabia on Monday, the government said, the highest number of executions in a single day this year.
Saudi Arabia has blocked access to a popular Israeli Arab website after it posted articles about alleged Saudi plans to normalize relations with Israel and cited reports from the Hebrew press that Israeli officials were pleased with King Salman’s designation of his son, Mohammed Bin Salman, as crown prince.
As the U.S. takes the lead role in solving the Gulf crisis, Saudi Arabia is keeping the United Nations at arm’s length, with sources telling Breitbart News that the Saudis told one of the body’s top officials not to travel to the country as he sought to mediate a solution to the conflict.
The extended deadline for Qatar to meet a list of 13 demands imposed by Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and other neighboring states passed on Tuesday, without any sign of compliance from the embattled emirate. Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir accordingly announced on Wednesday that the boycott will remain in place.
Four Arab nations seeking to isolate Qatar for its alleged support for terrorism issued a statement Wednesday saying that Doha’s response to their demands to end the crisis was “not serious.”
An extensive new report has drawn a link between recent terror attacks and the foreign funding of UK mosques, mainly coming from Saudi Arabia, which “is heavily involved in exporting an illiberal, bigoted Wahhabi ideology.”
TEHRAN — The head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corp on Tuesday described Saudi Arabia as a “terrorist state,” as he announced his position had been extended for three years.
Prime Minister Theresa May has been accused of “covering up” a report into the foreign funding of Islamist groups for fear it would expose Saudi Arabia.
Contents: Saudi Arabia extends sanctions deadline for two days; Saudi Arabia and UAE threaten Qatar with additional sanctions; North Korea launches another ballistic missile
The nonprofit Counter Extremism Project (CEP) is calling on international companies and U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration to repudiate any business dealings with the Qatari government, arguing that the Gulf country willingly shelters Islamic terrorists and funds jihadist organizations.
TEL AVIV — The crisis between Qatar and the Gulf countries continues to be the topic of conversation for citizens of the Gulf.
TEL AVIV – The hashtag “#saudis_for_normalization,” referring to normalization with Israel, has stirred up significant controversy on social media.
US President Donald Trump spoke separately with several leaders of nations in the Persian Gulf region and addressed ongoing disputes between Qatar and some of its Arab neighbors, as Gulf states that levied a de facto blockade on Doha extended a deadline on answering demands by two days.
Qatar, Sudan, and Turkey are supporting terrorism in war-ravaged Libya, considered a breeding ground for jihadists, according to a spokesman for the Libyan army.
TEL AVIV — The Saudi author Turki al-Hamad set off a storm of controversy on social media in Saudi Arabia after tweeting an accusation against local educational facilities, which he claimed espoused ideology that supported Islamic terrorism.
TEL AVIV – Following Tuesday’s strikes from Israel’s Air Force into Gaza in response to rocket fire, the Gulf press has come out in an attack of Hamas and said the nations supporting it were using Palestinian lives in as pawns to divert attention from their own countries.
The United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, has denounced the demand for Qatar to shut down its Al-Jazeera news network as an “unacceptable” attack on freedom of expression.
When 57-year-old Mohammed bin Nayef was replaced as Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia by 31-year-old rock-star royal Mohammed bin Salman last week, the shakeup in the royal line appeared to be amicable.
Following a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani issued a statement calling Saudi Arabia’s demands on his country “unreasonable” and “false.”
In a Middle East country where terrorist attacks by suicide bombers are rare, Saudi Arabia suffered such an attack on June 23rd. Both target and timing were significant.
A Saudi Arabian national became a U.S. fugitive after removing his monitoring device and fleeing from first-degree manslaughter charges.
Contents: Egypt’s president al-Sisi hands contested Red Sea islands over to Saudi Arabia; US troops in Multinational Force and Observers (MFO) not affected by island handover
TEL AVIV — It appears that the struggle among Saudi Arabia’s royals, in which crown prince Mohammad bin Nayef was replaced by another prince, Mohammad, the son of King Salman who had been serving as deputy crown prince, has continued to hold the attention of the local population as some criticism focuses on the new heir to the throne.
TEL AVIV — Hamas politburo member Khali Elhayeh has requested that Arab countries not confuse terrorism with “resistance” in a sermon for al-Fitr, the holiday marking the end of the month of Ramadan.
Contents: Hezbollah’s Nasrallah makes delusional speech about ‘foreign fighters’ attacking Israel; Saudis report close relationships between Hezbollah and Qatar; How to do a generational analysis of the Mideast.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday said his country wants to bolster ties with Qatar and rejected a Saudi-led blockade of the Gulf Arab emirate.
TEL AVIV — Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the ruler of Qatar, has started enlisting the help of Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon to secure his family and his rule, according to a report in Youm7 (seventh day), an Egyptian newspaper aligned with President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi.
Contents: Saudi Arabia, UAE leak 13 demands to end Qatar crisis; UAE threatens ‘parting of the ways’ unless Qatar meets 13 demands; Al-Jazeera takes center stage in the Gulf crisis
TEL AVIV – President Donald Trump is considering a Camp David-style summit in an effort to resolve tensions between U.S. allies in the Arab world. Trump also intends to use the summit to renew his call for the Arab world confront the “crisis of Islamic extremism,” Fox News reported.
A top United Arab Emirates official said Saturday the Arab countries isolating Qatar do not seek to force out the country’s leadership over allegations it supports extremist ideology but are willing to cut ties altogether if it does not agree to their demands.
TEL AVIV — The appointment of Mohammed bin Salman, the son of King Salman, as the new crown prince and first in line to the throne continues to be the main topic of discussion in Saudi Arabia, and has been dominating on social media.
On Thursday night, the Associated Press reported that Kuwait, acting as an emissary for the other nations blockading Qatar, presented the Qatari government with a list of thirteen specific demands, with just 10 days to comply.
A top Israeli minister has issued an impassioned plea to the leader of Saudi Arabia to invite Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to make an official trip to Riyadh.
