by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
New York : Top Saudi intelligence officials close to Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman asked a small group of businessmen last year about using private companies to assassinate enemies of the Kingdom, The New York Times reported.
The Saudis inquired at a time when Prince Mohammed, then the deputy crown prince and defence minister, was consolidating power and directing his advisers to escalate military and intelligence operations outside the Kingdom, informed sources told The Times on Sunday.
Their discussions, more than a year before the killing of The Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, indicate that top Saudi officials have considered assassinations since the beginning of Prince Mohammed’s ascent.
Saudi officials have portrayed Khashoggi’s death as a rogue killing ordered by an official who has since been fired.
But that official, Maj. Gen. Ahmed al-Assiri, was present for a meeting in March 2017 in Riyadh where the businessmen pitched a $2 billion plan to use private intelligence operatives to try to sabotage the Iranian economy, the sources said.
During the discussion, part of a series of meetings where the men tried to win Saudi funding for their plan, General Assiri’s top aides inquired about killing Qassim Suleimani, the leader of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and a man considered a determined enemy of Saudi Arabia.
George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, arranged the meeting.
He had met previously with Prince Mohammed, and had pitched the Iran plan to Trump White House officials.
Another participant in the meetings was Joel Zamel, an Israeli with deep ties to his country’s intelligence and security agencies.
Both Nader and Zamel are witnesses in the investigation by Special Counsel Robert Mueller and prosecutors have asked them about their discussions with American and Saudi officials about the Iran proposal, The New York Times reported.
General Assiri was dismissed last month when the Saudi government acknowledged Khashoggi’s killing and said he had organised the operation.
On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his government had handed over a recording of Khashoggi’s killing to the US, Saudi Arabia, Britain and France, pressuring President Donald Trump to more harshly punish the Saudis over the murder.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Makkah : Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Umm Al-Qura University (UQU) Dr. Adnan bin Nouri Al-Harbi met with General Supervisor of the Training Center of the Union of OIC News Agencies (UNA) Fahd bin Ahmed Al-Ghamdi, at the UQU campus in Abidiyyah, Makkah, on Tuesday.
The two sides discussed aspects of cooperation during the meeting, held in the presence of Assistant to the UNA Training General Supervisor for Technical Affairs Ahmed Al-Zahrani, Head of the Media Department at the Faculty Dr. Salem bin Ali Arija, and members of the academic staff of the faculty including Dr. Mohammed Al-Zahrani, Dr. Khalid Hajar and Dr. Wadi Al-Az’azi.
The dean of the college welcomed the general supervisor of the UNA Training Center and his accompanying delegation. He expressed his appreciation of the support provided by the Saudi leadership to the educational process at the college and praised the support of UQU President Prof. Abdullah bin Omar Bafail to the college activities and programs related to the media and social aspects as well as translation and geography.
Al-Harbi said this meeting is part of the faculty strategic plan, which is in line with the UQU programs and activities that are in conformity with the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 toward serving the community through highly qualified national cadres whose educational output is compatible with the requirements of the labor market.
For his part, Al-Ghamdi commended the educational output of the Faculty of Social Sciences, which is consistent with the activities of the UNA Training Center. He expressed hope that the UQU, represented by the Faculty of Social Sciences, would enter into a cooperation partnership with the Center in the areas of consultation and training for the sake of exchanging experiences.
—AB/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
King Salman has assured Salah Khashoggi that those involved in the murder would be brought to justice
Washington : The sons of murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi issued an emotional appeal for the return of their father’s body, in their first interview since he was killed in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October.
Salah and Abdullah Khashoggi, who called their father “courageous, generous and very brave”, told CNN on Sunday night they endured weeks of anguish and uncertainty following his disappearance and death.
“I really hope that whatever happened wasn’t painful for him, or it was quick. Or he had a peaceful death,” Abdullah Khashoggi, 33, told the news channel during a sit-down interview in here with his brother, Salah, 35.
Without their father’s body, the brothers said that their family was unable to grieve or find closure.
“All what we want right now is to bury him in Al-Baqi (cemetery) in Medina (Saudi Arabia) with the rest of his family,” Salah said.
“I talked about that with the Saudi authorities and I just hope that it happens soon.”
Authorities in Turkey, who believe that Khashoggi was murdered by a hit squad sent from Riyadh, were still searching for the journalist’s remains.
Last week, the chief prosecutor’s office said Khashoggi’s body was dismembered after he was strangled, while the Washington Post reported investigators were looking into the theory that the body was dissolved in acid.
The Saudi Royal Palace has denied any knowledge of the body’s whereabouts.
Abdullah and Salah told CNN that their father had been misunderstood and intentionally misrepresented for political reasons.
“Jamal was a moderate person. He was liked by everybody. He had differences and common values with everyone,” Salah said, describing the late Washington Post columnist as a genuine, happy person and an “amazing” father.
“I see a lot of people coming out right now and trying to claim his legacy and unfortunately some of them are using that in a political way that we totally don’t agree with.
“Public opinion is important… But my fear is that it’s being over politicized. People are throwing analysis that may direct us away from the truth,” he added.
According to reports in The Washington Post and The New York Times, Khashoggi was labelled as a Muslim Brotherhood sympathiser and a dangerous Islamist in phone calls the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had with Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Middle East adviser, and John Bolton, National Security Adviser.
“It’s just labels and people not doing their homework properly, and reading his article and going in depth. It’s easier to stick a label on him,” Abdullah said, when asked about the Muslim Brotherhood claim.
Asked how Khashoggi should be remembered, Salah replied: “As a moderate man who has common values with everyone… A man who loved his country, who believed so much in it and its potential.
“Jamal was never a dissident. He believed in the monarchy that it is the thing that is keeping the country together. And he believed in the transformation that it is going through.”
Reflecting on their father’s career as a journalist, the brothers said their father was “like a rock and roll star” when they were out with him in Saudi Arabia.
Salah, the eldest sibling, has been made the principal family point of contact by the Saudi government. Abdullah, who lives in the United Arab Emirates was the last of the slain journalist’s children to see him alive.
They have two sisters, Noha, 27 and Razan, 25.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
King Salman
Jeddah : Saudi Arabia has canceled $6 billion of debt owed to the Kingdom from the least developed countries, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.
The initiative was revealed during the weekly meeting of the Saudi Council of Ministers on Tuesday chaired by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman.
The cabinet discussed Saudi Arabia’s cooperation with the international community to achieve stability and development as well as the humanitarian and economic role played by the Kingdom, particularly with regard to its commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
—AB/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has described a $6 billion Saudi bailout package as a “big relief” for the country and vowed to mediate between Riyadh and Yemen to end their ongoing conflict.
Accusing the previous two governments of plunging the country into its worst financial crisis, Khan in his address to the nation after returning from Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, said the opposition parties’ recent plan to form an alliance was aimed at pressing the government to get some relief under a deal like the National Reconciliation Ordinance (NRO) that was bestowed upon them by former President Pervez Musharraf, reports Dawn news.
“Keep in mind that unlike Pervez Musharraf, I will not come under any pressure and will not give any NRO to the corrupt,” the Prime Minister warned the opposition parties.
Expressing gratitude to the Saudi leadership for helping Pakistan at a time of need, Khan, who had travelled along with his cabinet members to Riyadh to attend the Future Investment Initiative Conference on a special invitation of King Salman bin Abdel Aziz, said: “We could go into default but the ‘tremendous’ financial package from Saudi Arabia has relieved our burden.”
He said Pakistan had been mulling over decision to get a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), but any major assistance from the lender would have put additional burden on the nation.
“Now the government won’t need much from the IMF,” he added.
Khan also discussed with the Saudi leaders the conflict in neighbouring Yemen, as he announced that Pakistan would play the role of a mediator in the war.
“One more important thing I want to share with you that I will make all-out efforts to get resolved Saudi Arabia-Yemen conflict by acting as a mediator.
“We will also try our best to play a mediatory role in bringing all the Muslim nations together,” Dawn quoted the Prime Minister as saying.
—IANS
