#Organic Royal Dates Riyadh

[buydatesonline]

التمر الملكي في الرياض بالمملكة العربية السعودية يستخدم كمحلي، تعرف على التمر الملكي: https://www.goodosa.com/ar/our-products

[bbcbreakingnews]

Much to Pakistan’s dismay and India’s delight, Saudi Arabia maintains neutrality over Kashmir issue

NEW DELHI: Much to Pakistan’s dismay and India’s delight, Saudi Arabia maintained neutrality over the Kashmir issue, even when Islamabad is making all efforts to mend its relations with the Gulf country and is wooing it to change its stance. Since Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, his government has had good relations with Saudi Arabia. After the Indian Prime Minister’s visit to Riyadh in October 2019, Saudi Arabia has maintained neutrality over Kashmir and backed India on cross-border terrorism, said Abhinav Pandya, a strategic analyst and the CEO of Usanas Foundation, an India based think tank, told The Epoch Times. The Saudis have had ambiguous stands on Kashmir on various global diplomatic forums–many times they supported Pakistan’s stance before they recently took to neutrality in India’s favour. “Three events of 1979 had a direct impact on Kashmir [seizure of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Islamic Revolution of Iran, and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan],” said Pandya. “After 1979, the Saudis sponsored Wahhabism across the globe.” Muslim majority Kashmir became a “natural choice for Wahhabi proselytization” because of the deep penetration of Pakistan, which had historically close relations with the Saudis, added Pandya. The rift between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia started when Riyadh didn’t heed Pakistan’s demand to call a meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC, which Saudi Arabia leads) to discuss the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s original political status by the Modi government. “Pakistan Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi asked Saudis to show “leadership” and threatened that if Saudi doesn’t call a meeting of the foreign ministers of the OIC over Kashmir, Pakistan will be forced to go to Iran, Malaysia, and Turkey for support,” said Madiha Afzal, in an analysis for the Brookings Institute. Meanwhile, the Saudis also denied permission to the Pakistan embassy in Riyadh and the consulate in Jeddah to organise Kashmir black day programs on October 27 last year. The ruler of Jammu and Kashmir acceded to India on October 27, 1947, and Pakistan observes that date as the Kashmir Black Day every year. In recent years, India’s relationships with the Arab countries have significantly improved, particularly with Saudi Arabia because India is an emerging economy and a key global market. “Riyadh, like many countries, sees India as an important player, as a key market and a country that it doesn’t want to antagonize. Obviously, if you refrain from supporting the Kashmir cause publicly that certainly will help your cause with India,” said Michael Kugelman, the Deputy Director of the Asia Program at the Wilson Center in Washington, DC. There are multiple geopolitical reasons vis-a-vis Pakistan that have influenced the Saudi stance over Kashmir. Afzal said that Saudis didn’t take kindly to Pakistan’s “overt pressure” last year and immediately recalled a USD 1 billion loan it gave to Pakistan in 2018 as part of a USD 3 billion loan. Hamid Bahrami, author and an independent Middle East analyst based in Glasgow, told The Epoch Times over a chat platform that new and asymmetric blocks are emerging in the geopolitical arena, and the Saudis have lost some interest in its relationship with Pakistan, which is impacting the Saudi stance over Kashmir as well. “Since Pakistan has disappointed Saudi regarding the war in Yemen, and Pakistan took neutrality between Saudi and Iran, MBS (Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman) has been convinced that the current Pakistani approach is not favouring him,” said Bahrami. “Moreover, Pakistan political establishment has a positive view of MBS’ political rival inside the Saudi royal family.” Bahrami said the close relations of Saudis with the United States and Pakistan’s close ties with US rival China also add to the dynamics of foreign policies in Kashmir. “The main threat is China, and unfortunately, Pakistan is paving Beijing’s way to access the Middle East through the port of Gwadar. This is a serious threat to the Saudi-US camp. I consider Iran-Pakistan-Turkey-China-Russia as an asymmetric camp with different interests but the same rivals,” said Bahrami. The United States and Saudis are moving closer to India than to Pakistan to control China and the emerging asymmetric camp, he said. “If we want to get deeper, MBS’ view about geopolitics and protecting Saudi interests is not based on a religious agenda of supporting Wahhabism. MBS’ seeks economic development under ‘Vision 2030’ and Pakistan does not have enough capacity for a profitable bilateral relation with Saudi,” said Bahrami. Moreover, the Chinese equation with Pakistan has complicated the situation, and MBS, according to Bahrami, is sending a warning to Pakistan.

source https://bbcbreakingnews.com/2021/02/28/much-to-pakistans-dismay-and-indias-delight-saudi-arabia-maintains-neutrality-over-kashmir-issue/

[perfectirishgifts]

Au Revoir For Now: The 2021 Edition Of The Paris Airshow Has Been Canceled

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/au-revoir-for-now-the-2021-edition-of-the-paris-airshow-has-been-canceled/

Au Revoir For Now: The 2021 Edition Of The Paris Airshow Has Been Canceled

Large crowds are drawn to the Paris Air Show at Le Bourget every two years. They won’t be on the … [] flight line 2021.

With optimism rising that life could return to normal in the next six months with the widespread distribution of coronavirus vaccines, the cancellation Monday of next summer’s Paris Air Show comes as a dash of cold water.

According to Gilles Fournier, CEO of the Paris Air Show, the decision to cancel the event, which was scheduled for June 21-27, was made based on the risk of the spread of infection of Covid-19 given the large gathering of attendees the Show attracts. The previous Show, held in June 2019, included 316,000 visitors, 2700 journalists, and 2,453 exhibitors from 49 countries according to official GIFAS (French Aerospace Industries Association) numbers. The next edition will be held in June 2023, at a date yet to be determined.

The decision was made “unanimously” by the Board of Directors of the Paris Air Show and GIFAS despite the event dates being over six months in the future. Show exhibitors are being promised full refund of all fees already paid and the organizers say the event “will take full financial responsibility for this decision.”

That will mean a significant hit to the organization and to the French economy. The biennial show reportedly sees total spending by exhibitors and attendees of $1 billion, including $400 million on building, temporary hires and security alone.

According to GIFAS, 18% of show exhibitors and visitors come from the U.S., participation second only to Europe itself which accounts for 66% of exhibitors/attendees. The show remains an important deal catalyst for aerospace firms. A total of $140 billion in orders were booked during the 2019 event with Boeing BA managing to gain $6.3 billion in orders for its 787 Dreamliner from Korean Air at the show despite grounding of the 737 Max.

A GIFAS spokesman declined to answer whether the organization was pressured by the French government to cancel the event or if its cancelation represents official estimates that Covid-19 will still be widespread in France and Europe by early summer 2021. Forecasts of the likelihood of international travel restrictions being eased and the reluctance of major exhibitors surveyed to participate probably weighed heavily in the decision.

In the Show’s official press release, Gilles Fournier, expressed the organization’s disappointment and resolve to continue the event.

“We would like to extend a huge thank you to all of our partners, exhibitors and service providers for the trust they have placed in us. We share their disappointment, as the Paris Air Show continues to be an extremely popular event, even in periods of crisis. The 2023 edition will be larger than ever, and our teams are already working to ensure its success.”

The Paris cancelation joins that of the Saudi International Airshow, scheduled to take place in Riyadh in early 2021. The prospects for other major summer events like the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) in the UK and Moscow Aviation and Space Salon (MAKS) in Russia may have dimmed with this announcement.

From Aerospace & Defense in Perfectirishgifts

[khalilhumam]

GCC News Roundup: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait implement new economic measures (April 1-30)

Register at https://mignation.com . The Only Social Network for Migrants. ---

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/gcc-news-roundup-saudi-arabia-uae-qatar-kuwait-implement-new-economic-measures-april-1-30/

GCC News Roundup: Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait implement new economic measures (April 1-30)

By Sumaya Attia Gulf economies struggle as crude futures collapse Gulf debt and equity markets fell on April 21 and the Saudi currency dropped in the forward market, after U.S. crude oil futures collapsed below $0 on a coronavirus-induced supply glut. Saudi Arabia’s central bank foreign reserves fell in March at their fastest rate in at least 20 years and to their lowest since 2011, while the kingdom slipped into a $9 billion budget deficit in the first quarter. GCC countries cut oil production following OPEC+ deal OPEC, Russia and other oil-producing nations on April 12 finalized an unprecedented production cut of nearly 10 million barrels, or a tenth of global supply, in hopes of boosting crashing prices amid the coronavirus pandemic and a price war, officials said. Following the deal, Saudi Arabia announced its official crude pricing (OSP) for May, selling oil more cheaply to Asia while keeping prices flat for Europe and raising them for the United States. Oman has told its oil producing companies to cut 200,000 barrels per day (bpd) starting from May 1 until the end of June in line with OPEC+ crude supply reduction pact and will inform its customers of the same plan, its oil ministry said. The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is committed to reducing oil production from its current level of 4.1 million bpd, energy minister Suhail Al Mazrouei said in a tweet on April 12. Kuwait’s oil minister said on April 12 that his country would be cutting more than 1 million bpd in actual oil supply, taking into consideration its current April production of around 3.25 million bpd. Gulf states adjust curfews, airport restrictions  Saudi Arabia eased curfews on April 26 across the country but kept 24-hour lockdowns in place in the city of Mecca and neighborhoods previously put in isolation to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, state news agency SPA said. The country also said it would allow entry into and exit from Qatif province starting April 30. Meanwhile, the emirate of Dubai said on April 26 it had lifted its full lockdown on two commercial districts that have a large population of low-income migrant workers, after the UAE eased nationwide coronavirus curfews the previous weekend Kuwait decided to extend the suspension of work in the public sector including at government ministries until May 31 and expand a nationwide curfew to 16 hours as part of efforts to combat the coronavirus, a government spokesman said on April 20. Bahrain reopened the Bahrain International Airport for transit passengers, Manama-based Gulf Air said on April 4, though entry to the country remains limited to Bahraini nationals and residents. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait implement new economic measures Saudi Arabia was set to raise $7 billion with a three-tranche bond deal on April 15, a document showed, as the world’s biggest oil exporter seeks to replenish state coffers battered by low oil prices and expectations of lower output. King Salman has also ordered up to 9 billion riyals ($2.4 billion) to be disbursed to pay part of the wages of private-sector workers to deter companies from laying off staff, the state-run Saudi Press Agency reported on April 3. The UAE central bank has urged commercial lenders to use the $70 billion-worth of capital and liquidity measures launched by the regulator to support the economy during the coronavirus outbreak, reported Reuters on April 13. Dubai’s department of finance has told all government agencies to slash capital spending by at least half and halt new hiring until further notice, in response to the coronavirus outbreak, reported Reuters on April 9. Qatar’s ruler has asked the government to postpone $8.2 billion in unawarded contracts on capital expenditure projects due to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a bond prospectus dated April 7. Kuwait announced measures early on April 1 aimed at shoring up its economy against the coronavirus pandemic, including soft long-term loans from local banks. The country’s central bank asked banks to ease loan repayments for companies affected. Gulf states deport and repatriate migrant workers due to coronavirus The UAE and Pakistan are working to add more flights to repatriate Pakistani citizens, a Dubai government source said on April 22. More than 20,000 Pakistani workers stuck in the UAE have registered since April 3 with the consulate to go home, as the Gulf Arab state tightens restrictions due to the coronavirus outbreak. Qatar detained dozens of migrant workers and expelled them in March after telling them they were being taken to be tested for the new coronavirus, human rights group Amnesty International said on April 15. Saudi Arabia has deported 2,870 Ethiopian migrants to Addis Ababa since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the U.N. migration agency said on April 13, urging Riyadh to suspend the practice for the time being. Saudi Arabia ends flogging, death sentences for minors Saudi Arabia said on April 26 that it would no longer impose the death sentence on individuals who committed crimes while still minors, according to a statement from the state-backed Human Rights Commission (HRC), which cited a royal decree by King Salman. The country also said that it is ending flogging as a form of punishment, according to a document from the kingdom’s top court seen by Reuters on April 24. GCC monarchies to establish food supply safety network  The Gulf Cooperation Council’s (GCC) six Arab monarchies have approved Kuwait’s proposal for a common network for food supply safety, the state-run Kuwait News Agency reported on April 16. The decision was taken after a virtual meeting of GCC trade and industry ministers to discuss the COVID-19 outbreak’s impact on food supply safety. Qatar pushes back against US accusations of World Cup bribery  The organizers of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar have strongly denied allegations from the U.S. Department of Justice that bribes were paid to secure votes for the hosting rights to the tournament. On April 6, for the first time, prosecutors set direct, formal allegations regarding the 2018 and 2022 World Cups down in an indictment.                  

[politicoscope]

Osama bin Laden Biography and Profile

New Post has been published on https://www.politicoscope.com/osama-bin-laden-biography-and-profile/

Osama bin Laden Biography and Profile

Osama bin Laden (Osama bin Laden – Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 10 March 1957. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, bin Laden joined the Afghan resistance. After the Soviet withdrawal, bin Laden formed the al-Qaeda network which carried out global strikes against Western interests, culminating in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. On May 2, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that bin Laden had been killed in a terrorist compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Osama bin Laden was born Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden on March 10, 1957, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to construction billionaire Mohammed Awad bin Laden and Mohammed’s 10th wife, Syrian-born Alia Ghanem. Osama was the seventh of 50 children born to Muhammad bin Laden, but the only child from his father’s marriage to Alia Ghanem.

Osama’s father started his professional life in the 1930s in relative poverty, working as a porter in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. During his time as a young laborer, Mohammed impressed the royal family with his work on their palaces, which he built at a much lower cost than any of his competitors could, and with a much greater attention to detail.

By the 1960s, he had managed to land several large government contracts to build extensions on the Mecca, Medina and Al-Aqsa mosques. He became a highly influential figure in Jeddah; when the city fell on hard financial times, Mohammed used his wealth to pay all civil servants’ wages for the entire kingdom for a six-month period. As a result, Mohammed bin Laden became well respected in his community.

As a father, he was very strict, insisting that all his children live under one roof and observe a rigid religious and moral code. He dealt with his children, especially his sons, as if they were adults, and demanded they become confident and self-sufficient at an early age.

Osama bin Laden – Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden , however, barely came to know his father before his parents divorced. After his family split, Osama’s mother took him to live with her new husband, Muhammad al-Attas. The couple had four children together, and Osama spent most of his childhood living with his step-siblings, and attending Al Thagher Model School—at the time the most prestigious high school in Jedda. His biological father would go on to marry two more times, until his death in a charter plane crash in September 1967.

At the age of 14, Osama was recognized as an outstanding, if somewhat shy, student at Al Thagher. As a result, he received a personal invitation to join a small Islamic study group with the promise of earning extra credit. Osama, along with the sons of several prominent Jedda families, were told the group would memorize the entire Koran, a prestigious accomplishment, by the time they graduated from the institution. But the group soon lost its original focus, and during this time Osama received the beginnings of an education in some of the principles of violent jihad.

The teacher who educated the children, influenced in part by a sect of Islam called The Brotherhood, began instructing his pupils in the importance of instituting a pure, Islamic law around the Arab world. Using parables with often-violent endings, their teacher explained that the most loyal observers of Islam would institute the holy word—even if it meant supporting death and destruction.

By the second year of their studies, Osama and his friends had openly adopted the attitude and styles of teen Islamic activists. They preached the importance of instituting a pure Islamic law at Al Thagher; grew untrimmed beards; and wore shorter pants and wrinkled shirts in imitation of the Prophet’s dress.

Osama was pushed to grow up rather quickly during his time at Al Thagher. At the age of 18 he married his first cousin, 14-year-old Najwa Ghanem, who had been promised to him. Osama graduated from Al Thager in 1976, the same year his first child, a son named Abdullah, was born.

He then headed to King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, where some say he received a degree in public administration in 1981. Others claim he received a degree in civil engineering, in an effort to join the family business.

From Hero to Exile But Osama would have little chance to use his degree. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Osama joined the Afghan resistance, believing it was his duty as a Muslim to fight the occupation. He relocated to Peshawar, Afghanistan, and using aid from the United States under the CIA program Operation Cyclone, he began training a mujahideen, a group of Islamic jihadists.

After the Soviets withdrew from the country in 1989, Osama returned to Saudi Arabia as a hero, and the United States referred to him and his soldiers as “Freedom Fighters.”

Yet Osama bin Laden – Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was quickly disappointed with what he believed was a corrupt Saudi government, and his frustration with the U.S. occupation of Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War led to a growing rift between Osama and his country’s leaders.

Bin Laden spoke publicly against the Saudi government’s reliance on American troops, believing their presence profaned sacred soil. After several attempts to silence Osama, the Saudis banished the former hero. He lived in exile in Sudan beginning in 1992.

Formation of al Qaeda By 1993, Osama had formed a secret network known as al Qaeda (Arabic for “the Base”), comprised of militant Muslims he had met while serving in Afghanistan. Soldiers were recruited for their ability to listen, their good manners, obedience, and their pledge to follow their superiors.

Their goal was to take up the jihadist cause around the world, righting perceived wrongs under the accordance of pure, Islamic law. Under Osama’s leadership, the group funded and began organizing global attacks worldwide. By 1994, after continued advocacy of extremist jihad, the Saudi government forced Osama to relinquish his Saudi citizenship, and confiscated his passport. His family also disowned him, cutting off his $7 million yearly stipend.

Undeterred, Osama began executing his violent plans, with the goal of drawing the United States into war. His hope was that Muslims, unified by the battle, would create a single, true Islamic state. In 1996, to forward his goal, al Qaeda detonated truck bombs against U.S. occupied forces in Saudi Arabia.

The next year, they claimed responsibility for killing tourists in Egypt, and in 1998 they bombed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Tanzania, killing nearly 300 people in the process.

Osama’s actions abroad did not go unnoticed by the Sudanese government, and he was exiled from their country in 1996. Not able to return to Saudi Arabia, Osama took refuge in Afghanistan, where he received protection from the country’s ruling Taliban militia.

While under the protection of the Taliban, Osama issued a series of fatwas, religious statements, which declared a holy war against the United States. Among the accusations reared at the offending country were the pillaging of natural resources in the Muslim world, and assisting the enemies of Islam.

9/11 and Final Days By 2001, Osama had attempted, and often successfully executed attacks on several countries using the help of Al Qaeda trained terrorists and his seemingly bottomless financial resources. On September 11, 2001, Osama would deliver his most devastating blow to the United States.

A small group of Osama’s Al Qaeda jihadists hijacked four commercial passenger aircraft in the United States, two of which collided into the World Trade Center towers. Another aircraft crashed into The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane was successfully retaken, and crashed in Pennsylvania. The intended target of the final aircraft was believed to be the United States Capitol. In all, the attack killed nearly 3,000 civilians.

Following the September 11 attacks on the United States, the government under President George W. Bush formed a coalition that successfully overthrew the Taliban. Osama went into hiding and, for more than 10 years, he was hunted along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. In 2004, shortly before President Bush’s re-election, Osama bin Laden released a videotaped message claiming responsibility for the attacks on 9/11.

Then, on May 2, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed in a terrorist compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In an eight-month plan enacted by the president, and led by CIA Director Leon Panetta and American special forces, Osama was shot several times.

His body was taken as evidence of his death, and DNA tests revealed that the body was, in fact, his. “For over two decades, bin Laden has been al Qaeda’s leader and symbol and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and our allies,” President Obama said in a late-night address to the nation on the eve of Osama’s death.

“The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al Qaeda.” He added that “his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.”

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden Biography and Profile (Biography)

[dailykhaleej]

Saudi Arabia isolates Dammam, prevents entry and exit starting Sunday

DUBAI: They had been instructed to remain at dwelling and start distant studying like everybody else. However that they had no laptops. How might they take part of their college’s on-line lessons with out computer systems?

That is the sort of dilemma underprivileged households in south Jeddah are going through as Saudi Arabia is compelled to implement lockdowns on public life to cease the unfold of the lethal coronavirus.

The state of affairs goes to be much more difficult with the beginning of Ramadan, when Muslims are obligated to quick from daybreak to sundown.

However assistance is at hand. Saudi ladies’s empowerment organizations, each long-time established and lately shaped, have risen to the problem with public-spirited initiatives.

“The families in south Jeddah were the first to be under the 24-hour lockdown in Saudi Arabia because they live closely to each other in a high-risk area,” mentioned Dania Al-Maeena, CEO of Aloula, a Saudi non-profit group.

“We collaborated with a volunteer group called Khadoum that provides distance learning. Hundreds of individuals across Saudi Arabia supported the campaign, and over 15 companies donated laptops, food and games for the children.”

In one of many marketing campaign’s footage, a younger boy smiles as he holds up the field of his new laptop computer.

Youngsters of low-income households are in a position to proceed distant studying with the assistance of laptops given by Saudi ladies’s group Alnahda. (Provided)

The ache of the COVID-19 pandemic is rippling by means of virtually each phase of society, inflicting social and financial turbulence along with exacting a heavy human toll.

Whereas the virus punishes all, no matter standing, wealth, race and creed, it’s virtually programmed to hit the weakest and the poorest most.

As in different components of the world, the pandemic has pressured Gulf Cooperation Council member states to throw all their assets at slowing the unfold of the virus and maintain the contaminated.

Earlier than the coronavirus storm hit, these governments had been searching for, for a wide range of causes, to spice up the share of ladies within the workforce throughout each the general public and non-public sectors.

Now, in response to World Well being Group (WHO) estimates, 70 p.c of worldwide coronavirus frontline employees are ladies.

“Women are the caregivers, and so women are bearing the brunt of the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” mentioned Rasha Alturki, CEO of Riyadh-based Alnahda Society for Girls, which has supplied help since 1962 to ladies who’re in danger or belong to socioeconomically deprived households.

Girls are nonetheless the caregivers, and we’ve a big position to play at dwelling, within the office and within the medical area.

Rasha Alturki, CEO of Riyadh-based Alnahda Society for Girls

“While Saudi Arabia’s percentage (of female frontline workers) may be slightly different, we’re still the caregivers and we have a large role to play at home, in the workplace and in the medical field.”

This 12 months, as a part of Saudi Arabia’s G20 presidency, Alnahda was entrusted by a royal decree with main the W20, an official G20 engagement group devoted to ladies’s points.

The W20 began its actions underneath Saudi management in January, and has performed conferences and interventions all through this 12 months. These occasions will culminate within the W20 Summit in Riyadh in October, mentioned Alturki.

On the outset of the COVID-19 outbreak in Saudi Arabia, Aloula staged a marketing campaign entitled “Alnass Libaed” (“People Are for Each Other”), mentioned Al-Maeena.

“We placed a new target to help 800 families and 4,000 beneficiaries, providing them with food baskets, including water, dates, canned foods and food donated by restaurants, as well as toys for children,” she instructed Arab Information.

“We also started online courses to teach hygiene techniques to curb the spread of the virus.”

Established in 1962 by a bunch of ladies to assist households in south Jeddah and registered with the Ministry of Labor and Social Growth, Aloula’s founders have banded collectively for humanitarian work at any time when the necessity arises. The identical sort of intervention is seen in the course of the coronavirus pandemic.

The founders of Aloula “had no phones back then. They’d meet and decide how they’d best help the suffering,” mentioned Al-Maeena.

Youngsters of low-income households are in a position to proceed distant studying with the assistance of laptops given by Saudi ladies’s group Alnahda. (Provided)

This time, because the Kingdom confronts one of many greatest public-health challenges since its founding, Aloula has managed to assist 4,000 folks and greater than 1,000 households in want.

“Women are by nature caregivers, so this period of upheaval and distress has prompted women in Saudi Arabia to come together more than ever to help those suffering,” mentioned Honayda Serafi, a clothier who serves on the board of the Saudi ADHD Society.

She is aware of the stress being skilled by ladies all too properly, being the proprietor of an eponymous trend model in Lebanon, a rustic that’s going through a trifecta of challenges: A coronavirus outbreak on prime of an financial meltdown and political instability since October final 12 months.

Serafi mentioned she is offering meals for 100 households in Lebanon in the course of the coronavirus disaster. “We want to give a sense of hope and positivity during this period to everyone in need,” she instructed Arab Information.

The Saudi ADHD Society, chaired by Princess Nouf bint Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Saud, has tailor-made its ADHD (consideration deficit hyperactivity dysfunction) packages for on-line platforms in gentle of the present state of affairs.

A boy holds up his new laptop computer supplied to him by Saudi NPO Aloula. (Provided)

The group has created a specialised lecture collection centered on other ways younger males and ladies with ADHD can cope with the present state of affairs.

“We’ve provided close to 100 free online counseling sessions,” mentioned Serafi, including that the society has been receiving many requires assist.

Feminine workers at Alnahda confronted an analogous state of affairs in the course of the preliminary weeks of the lockdowns. “Our social workers were getting calls at 11 p.m. and throughout the night,” mentioned Alturki.

“Women are struggling with marital and sleep problems, legal and rent problems, loss of income, challenges accessing food and water, and home schooling their children.”

Alturki mentioned the socioeconomic influence of the coronavirus disaster can’t be overstated. “Imagine if you had to take care of four children and elderly parents, and also a husband at home who’s out of work,” she added. “It’s a lot of pressure for these women.”

Alturki mentioned all three actions through which Alnahda specializes — grassroots help, analysis and fieldwork, and advocacy — are key to understanding how the state of affairs is affecting ladies.

As well as, the group has overseen the distribution of greater than 600 laptops amongst kids in want, and linked ladies in want of masks, sanitizers and monetary help with charities.

 A poster for Aloula’s community-awareness marketing campaign ‘Alnass Libaed’. (Provided)

In Alkhobar, Saudi Arabia, social companies of an analogous nature are being supplied by Fatat Alkhaleej, a charity based in 1968.

“We’ve sourced and distributed protective baskets among beneficiaries of our programs,” mentioned Ebtisam Abdullah Al-Jubair, CEO of Fatat Alkhaleej. “We’re also transferring SR200 ($53.19) to 173 families as part our orphan-sponsorship program.”

She mentioned Fatat Alkhaleej is handing out meals baskets to 1,000 households every day and offering on-line companies.

With the beginning of Ramadan — a month of fasting, prayer, reflection and group — non-profit organizations and charities often ramp up their actions throughout Saudi Arabia.

This 12 months, the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak has posed an sudden — and unprecedented — problem to organizations equivalent to Fatat Alkhaleej, Aloula and Alnahda.

But when their observe file is any indication, they’ve proved as much as the duty, from offering help to the aged and arranging for groceries to be delivered, to lending psychological assist.

“While it’s hard to stop the spread of coronavirus, it will happen one day,” Serafi mentioned. “One thing that will never stop is the art of giving, sharing love and support to those in need.”

from WordPress https://ift.tt/3db9um5 via IFTTT

[buydatesonline]

Royal Dates in Riyadh - popular for Ramadan: https://www.goodosa.com/post/which-dates-are-popular-during-ramadan

[bookingaccess-blog]

Hotels Near Me: Online Hotel Booking, Cheap, Budget & Luxury

Enrolling your property with Bookingaccess.com opens your convenience to an overall gathering of people and gives you the narcotization you have to succeed.

In a savagely focused friendliness advertise, a great and worldwide booking motor that is additionally a movement channel accomplice is fundamental with regards to topping off your rooms and overseeing reservations, date-books, and limit. In our exploration, we have observed Bookingaccess.com to be one of the main and most complete assets out there.

Client centered and part of the famous Online Booking In Saudi Arabia family, Bookingaccess.com will enable you to get visitors in your rooms who generally might not have thought about your property, because of their advertising procedures and immense client base.

Let's be honest: computerized showcasing and SEO is diligent work that takes a decent arrangement of time and cash. A decent travel channel accomplice can go far toward boosting your marking and getting visitors in the entryway. These days, you've just got the chance to computerize and a decent SaaS (Software as a Service, for example, Best Room and Reservation will do ponders for your business.

We have assembled this convenient manual for help you list your property (lodging, guesthouse, resort, or even treehouse!) on Bookingaccess.com, and begin receiving the rewards of their worldwide nearness and notoriety in the market.

Bookingaccess.com Saudi Arabia

Bookingaccess.com was begun in Amsterdam, Netherlands, in 1996, when organizer Geert-Jan Bruinsma saw a hole in the inn reservation stage on the web. In 2005, the organization was purchased by The Priceline Group for $133 million, and today represents multiple thirds of Priceline's aggregate income. Initially a posting place for lodgings, Book Hotels in Saudi  now has a scope of settlement from inns, to B&B's, to extravagance resorts, even treehouses and igloos!

The Service - Listing, Fees, and Reach

The preface of Bookingaccess.comis a basic one: settlement proprietors join forces with the site and give posting data to their properties, which accordingly appear in Booking.com's index of accessible rooms. The site likewise advances lodgings through web crawler postings. Bookingaccess.comthen takes a commission dependent on each reserving made through the site.

It is allowed to join on domestic hotel  and put your inn at the fingertips of visitors who book more than 1.5million room evenings every day. Offered in more than 40 dialects, the site has in excess of 950,000 partaking properties. Getting your business recorded on the site is as simple as rounding out a frame, and it will be immediately accessible for appointments and audits. The commission-based administration even offers day in and day out multilingual help and markets your property on different web indexes.

When you finish your posting, you can refresh your accessibility and rates on the web. When somebody books with you through the site, you will get an affirmation see, and the visitor will pay their bill upon landing or takeoff. online booking hotels medina expenses are set at a base rate of15% on finished (upon visitor entry) appointments, with a choice to move up to their Preferred Member benefit. Commission is just paid when the visitors appear to remain at your property - in the event that they drop or don't appear, you don't pay.

Insights

Long haul association with in excess of 950,000 inns around the world

95,000,000+ visitor audits

1,550,000 room evenings booked every day from more than 5.7 million postings

143,171 goals in 230 nations and regions around the world

# 1 most visited travel site by traffic

100+ million visits per month

Open to more than 220 nations, in 42 dialects

Association Perks

When you enlist your property with Bookingaccess.com, you get an opportunity to be seen by a colossal, overall group of onlookers that may some way or another never realize you existed. Since Bookingaccess.comwill likewise effectively showcase your inn and work to support your indexed lists on locales like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, you additionally have more noteworthy perceivability, prompting expanded appointments.

There are numerous ways Bookingaccess.com use their essence on the web to expand the perceivability of your property:

Advancing you on web search tools for visitors looking all inclusive

Guaranteeing your property is promoted on Google Maps

Banding together with aircrafts, for example, Emirates, American Airlines, easyJet, KLM and some more

Effectively advancing the Riyadh Al-Zahra through news sources and influencers, with the goal that the brand stays unmistakable and trusted among voyagers

Royal Makarem is additionally connected with other believed travel locales, for example, Kayak, Rental Car, and Open Table and offers benefits through its site, for example, airplane terminal taxi and transport appointments fueled by Amjad Al Salam.

Joining

With advantages like these, you're most likely considering how to enlist to Bookingaccess.com and begin utilizing the majority of the advantages of joining the site.

To join on hotels in Madinah simple - essentially visit the enrollment page, fill in your name and email address, and finish the guidelines. Select your property type - there are numerous to look over so as to make certain the class suits your offering - and posting subtleties.

On the backend of your posting are convenient highlights, for example,

Set up help - best deals on hotel underpins you consistently your posting is far reaching and appealing to your newly discovered gathering of people

The capacity to turn your property "off" and "on" - there are no agreements, so your property can be made unmistakable or covered up on the site at whatever point you like

Decide your accessibility - accessible dates can be adjusted anyway you like (ends of the week just, occasional appointments, and so on.)

No eliteness - the site has highlights which enable you to deal with your accessibility around any current organizations you may have with different offices, making it simple to guarantee you don't overbook

Make Your Property Stand Out

With the majority of the highlights and opportunity in Booking.com's framework, you'll need to do as much as you can to make your property truly sparkle. There are two or three things to be aware of when posting your property and making it emerge among the alternatives.

Ensure your profile is finished

Finished profiles - ones with some astounding pictures, a full and alluring portrayal, and rundown of civilities - will undoubtedly draw in more explorers. Ensure you put resources into taking lovely photographs of your property to offer visitors the chance to imagine themselves there. The more pleasantries and administrations you can list, the not so much inquiries but rather more certainty visitors have in booking your property and recognizing what's in store.

References and audits are the best promoting Cheap and Budget Luxury Hotels

Having audits from different visitors who have remained with you are the most ideal approach to fabricate trust in your property among voyagers considering remaining with you. Guarantee that you are receptive to visitor questions or concerns - should they emerge - before the visitor even arrives, and proceed with this training while they remain with you. While they're remaining with you, register with guarantee everything is going great, approach if there is any requirement for development and request input. When visitors have finished their remain, send them a short email to say thanks to them for their visit and solicit them to compose an audit from their remain (make certain to furnish them with a connection to where to compose the survey, making it simple on them to do as such). Generally, great correspondence and consideration regarding their necessities goes far to guarantee your visitors are upbeat, and that they will be glad to compose a reference for you.

DPO and Book Hotel Online

For accommodation, DPO offers secure installment handling for client exchanges made through Bookingaccess.com. The site likewise enables visitors to pay upon landing, giving them the opportunity to pick how they might want to pay for their room (and allowing you a greater amount of to add on different administrations). On the off chance that visitors book through the site and either drop or don't appear, you don't pay any commission charges. Commissions can be paid without exchange charges specifically through DPO's system of traders (xPay) Find out progressively about DPO's installment answers for lodgings.

Visit More Info-

Contact Person- Mr. Sorabh Alam

Contact Number- +966-4-834 7226, +91-8929841122

New Delhi Office- T 84 2ND FLOOR TIKONA PARK, JAMIA NAGAR NEW DELHI - 110025

Saudi Arabia Office- AL MADINAH AL MANUWARAH KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA

Email ID info@bookingaccess.com

Website- www.bookingaccess.com, www.travel4umrah.com

[newstfionline]

Turkish prosecutor says Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered in Saudi Consulate

By Louisa Loveluck and Kareem Fahim, Washington Post, October 31, 2018

ISTANBUL--Turkey’s public prosecutor said Wednesday that Jamal Khashoggi was strangled and dismembered upon arrival at the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul earlier this month as part of a premeditated plan to kill the prominent Saudi journalist and dispose of his body.

The statement, delivered as Saudi Arabia’s own prosecutor left Istanbul for Riyadh, marked the most conclusive official description to date of what happened to the prominent journalist and Washington Post contributing columnist when he entered the diplomatic mission on Oct. 2.

It also intensified pressure on Saudi Arabia--now at the center of a global firestorm--to find its way out of a crisis that has elicited sharp criticism from Western allies and put the spotlight on the Trump administration’s close relationship with the kingdom.

Irfan Fidan, the Turkish prosecutor, said Khashoggi was “strangled as soon as he entered the consulate” in line with “premeditated plans.”

Khashoggi’s body, “after being strangled, was subsequently destroyed by being dismembered, once again confirming the planning of the murder,” Fidan said.

The Turkish statement used the word “bogulmak,” which can also mean suffocation.

Turkish media reported that Saud al-Mojeb, Saudi Arabia’s top prosecutor, had left for the airport in Istanbul after two days of meetings with his Turkish counterpart and representatives of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization. A senior Turkish official said Mojeb did not give Fidan the location of Khashoggi’s body or the identity of a “local collaborator” who Saudi authorities have asserted helped dispose of the journalist’s remains.

Since the prosecutor arrived in Turkey on Monday, “Saudi officials seemed primarily interested in finding out what evidence the Turkish authorities had against the perpetrators” in Khashoggi’s killing, said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private law enforcement contacts.

“We did not get the impression that they were keen on genuinely cooperating with the investigation,” the official said of the Saudi delegation.

Mojeb’s visit came just days after Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hailed the “unique” cooperation between Turkey and Saudi Arabia in the investigation into the killing of Khashoggi, who was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on Oct. 2.

Turkey says members of a 15-man hit team dispatched from Saudi Arabia killed Khashoggi inside the consulate. Turkish investigators have not publicly released a key piece of evidence in the case--a purported audio recording of what occurred inside.

Saudi Arabia has provided shifting explanations about what happened to Khashoggi, a contributor to The Post who had written opinion columns criticizing Mohammed. Saudi authorities have acknowledged that Khashoggi was killed in the consulate but blamed the murder on agents acting outside the state’s authority.

On Wednesday, a Saudi official said the kingdom had not officially concluded that Khashoggi’s death was premeditated. “The public prosecutor has acknowledged seeing that information from the Turkish side. We have not said if that is true or not true. We are waiting for the results of the investigation,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to talk to the press.

Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have repeatedly complained that Saudi Arabia is hampering the investigation by refusing to provide critical pieces of information, including the location of Khashoggi’s body. Turkey has also requested the extradition of 18 suspects who the Saudi government says have been arrested in the case.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said the suspects will be tried in domestic courts.

The killing has unleashed a storm of criticism, causing Germany to suspend export licenses to the kingdom and placing President Trump in a quandary. In addition to being a major purchases of American weapons, Saudi Arabia sits at the heart of the administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East.

Trump has said he is “not satisfied” with the Saudi explanations of Khashoggi’s death. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has warned that the crisis could affect regional stability. But there are few indications that Khashoggi’s death will fundamentally alter the relationship between the two nations.

On Wednesday, a group of Republican senators called on Trump to suspend negotiations for a U.S.-Saudi civil nuclear agreement. They cited the fallout from Khashoggi’s death, as well as Riyadh’s policies toward Lebanon and Yemen, as cause for “serious concerns about the transparency, accountability and judgement of current decision-makers.”

As Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Mohammed has initiated social changes in tandem with a fierce crackdown on dissent. Abroad, he is the architect of a bloody and grinding military campaign in Yemen, and he was accused last year of pressuring Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri into a short-lived resignation.

Reports from Riyadh this week suggest that the royal family is closing ranks in an attempt to protect itself from any repercussions.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Wednesday that his government would take “necessary measures” against those responsible for the journalist’s death. “So long as those who are responsible and the circumstances around the killing are not made public, released and evaluated, we will go on demanding the truth,” Le Drian told RTL radio.

[blogparadiseisland]

Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk

Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk http://www.nature-business.com/business-khashoggis-disappearance-puts-kushners-bet-on-saudi-crown-prince-at-risk/

Business ImageJared Kushner, a senior adviser to President Trump, in the background of a meeting in March at the White House.CreditCreditDoug Mills/The New York TimesWASHINGTON — For President Trump, who has made Saudi Arabia the fulcrum of his Middle East policy, the possible murder of a Saudi journalist in Turkey is a looming diplomatic crisis. For Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, it is a personal reckoning.More than anyone in the Trump administration, Mr. Kushner has cultivated Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman — whose family may have played a role in the disappearance of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi — elevating the prince into a key ally in the Arab world and the White House’s primary interlocutor to the kingdom.Mr. Kushner championed Prince Mohammed, 33, when the prince was jockeying to be his father’s heir; had dinner with him in Washington and Riyadh, the Saudi capital; promoted a $110 billion weapons sale to his military; and once even hoped that the future king would put a Saudi stamp of approval on his Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.While the fate of Mr. Khashoggi, a resident of Virginia and a columnist for The Washington Post, remains unclear, allegations that he was killed on the orders of the royal court have thrown Mr. Kushner’s grand bet on Prince Mohammed into doubt.He may be less the risk-taking reformer the Trump family eagerly embraced than a reckless, untested ruler, who critics say has been emboldened by his ties to the Trumps to take heavy-handed actions at home and abroad.American intelligence agencies have collected communications intercepts of Saudi officials discussing a plan to lure Mr. Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia and then detain him, according to a former senior American official.The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential intelligence reports, said it was inconceivable that such a plan could be carried out without the approval of the crown prince. The American intercepts were first reported by The Washington Post.While it is possible that such a plan involved assassinating Mr. Khashoggi, the official said, it is also possible that a plan to trick Mr. Khashoggi into returning to Saudi Arabia, or to temporarily incapacitate and kidnap him, went horribly awry and resulted in his death.Saudi leaders, including the prince, insist Mr. Khashoggi left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on his own, and they do not know what happened to him after that.But if it becomes clear that the prince ordered the assassination of Mr. Khashoggi or was connected to it in some way, it will provoke an outcry on Capitol Hill; embarrass American executives, dozens of whom are flocking to Riyadh for a conference next week where the crown prince is scheduled to speak; and put Mr. Kushner, who was once himself a newspaper publisher, in an extremely awkward position.ImageA security guard on Tuesday at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Saudi government is accused of killing the journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the consulate.CreditLefteris Pitarakis/Associated PressAfter a week of lying low, there is evidence the White House is turning up the pressure on the Saudis. On Tuesday, the White House said, Mr. Kushner and John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, spoke to Prince Mohammed by phone about Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also called him.“In both calls, they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process,” said the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.Turkey is also raising the pressure. On Wednesday, Turkish officials and a newspaper close to the Turkish government identified 15 Saudis who they said were operatives who flew to Istanbul last week in pursuit of Mr. Khashoggi.One of the men on the list published by the newspaper, Sabah, is an autopsy expert at Saudi Arabia’s internal security agency, according to the two Turkish officials. Another appears to be a lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force. The officials, citing confidential intelligence, said all worked for the Saudi government.Mr. Kushner declined to discuss the state of his relationship with Prince Mohammed. Behind the scenes, a person familiar with the matter said, he conveyed a letter from the publisher of The Post, Fred Ryan, to Prince Mohammed, expressing concern for Mr. Khashoggi and asking for his help. Mr. Kushner has also taken other unspecified steps, this person said.Trump administration officials said there were still too many unanswered questions to draw any conclusions about what happened in Istanbul.Mr. Trump signaled late Wednesday that he thought it was likely that the Saudis did kill Mr. Khashoggi and said that he would be upset if it were confirmed. “I would not be happy at all,” he said in an interview with Fox News. “I guess you would have to say so far it’s looking a little like that.”But the president expressed reluctance to punish Saudi Arabia by cutting off arms sales, as some in Washington were proposing. “I think that would be hurting us,” he said. “We have jobs we have a lot of things happening in this country.”VideoPresident Trump said that he is concerned over the disappearance of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and that he has spoken to Saudi officials. Agents from Saudi Arabia have been accused of assassinating Mr. Khashoggi.Published OnOct. 10, 2018CreditCreditImage by Michael Reynolds/EPA, via ShutterstockEven before the murky events in Istanbul, Mr. Kushner’s partnership with Prince Mohammed was running into headwinds. Saudi Arabia rebuffed Mr. Trump’s pleas to settle a bitter dispute with Qatar, its neighbor. Its arms purchases have fallen far short of the $110 billion trumpeted by Mr. Kushner, in part because of resistance in Congress and in part because that price tag was always somewhat exaggerated.The prince’s father, King Salman, ruled out public support for Mr. Kushner’s peace plan after Mr. Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — a move that alienated the Palestinians.Most important, from the perspective of lawmakers, Saudi Arabia has continued to kill civilians in Yemen with errant airstrikes, in a much-criticized intervention masterminded by Prince Mohammed in that country’s civil war.ImageA portrait of Mohammed bin Salman on display during Saudi National Day last month in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Prince Mohammed has tried to paint himself as a reformer in the conservative kingdom.CreditFayez Nureldine/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesReports of Mr. Khashoggi’s potentially grim fate have only fed the criticism from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who have long been wary of Saudi religious extremism and ties to terrorism.Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Mr. Trump’s closest allies in Congress, said that if the Saudis were responsible for Mr. Khashoggi’s death, there would be “hell to pay.”“I’ve never been more disturbed than I am right now,” he said. “If this man was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, that would cross every line of normality in the international community.”Policymakers across Washington expressed concern that the Saudi government’s lack of transparency and refusal to provide any information about Mr. Khashoggi’s whereabouts reflected a darker consequence of the kingdom’s relationship with the Trump White House.“It does seem like the Saudis are less concerned about U.S. views than ever before, both because they assume Trump won’t care and because they think they don’t need U.S. approval,” said Gerald M. Feierstein, a former ambassador to Yemen who was the State Department’s second-ranking diplomat for Middle East policy from 2013 to 2016.Saudi Arabia’s muscle will be on display next week, when American technology and financial titans gather at the investor conference in Riyadh that the crown prince will attend. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will represent the Trump administration at the meeting, which participants have called “Davos in the Desert” and is held at the same Ritz-Carlton hotel where Prince Mohammed jailed dozens of wealthy Saudis in what he said was an anticorruption campaign.Among the prominent figures scheduled to take part are Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase; Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of the Blackstone Group; and Dara Khosrowshahi, the chief executive of Uber.Two other scheduled attendees have ties to Mr. Trump: Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a financier who is a friend of the president’s; and Dina H. Powell, a Goldman Sachs executive and former deputy national security adviser who worked closely with Mr. Kushner on Saudi Arabia and is a leading candidate to replace Nikki R. Haley as ambassador to the United Nations.The Treasury Department said Mr. Mnuchin was still planning to attend. A person working with American business executives said that if proof emerged that Saudi Arabia ordered Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, at least some would cancel.The New York Times, one of several major news organizations that were media sponsors of the conference, has decided to withdraw from the event, Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the paper, said Wednesday night.Mr. Kushner’s relationship with Prince Mohammed dates back to March 2017, when the two bonded over lunch at the White House. Mr. Kushner, 37, persuaded Mr. Trump to make Riyadh his first foreign trip as president. In return, he extracted commitments from the Saudis to take steps to curb terrorism, including a new center to monitor militants.ImageA man injured by mortar fire in Yemen. Lawmakers have grown increasingly critical of the Saudi-led air campaign there.CreditAndrew Renneisen/Getty ImagesThe blossoming relationship paid quick dividends for Prince Mohammed when Mr. Trump backed Saudi Arabia in its feud with Qatar, even over the reservations of his secretary of state at the time, Rex W. Tillerson.Even in those days, a former administration official said, Mr. Trump’s aides regarded the ties between Mr. Kushner and Prince Mohammed as a mixed blessing. While it gave the White House a channel to Saudi Arabia’s designated heir, it ruled out the possibility of sending an older, more seasoned official to give advice to the young prince.Mr. Tillerson, who had a bad relationship with Mr. Kushner, could not play that role, and even Mr. Pompeo, who made an early trip to Saudi Arabia as secretary of state, has deferred to Mr. Kushner on the crown prince.Mr. Pompeo recently certified to Congress that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were doing enough to minimize the deadly consequences of their aerial campaign in Yemen. This came despite an Aug. 9 airstrike on a school bus in Yemen that killed more than 40 children.He also overruled the recommendations of State Department experts who concluded that the Saudi-led coalition had not yet demonstrated enough progress in mitigating civilian casualties, according to Andrew Miller, a former State Department official.A growing number of Pentagon officials and senior American military commanders are also voicing exasperation over a conflict that has spiraled into one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.“There’s a level of frustration we need to acknowledge,” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, said in an interview in late August.For all the turbulence, defenders of Saudi Arabia say, Prince Mohammed has proved himself a valuable ally for the United States.“It’s been a rocky road, P.R. wise, but they made the right call, strategically,” said Ali Shihabi, the founder of the Arabia Foundation, who has close ties to the Saudi royal court. “They have an ally who is on the same page as they are.”Still, the growing criticism from all quarters complicates those shared goals.“Although from a distance the U.S.-Saudi relationship appears rock solid, there are cracks in the foundation,” said Robert Malley, a former White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the gulf during the Obama administration.“If one adds what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, and if some of the horrifying stories turn out to be true,” Mr. Malley said, “one can imagine this having profound implications for U.S.-Saudi relations.”Reporting was contributed by Maggie Haberman and Alan Rappeport from Washington; David D. Kirkpatrick from Ankara, Turkey; and Kate Kelly and Malachy Browne from New York; and Peter Baker from Erie, Pa.A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Kushner’s Work Cast Into Doubt in Saudi Mystery. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/us/politics/jamal-khashoggi-disappearance-kushner.html |

Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk, in 2018-10-11 04:44:06

[politicoscope]

Osama bin Laden Biography and Profile

New Post has been published on https://www.politicoscope.com/osama-bin-laden-biography-and-profile/

Osama bin Laden Biography and Profile

Osama bin Laden (Osama bin Laden – Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was born in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, 10 March 1957. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, bin Laden joined the Afghan resistance. After the Soviet withdrawal, bin Laden formed the al-Qaeda network which carried out global strikes against Western interests, culminating in the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. On May 2, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that bin Laden had been killed in a terrorist compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Osama bin Laden was born Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden on March 10, 1957, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to construction billionaire Mohammed Awad bin Laden and Mohammed’s 10th wife, Syrian-born Alia Ghanem. Osama was the seventh of 50 children born to Muhammad bin Laden, but the only child from his father’s marriage to Alia Ghanem.

Osama’s father started his professional life in the 1930s in relative poverty, working as a porter in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. During his time as a young laborer, Mohammed impressed the royal family with his work on their palaces, which he built at a much lower cost than any of his competitors could, and with a much greater attention to detail.

By the 1960s, he had managed to land several large government contracts to build extensions on the Mecca, Medina and Al-Aqsa mosques. He became a highly influential figure in Jeddah; when the city fell on hard financial times, Mohammed used his wealth to pay all civil servants’ wages for the entire kingdom for a six-month period. As a result, Mohammed bin Laden became well respected in his community.

As a father, he was very strict, insisting that all his children live under one roof and observe a rigid religious and moral code. He dealt with his children, especially his sons, as if they were adults, and demanded they become confident and self-sufficient at an early age.

Osama bin Laden – Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden , however, barely came to know his father before his parents divorced. After his family split, Osama’s mother took him to live with her new husband, Muhammad al-Attas. The couple had four children together, and Osama spent most of his childhood living with his step-siblings, and attending Al Thagher Model School—at the time the most prestigious high school in Jedda. His biological father would go on to marry two more times, until his death in a charter plane crash in September 1967.

At the age of 14, Osama was recognized as an outstanding, if somewhat shy, student at Al Thagher. As a result, he received a personal invitation to join a small Islamic study group with the promise of earning extra credit. Osama, along with the sons of several prominent Jedda families, were told the group would memorize the entire Koran, a prestigious accomplishment, by the time they graduated from the institution. But the group soon lost its original focus, and during this time Osama received the beginnings of an education in some of the principles of violent jihad.

The teacher who educated the children, influenced in part by a sect of Islam called The Brotherhood, began instructing his pupils in the importance of instituting a pure, Islamic law around the Arab world. Using parables with often-violent endings, their teacher explained that the most loyal observers of Islam would institute the holy word—even if it meant supporting death and destruction.

By the second year of their studies, Osama and his friends had openly adopted the attitude and styles of teen Islamic activists. They preached the importance of instituting a pure Islamic law at Al Thagher; grew untrimmed beards; and wore shorter pants and wrinkled shirts in imitation of the Prophet’s dress.

Osama was pushed to grow up rather quickly during his time at Al Thagher. At the age of 18 he married his first cousin, 14-year-old Najwa Ghanem, who had been promised to him. Osama graduated from Al Thager in 1976, the same year his first child, a son named Abdullah, was born.

He then headed to King Abdul Aziz University in Jeddah, where some say he received a degree in public administration in 1981. Others claim he received a degree in civil engineering, in an effort to join the family business.

From Hero to Exile But Osama would have little chance to use his degree. When the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Osama joined the Afghan resistance, believing it was his duty as a Muslim to fight the occupation. He relocated to Peshawar, Afghanistan, and using aid from the United States under the CIA program Operation Cyclone, he began training a mujahideen, a group of Islamic jihadists.

After the Soviets withdrew from the country in 1989, Osama returned to Saudi Arabia as a hero, and the United States referred to him and his soldiers as “Freedom Fighters.”

Yet Osama bin Laden – Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was quickly disappointed with what he believed was a corrupt Saudi government, and his frustration with the U.S. occupation of Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War led to a growing rift between Osama and his country’s leaders.

Bin Laden spoke publicly against the Saudi government’s reliance on American troops, believing their presence profaned sacred soil. After several attempts to silence Osama, the Saudis banished the former hero. He lived in exile in Sudan beginning in 1992.

Formation of al Qaeda By 1993, Osama had formed a secret network known as al Qaeda (Arabic for “the Base”), comprised of militant Muslims he had met while serving in Afghanistan. Soldiers were recruited for their ability to listen, their good manners, obedience, and their pledge to follow their superiors.

Their goal was to take up the jihadist cause around the world, righting perceived wrongs under the accordance of pure, Islamic law. Under Osama’s leadership, the group funded and began organizing global attacks worldwide. By 1994, after continued advocacy of extremist jihad, the Saudi government forced Osama to relinquish his Saudi citizenship, and confiscated his passport. His family also disowned him, cutting off his $7 million yearly stipend.

Undeterred, Osama began executing his violent plans, with the goal of drawing the United States into war. His hope was that Muslims, unified by the battle, would create a single, true Islamic state. In 1996, to forward his goal, al Qaeda detonated truck bombs against U.S. occupied forces in Saudi Arabia.

The next year, they claimed responsibility for killing tourists in Egypt, and in 1998 they bombed the U.S. embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Tanzania, killing nearly 300 people in the process.

Osama’s actions abroad did not go unnoticed by the Sudanese government, and he was exiled from their country in 1996. Not able to return to Saudi Arabia, Osama took refuge in Afghanistan, where he received protection from the country’s ruling Taliban militia.

While under the protection of the Taliban, Osama issued a series of fatwas, religious statements, which declared a holy war against the United States. Among the accusations reared at the offending country were the pillaging of natural resources in the Muslim world, and assisting the enemies of Islam.

9/11 and Final Days By 2001, Osama had attempted, and often successfully executed attacks on several countries using the help of Al Qaeda trained terrorists and his seemingly bottomless financial resources. On September 11, 2001, Osama would deliver his most devastating blow to the United States.

A small group of Osama’s Al Qaeda jihadists hijacked four commercial passenger aircraft in the United States, two of which collided into the World Trade Center towers. Another aircraft crashed into The Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. A fourth plane was successfully retaken, and crashed in Pennsylvania. The intended target of the final aircraft was believed to be the United States Capitol. In all, the attack killed nearly 3,000 civilians.

Following the September 11 attacks on the United States, the government under President George W. Bush formed a coalition that successfully overthrew the Taliban. Osama went into hiding and, for more than 10 years, he was hunted along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. In 2004, shortly before President Bush’s re-election, Osama bin Laden released a videotaped message claiming responsibility for the attacks on 9/11.

Then, on May 2, 2011, President Barack Obama announced that Osama bin Laden had been killed in a terrorist compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. In an eight-month plan enacted by the president, and led by CIA Director Leon Panetta and American special forces, Osama was shot several times.

His body was taken as evidence of his death, and DNA tests revealed that the body was, in fact, his. “For over two decades, bin Laden has been al Qaeda’s leader and symbol and has continued to plot attacks against our country and our friends and our allies,” President Obama said in a late-night address to the nation on the eve of Osama’s death.

“The death of bin Laden marks the most significant achievement to date in our nation’s effort to defeat al Qaeda.” He added that “his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.”

Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden Biography and Profile (Biography)

[dailykhaleej]

55 students from Saudi scholarship programme Mawhiba accepted at top US universities

DUBAI: They had been instructed to remain at house and start distant studying like everybody else. However that they had no laptops. How might they take part of their college’s on-line courses with out computer systems?

That is the type of dilemma underprivileged households in south Jeddah are going through as Saudi Arabia is compelled to implement lockdowns on public life to cease the unfold of the lethal coronavirus.

The state of affairs goes to be much more difficult with the beginning of Ramadan, when Muslims are obligated to quick from daybreak to sundown.

However assistance is at hand. Saudi girls’s empowerment organizations, each long-time established and not too long ago fashioned, have risen to the problem with public-spirited initiatives.

“The families in south Jeddah were the first to be under the 24-hour lockdown in Saudi Arabia because they live closely to each other in a high-risk area,” stated Dania Al-Maeena, CEO of Aloula, a Saudi non-profit group.

“We collaborated with a volunteer group called Khadoum that provides distance learning. Hundreds of individuals across Saudi Arabia supported the campaign, and over 15 companies donated laptops, food and games for the children.”

In one of many marketing campaign’s photos, a younger boy smiles as he holds up the field of his new laptop computer.

Youngsters of low-income households are in a position to proceed distant studying with the assistance of laptops given by Saudi girls’s group Alnahda. (Provided)

The ache of the COVID-19 pandemic is rippling by way of virtually each section of society, inflicting social and financial turbulence along with exacting a heavy human toll.

Whereas the virus punishes all, no matter standing, wealth, race and creed, it’s virtually programmed to hit the weakest and the poorest most.

As in different components of the world, the pandemic has pressured Gulf Cooperation Council member states to throw all their assets at slowing the unfold of the virus and handle the contaminated.

Earlier than the coronavirus storm hit, these governments had been looking for, for quite a lot of causes, to spice up the share of girls within the workforce throughout each the private and non-private sectors.

Now, in response to World Well being Group (WHO) estimates, 70 % of worldwide coronavirus frontline staff are girls.

“Women are the caregivers, and so women are bearing the brunt of the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic,” stated Rasha Alturki, CEO of Riyadh-based Alnahda Society for Girls, which has offered help since 1962 to girls who’re at threat or belong to socioeconomically deprived households.

Girls are nonetheless the caregivers, and we now have a big position to play at house, within the office and within the medical discipline.

Rasha Alturki, CEO of Riyadh-based Alnahda Society for Girls

“While Saudi Arabia’s percentage (of female frontline workers) may be slightly different, we’re still the caregivers and we have a large role to play at home, in the workplace and in the medical field.”

This yr, as a part of Saudi Arabia’s G20 presidency, Alnahda was entrusted by a royal decree with main the W20, an official G20 engagement group devoted to girls’s points.

The W20 began its actions underneath Saudi management in January, and has performed conferences and interventions all through this yr. These occasions will culminate within the W20 Summit in Riyadh in October, stated Alturki.

On the outset of the COVID-19 outbreak in Saudi Arabia, Aloula staged a marketing campaign entitled “Alnass Libaed” (“People Are for Each Other”), stated Al-Maeena.

“We placed a new target to help 800 families and 4,000 beneficiaries, providing them with food baskets, including water, dates, canned foods and food donated by restaurants, as well as toys for children,” she instructed Arab Information.

“We also started online courses to teach hygiene techniques to curb the spread of the virus.”

Established in 1962 by a gaggle of girls to help households in south Jeddah and registered with the Ministry of Labor and Social Growth, Aloula’s founders have banded collectively for humanitarian work each time the necessity arises. The identical type of intervention is seen in the course of the coronavirus pandemic.

The founders of Aloula “had no phones back then. They’d meet and decide how they’d best help the suffering,” stated Al-Maeena.

Youngsters of low-income households are in a position to proceed distant studying with the assistance of laptops given by Saudi girls’s group Alnahda. (Provided)

This time, because the Kingdom confronts one of many greatest public-health challenges since its founding, Aloula has managed to assist 4,000 individuals and greater than 1,000 households in want.

“Women are by nature caregivers, so this period of upheaval and distress has prompted women in Saudi Arabia to come together more than ever to help those suffering,” stated Honayda Serafi, a dressmaker who serves on the board of the Saudi ADHD Society.

She is aware of the stress being skilled by girls all too effectively, being the proprietor of an eponymous vogue model in Lebanon, a rustic that’s going through a trifecta of challenges: A coronavirus outbreak on top of an financial meltdown and political instability since October final yr.

Serafi stated she is offering meals for 100 households in Lebanon in the course of the coronavirus disaster. “We want to give a sense of hope and positivity during this period to everyone in need,” she instructed Arab Information.

The Saudi ADHD Society, chaired by Princess Nouf bint Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Saud, has tailor-made its ADHD (consideration deficit hyperactivity dysfunction) packages for on-line platforms in gentle of the present state of affairs.

The group has created a specialised lecture sequence centered on alternative ways younger women and men with ADHD can cope with the present state of affairs.

“We’ve provided close to 100 free online counseling sessions,” stated Serafi, including that the society has been receiving many requires assist.

Feminine employees at Alnahda confronted an identical state of affairs in the course of the preliminary weeks of the lockdowns. “Our social workers were getting calls at 11 p.m. and throughout the night,” stated Alturki.

“Women are struggling with marital and sleep problems, legal and rent problems, loss of income, challenges accessing food and water, and home schooling their children.”

Alturki stated the socioeconomic impression of the coronavirus disaster can’t be overstated. “Imagine if you had to take care of four children and elderly parents, and also a husband at home who’s out of work,” she added. “It’s a lot of pressure for these women.”

Alturki stated all three actions by which Alnahda specializes — grassroots help, analysis and fieldwork, and advocacy — are key to understanding how the state of affairs is affecting girls.

As well as, the group has overseen the distribution of greater than 600 laptops amongst youngsters in want, and linked girls in want of masks, sanitizers and monetary help with charities.

In Alkhobar, Saudi Arabia, social providers of an identical nature are being offered by Fatat Alkhaleej, a charity based in 1968.

“We’ve sourced and distributed protective baskets among beneficiaries of our programs,” stated Ebtisam Abdullah Al-Jubair, CEO of Fatat Alkhaleej. “We’re also transferring SR200 ($53.19) to 173 families as part our orphan-sponsorship program.”

She stated Fatat Alkhaleej is handing out meals baskets to 1,000 households every day and offering on-line providers.

With the beginning of Ramadan — a month of fasting, prayer, reflection and neighborhood — non-profit organizations and charities normally ramp up their actions throughout Saudi Arabia.

This yr, the fallout from the coronavirus outbreak has posed an surprising — and unprecedented — problem to organizations corresponding to Fatat Alkhaleej, Aloula and Alnahda.

But when their observe file is any indication, they’ve proved as much as the duty, from offering help to the aged and arranging for groceries to be delivered, to lending psychological help.

“While it’s hard to stop the spread of coronavirus, it will happen one day,” Serafi stated. “One thing that will never stop is the art of giving, sharing love and support to those in need.”

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2xxYzUs via IFTTT

[magicwebsitesnet]

Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk

Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk http://www.nature-business.com/business-khashoggis-disappearance-puts-kushners-bet-on-saudi-crown-prince-at-risk/

Business ImageJared Kushner, a senior adviser to President Trump, in the background of a meeting in March at the White House.CreditCreditDoug Mills/The New York TimesWASHINGTON — For President Trump, who has made Saudi Arabia the fulcrum of his Middle East policy, the possible murder of a Saudi journalist in Turkey is a looming diplomatic crisis. For Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, it is a personal reckoning.More than anyone in the Trump administration, Mr. Kushner has cultivated Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman — whose family may have played a role in the disappearance of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi — elevating the prince into a key ally in the Arab world and the White House’s primary interlocutor to the kingdom.Mr. Kushner championed Prince Mohammed, 33, when the prince was jockeying to be his father’s heir; had dinner with him in Washington and Riyadh, the Saudi capital; promoted a $110 billion weapons sale to his military; and once even hoped that the future king would put a Saudi stamp of approval on his Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.While the fate of Mr. Khashoggi, a resident of Virginia and a columnist for The Washington Post, remains unclear, allegations that he was killed on the orders of the royal court have thrown Mr. Kushner’s grand bet on Prince Mohammed into doubt.He may be less the risk-taking reformer the Trump family eagerly embraced than a reckless, untested ruler, who critics say has been emboldened by his ties to the Trumps to take heavy-handed actions at home and abroad.American intelligence agencies have collected communications intercepts of Saudi officials discussing a plan to lure Mr. Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia and then detain him, according to a former senior American official.The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential intelligence reports, said it was inconceivable that such a plan could be carried out without the approval of the crown prince. The American intercepts were first reported by The Washington Post.While it is possible that such a plan involved assassinating Mr. Khashoggi, the official said, it is also possible that a plan to trick Mr. Khashoggi into returning to Saudi Arabia, or to temporarily incapacitate and kidnap him, went horribly awry and resulted in his death.Saudi leaders, including the prince, insist Mr. Khashoggi left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on his own, and they do not know what happened to him after that.But if it becomes clear that the prince ordered the assassination of Mr. Khashoggi or was connected to it in some way, it will provoke an outcry on Capitol Hill; embarrass American executives, dozens of whom are flocking to Riyadh for a conference next week where the crown prince is scheduled to speak; and put Mr. Kushner, who was once himself a newspaper publisher, in an extremely awkward position.ImageA security guard on Tuesday at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Saudi government is accused of killing the journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the consulate.CreditLefteris Pitarakis/Associated PressAfter a week of lying low, there is evidence the White House is turning up the pressure on the Saudis. On Tuesday, the White House said, Mr. Kushner and John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, spoke to Prince Mohammed by phone about Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also called him.“In both calls, they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process,” said the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.Turkey is also raising the pressure. On Wednesday, Turkish officials and a newspaper close to the Turkish government identified 15 Saudis who they said were operatives who flew to Istanbul last week in pursuit of Mr. Khashoggi.One of the men on the list published by the newspaper, Sabah, is an autopsy expert at Saudi Arabia’s internal security agency, according to the two Turkish officials. Another appears to be a lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force. The officials, citing confidential intelligence, said all worked for the Saudi government.Mr. Kushner declined to discuss the state of his relationship with Prince Mohammed. Behind the scenes, a person familiar with the matter said, he conveyed a letter from the publisher of The Post, Fred Ryan, to Prince Mohammed, expressing concern for Mr. Khashoggi and asking for his help. Mr. Kushner has also taken other unspecified steps, this person said.Trump administration officials said there were still too many unanswered questions to draw any conclusions about what happened in Istanbul.Mr. Trump signaled late Wednesday that he thought it was likely that the Saudis did kill Mr. Khashoggi and said that he would be upset if it were confirmed. “I would not be happy at all,” he said in an interview with Fox News. “I guess you would have to say so far it’s looking a little like that.”But the president expressed reluctance to punish Saudi Arabia by cutting off arms sales, as some in Washington were proposing. “I think that would be hurting us,” he said. “We have jobs we have a lot of things happening in this country.”VideoPresident Trump said that he is concerned over the disappearance of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and that he has spoken to Saudi officials. Agents from Saudi Arabia have been accused of assassinating Mr. Khashoggi.Published OnOct. 10, 2018CreditCreditImage by Michael Reynolds/EPA, via ShutterstockEven before the murky events in Istanbul, Mr. Kushner’s partnership with Prince Mohammed was running into headwinds. Saudi Arabia rebuffed Mr. Trump’s pleas to settle a bitter dispute with Qatar, its neighbor. Its arms purchases have fallen far short of the $110 billion trumpeted by Mr. Kushner, in part because of resistance in Congress and in part because that price tag was always somewhat exaggerated.The prince’s father, King Salman, ruled out public support for Mr. Kushner’s peace plan after Mr. Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — a move that alienated the Palestinians.Most important, from the perspective of lawmakers, Saudi Arabia has continued to kill civilians in Yemen with errant airstrikes, in a much-criticized intervention masterminded by Prince Mohammed in that country’s civil war.ImageA portrait of Mohammed bin Salman on display during Saudi National Day last month in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Prince Mohammed has tried to paint himself as a reformer in the conservative kingdom.CreditFayez Nureldine/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesReports of Mr. Khashoggi’s potentially grim fate have only fed the criticism from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who have long been wary of Saudi religious extremism and ties to terrorism.Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Mr. Trump’s closest allies in Congress, said that if the Saudis were responsible for Mr. Khashoggi’s death, there would be “hell to pay.”“I’ve never been more disturbed than I am right now,” he said. “If this man was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, that would cross every line of normality in the international community.”Policymakers across Washington expressed concern that the Saudi government’s lack of transparency and refusal to provide any information about Mr. Khashoggi’s whereabouts reflected a darker consequence of the kingdom’s relationship with the Trump White House.“It does seem like the Saudis are less concerned about U.S. views than ever before, both because they assume Trump won’t care and because they think they don’t need U.S. approval,” said Gerald M. Feierstein, a former ambassador to Yemen who was the State Department’s second-ranking diplomat for Middle East policy from 2013 to 2016.Saudi Arabia’s muscle will be on display next week, when American technology and financial titans gather at the investor conference in Riyadh that the crown prince will attend. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will represent the Trump administration at the meeting, which participants have called “Davos in the Desert” and is held at the same Ritz-Carlton hotel where Prince Mohammed jailed dozens of wealthy Saudis in what he said was an anticorruption campaign.Among the prominent figures scheduled to take part are Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase; Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of the Blackstone Group; and Dara Khosrowshahi, the chief executive of Uber.Two other scheduled attendees have ties to Mr. Trump: Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a financier who is a friend of the president’s; and Dina H. Powell, a Goldman Sachs executive and former deputy national security adviser who worked closely with Mr. Kushner on Saudi Arabia and is a leading candidate to replace Nikki R. Haley as ambassador to the United Nations.The Treasury Department said Mr. Mnuchin was still planning to attend. A person working with American business executives said that if proof emerged that Saudi Arabia ordered Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, at least some would cancel.The New York Times, one of several major news organizations that were media sponsors of the conference, has decided to withdraw from the event, Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the paper, said Wednesday night.Mr. Kushner’s relationship with Prince Mohammed dates back to March 2017, when the two bonded over lunch at the White House. Mr. Kushner, 37, persuaded Mr. Trump to make Riyadh his first foreign trip as president. In return, he extracted commitments from the Saudis to take steps to curb terrorism, including a new center to monitor militants.ImageA man injured by mortar fire in Yemen. Lawmakers have grown increasingly critical of the Saudi-led air campaign there.CreditAndrew Renneisen/Getty ImagesThe blossoming relationship paid quick dividends for Prince Mohammed when Mr. Trump backed Saudi Arabia in its feud with Qatar, even over the reservations of his secretary of state at the time, Rex W. Tillerson.Even in those days, a former administration official said, Mr. Trump’s aides regarded the ties between Mr. Kushner and Prince Mohammed as a mixed blessing. While it gave the White House a channel to Saudi Arabia’s designated heir, it ruled out the possibility of sending an older, more seasoned official to give advice to the young prince.Mr. Tillerson, who had a bad relationship with Mr. Kushner, could not play that role, and even Mr. Pompeo, who made an early trip to Saudi Arabia as secretary of state, has deferred to Mr. Kushner on the crown prince.Mr. Pompeo recently certified to Congress that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were doing enough to minimize the deadly consequences of their aerial campaign in Yemen. This came despite an Aug. 9 airstrike on a school bus in Yemen that killed more than 40 children.He also overruled the recommendations of State Department experts who concluded that the Saudi-led coalition had not yet demonstrated enough progress in mitigating civilian casualties, according to Andrew Miller, a former State Department official.A growing number of Pentagon officials and senior American military commanders are also voicing exasperation over a conflict that has spiraled into one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.“There’s a level of frustration we need to acknowledge,” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, said in an interview in late August.For all the turbulence, defenders of Saudi Arabia say, Prince Mohammed has proved himself a valuable ally for the United States.“It’s been a rocky road, P.R. wise, but they made the right call, strategically,” said Ali Shihabi, the founder of the Arabia Foundation, who has close ties to the Saudi royal court. “They have an ally who is on the same page as they are.”Still, the growing criticism from all quarters complicates those shared goals.“Although from a distance the U.S.-Saudi relationship appears rock solid, there are cracks in the foundation,” said Robert Malley, a former White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the gulf during the Obama administration.“If one adds what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, and if some of the horrifying stories turn out to be true,” Mr. Malley said, “one can imagine this having profound implications for U.S.-Saudi relations.”Reporting was contributed by Maggie Haberman and Alan Rappeport from Washington; David D. Kirkpatrick from Ankara, Turkey; and Kate Kelly and Malachy Browne from New York; and Peter Baker from Erie, Pa.A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Kushner’s Work Cast Into Doubt in Saudi Mystery. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/us/politics/jamal-khashoggi-disappearance-kushner.html |

Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk, in 2018-10-11 04:44:06

[blogcompetnetall]

Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk

Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk http://www.nature-business.com/business-khashoggis-disappearance-puts-kushners-bet-on-saudi-crown-prince-at-risk/

Business ImageJared Kushner, a senior adviser to President Trump, in the background of a meeting in March at the White House.CreditCreditDoug Mills/The New York TimesWASHINGTON — For President Trump, who has made Saudi Arabia the fulcrum of his Middle East policy, the possible murder of a Saudi journalist in Turkey is a looming diplomatic crisis. For Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, it is a personal reckoning.More than anyone in the Trump administration, Mr. Kushner has cultivated Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman — whose family may have played a role in the disappearance of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi — elevating the prince into a key ally in the Arab world and the White House’s primary interlocutor to the kingdom.Mr. Kushner championed Prince Mohammed, 33, when the prince was jockeying to be his father’s heir; had dinner with him in Washington and Riyadh, the Saudi capital; promoted a $110 billion weapons sale to his military; and once even hoped that the future king would put a Saudi stamp of approval on his Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.While the fate of Mr. Khashoggi, a resident of Virginia and a columnist for The Washington Post, remains unclear, allegations that he was killed on the orders of the royal court have thrown Mr. Kushner’s grand bet on Prince Mohammed into doubt.He may be less the risk-taking reformer the Trump family eagerly embraced than a reckless, untested ruler, who critics say has been emboldened by his ties to the Trumps to take heavy-handed actions at home and abroad.American intelligence agencies have collected communications intercepts of Saudi officials discussing a plan to lure Mr. Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia and then detain him, according to a former senior American official.The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential intelligence reports, said it was inconceivable that such a plan could be carried out without the approval of the crown prince. The American intercepts were first reported by The Washington Post.While it is possible that such a plan involved assassinating Mr. Khashoggi, the official said, it is also possible that a plan to trick Mr. Khashoggi into returning to Saudi Arabia, or to temporarily incapacitate and kidnap him, went horribly awry and resulted in his death.Saudi leaders, including the prince, insist Mr. Khashoggi left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on his own, and they do not know what happened to him after that.But if it becomes clear that the prince ordered the assassination of Mr. Khashoggi or was connected to it in some way, it will provoke an outcry on Capitol Hill; embarrass American executives, dozens of whom are flocking to Riyadh for a conference next week where the crown prince is scheduled to speak; and put Mr. Kushner, who was once himself a newspaper publisher, in an extremely awkward position.ImageA security guard on Tuesday at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Saudi government is accused of killing the journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the consulate.CreditLefteris Pitarakis/Associated PressAfter a week of lying low, there is evidence the White House is turning up the pressure on the Saudis. On Tuesday, the White House said, Mr. Kushner and John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, spoke to Prince Mohammed by phone about Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also called him.“In both calls, they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process,” said the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.Turkey is also raising the pressure. On Wednesday, Turkish officials and a newspaper close to the Turkish government identified 15 Saudis who they said were operatives who flew to Istanbul last week in pursuit of Mr. Khashoggi.One of the men on the list published by the newspaper, Sabah, is an autopsy expert at Saudi Arabia’s internal security agency, according to the two Turkish officials. Another appears to be a lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force. The officials, citing confidential intelligence, said all worked for the Saudi government.Mr. Kushner declined to discuss the state of his relationship with Prince Mohammed. Behind the scenes, a person familiar with the matter said, he conveyed a letter from the publisher of The Post, Fred Ryan, to Prince Mohammed, expressing concern for Mr. Khashoggi and asking for his help. Mr. Kushner has also taken other unspecified steps, this person said.Trump administration officials said there were still too many unanswered questions to draw any conclusions about what happened in Istanbul.Mr. Trump signaled late Wednesday that he thought it was likely that the Saudis did kill Mr. Khashoggi and said that he would be upset if it were confirmed. “I would not be happy at all,” he said in an interview with Fox News. “I guess you would have to say so far it’s looking a little like that.”But the president expressed reluctance to punish Saudi Arabia by cutting off arms sales, as some in Washington were proposing. “I think that would be hurting us,” he said. “We have jobs we have a lot of things happening in this country.”VideoPresident Trump said that he is concerned over the disappearance of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and that he has spoken to Saudi officials. Agents from Saudi Arabia have been accused of assassinating Mr. Khashoggi.Published OnOct. 10, 2018CreditCreditImage by Michael Reynolds/EPA, via ShutterstockEven before the murky events in Istanbul, Mr. Kushner’s partnership with Prince Mohammed was running into headwinds. Saudi Arabia rebuffed Mr. Trump’s pleas to settle a bitter dispute with Qatar, its neighbor. Its arms purchases have fallen far short of the $110 billion trumpeted by Mr. Kushner, in part because of resistance in Congress and in part because that price tag was always somewhat exaggerated.The prince’s father, King Salman, ruled out public support for Mr. Kushner’s peace plan after Mr. Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — a move that alienated the Palestinians.Most important, from the perspective of lawmakers, Saudi Arabia has continued to kill civilians in Yemen with errant airstrikes, in a much-criticized intervention masterminded by Prince Mohammed in that country’s civil war.ImageA portrait of Mohammed bin Salman on display during Saudi National Day last month in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Prince Mohammed has tried to paint himself as a reformer in the conservative kingdom.CreditFayez Nureldine/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesReports of Mr. Khashoggi’s potentially grim fate have only fed the criticism from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who have long been wary of Saudi religious extremism and ties to terrorism.Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Mr. Trump’s closest allies in Congress, said that if the Saudis were responsible for Mr. Khashoggi’s death, there would be “hell to pay.”“I’ve never been more disturbed than I am right now,” he said. “If this man was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, that would cross every line of normality in the international community.”Policymakers across Washington expressed concern that the Saudi government’s lack of transparency and refusal to provide any information about Mr. Khashoggi’s whereabouts reflected a darker consequence of the kingdom’s relationship with the Trump White House.“It does seem like the Saudis are less concerned about U.S. views than ever before, both because they assume Trump won’t care and because they think they don’t need U.S. approval,” said Gerald M. Feierstein, a former ambassador to Yemen who was the State Department’s second-ranking diplomat for Middle East policy from 2013 to 2016.Saudi Arabia’s muscle will be on display next week, when American technology and financial titans gather at the investor conference in Riyadh that the crown prince will attend. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will represent the Trump administration at the meeting, which participants have called “Davos in the Desert” and is held at the same Ritz-Carlton hotel where Prince Mohammed jailed dozens of wealthy Saudis in what he said was an anticorruption campaign.Among the prominent figures scheduled to take part are Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase; Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of the Blackstone Group; and Dara Khosrowshahi, the chief executive of Uber.Two other scheduled attendees have ties to Mr. Trump: Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a financier who is a friend of the president’s; and Dina H. Powell, a Goldman Sachs executive and former deputy national security adviser who worked closely with Mr. Kushner on Saudi Arabia and is a leading candidate to replace Nikki R. Haley as ambassador to the United Nations.The Treasury Department said Mr. Mnuchin was still planning to attend. A person working with American business executives said that if proof emerged that Saudi Arabia ordered Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, at least some would cancel.The New York Times, one of several major news organizations that were media sponsors of the conference, has decided to withdraw from the event, Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the paper, said Wednesday night.Mr. Kushner’s relationship with Prince Mohammed dates back to March 2017, when the two bonded over lunch at the White House. Mr. Kushner, 37, persuaded Mr. Trump to make Riyadh his first foreign trip as president. In return, he extracted commitments from the Saudis to take steps to curb terrorism, including a new center to monitor militants.ImageA man injured by mortar fire in Yemen. Lawmakers have grown increasingly critical of the Saudi-led air campaign there.CreditAndrew Renneisen/Getty ImagesThe blossoming relationship paid quick dividends for Prince Mohammed when Mr. Trump backed Saudi Arabia in its feud with Qatar, even over the reservations of his secretary of state at the time, Rex W. Tillerson.Even in those days, a former administration official said, Mr. Trump’s aides regarded the ties between Mr. Kushner and Prince Mohammed as a mixed blessing. While it gave the White House a channel to Saudi Arabia’s designated heir, it ruled out the possibility of sending an older, more seasoned official to give advice to the young prince.Mr. Tillerson, who had a bad relationship with Mr. Kushner, could not play that role, and even Mr. Pompeo, who made an early trip to Saudi Arabia as secretary of state, has deferred to Mr. Kushner on the crown prince.Mr. Pompeo recently certified to Congress that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were doing enough to minimize the deadly consequences of their aerial campaign in Yemen. This came despite an Aug. 9 airstrike on a school bus in Yemen that killed more than 40 children.He also overruled the recommendations of State Department experts who concluded that the Saudi-led coalition had not yet demonstrated enough progress in mitigating civilian casualties, according to Andrew Miller, a former State Department official.A growing number of Pentagon officials and senior American military commanders are also voicing exasperation over a conflict that has spiraled into one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.“There’s a level of frustration we need to acknowledge,” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, said in an interview in late August.For all the turbulence, defenders of Saudi Arabia say, Prince Mohammed has proved himself a valuable ally for the United States.“It’s been a rocky road, P.R. wise, but they made the right call, strategically,” said Ali Shihabi, the founder of the Arabia Foundation, who has close ties to the Saudi royal court. “They have an ally who is on the same page as they are.”Still, the growing criticism from all quarters complicates those shared goals.“Although from a distance the U.S.-Saudi relationship appears rock solid, there are cracks in the foundation,” said Robert Malley, a former White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the gulf during the Obama administration.“If one adds what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, and if some of the horrifying stories turn out to be true,” Mr. Malley said, “one can imagine this having profound implications for U.S.-Saudi relations.”Reporting was contributed by Maggie Haberman and Alan Rappeport from Washington; David D. Kirkpatrick from Ankara, Turkey; and Kate Kelly and Malachy Browne from New York; and Peter Baker from Erie, Pa.A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Kushner’s Work Cast Into Doubt in Saudi Mystery. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe Read More | https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/10/us/politics/jamal-khashoggi-disappearance-kushner.html |

Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk, in 2018-10-11 04:44:06

[buydatesonline]

Goodo offers the best Royal Dates in Riyadh, SA. To know more: https://www.goodosa.com/our-products

[internetbasic9]

Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk

Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk https://ift.tt/2yuSX9Y

Business ImageJared Kushner, a senior adviser to President Trump, in the background of a meeting in March at the White House.CreditCreditDoug Mills/The New York TimesWASHINGTON — For President Trump, who has made Saudi Arabia the fulcrum of his Middle East policy, the possible murder of a Saudi journalist in Turkey is a looming diplomatic crisis. For Mr. Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, it is a personal reckoning.More than anyone in the Trump administration, Mr. Kushner has cultivated Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman — whose family may have played a role in the disappearance of the journalist, Jamal Khashoggi — elevating the prince into a key ally in the Arab world and the White House’s primary interlocutor to the kingdom.Mr. Kushner championed Prince Mohammed, 33, when the prince was jockeying to be his father’s heir; had dinner with him in Washington and Riyadh, the Saudi capital; promoted a $110 billion weapons sale to his military; and once even hoped that the future king would put a Saudi stamp of approval on his Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.While the fate of Mr. Khashoggi, a resident of Virginia and a columnist for The Washington Post, remains unclear, allegations that he was killed on the orders of the royal court have thrown Mr. Kushner’s grand bet on Prince Mohammed into doubt.He may be less the risk-taking reformer the Trump family eagerly embraced than a reckless, untested ruler, who critics say has been emboldened by his ties to the Trumps to take heavy-handed actions at home and abroad.American intelligence agencies have collected communications intercepts of Saudi officials discussing a plan to lure Mr. Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia from his home in Virginia and then detain him, according to a former senior American official.The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss confidential intelligence reports, said it was inconceivable that such a plan could be carried out without the approval of the crown prince. The American intercepts were first reported by The Washington Post.While it is possible that such a plan involved assassinating Mr. Khashoggi, the official said, it is also possible that a plan to trick Mr. Khashoggi into returning to Saudi Arabia, or to temporarily incapacitate and kidnap him, went horribly awry and resulted in his death.Saudi leaders, including the prince, insist Mr. Khashoggi left the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on his own, and they do not know what happened to him after that.But if it becomes clear that the prince ordered the assassination of Mr. Khashoggi or was connected to it in some way, it will provoke an outcry on Capitol Hill; embarrass American executives, dozens of whom are flocking to Riyadh for a conference next week where the crown prince is scheduled to speak; and put Mr. Kushner, who was once himself a newspaper publisher, in an extremely awkward position.ImageA security guard on Tuesday at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The Saudi government is accused of killing the journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the consulate.CreditLefteris Pitarakis/Associated PressAfter a week of lying low, there is evidence the White House is turning up the pressure on the Saudis. On Tuesday, the White House said, Mr. Kushner and John R. Bolton, the national security adviser, spoke to Prince Mohammed by phone about Mr. Khashoggi’s disappearance. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also called him.“In both calls, they asked for more details and for the Saudi government to be transparent in the investigation process,” said the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.Turkey is also raising the pressure. On Wednesday, Turkish officials and a newspaper close to the Turkish government identified 15 Saudis who they said were operatives who flew to Istanbul last week in pursuit of Mr. Khashoggi.One of the men on the list published by the newspaper, Sabah, is an autopsy expert at Saudi Arabia’s internal security agency, according to the two Turkish officials. Another appears to be a lieutenant in the Royal Saudi Air Force. The officials, citing confidential intelligence, said all worked for the Saudi government.Mr. Kushner declined to discuss the state of his relationship with Prince Mohammed. Behind the scenes, a person familiar with the matter said, he conveyed a letter from the publisher of The Post, Fred Ryan, to Prince Mohammed, expressing concern for Mr. Khashoggi and asking for his help. Mr. Kushner has also taken other unspecified steps, this person said.Trump administration officials said there were still too many unanswered questions to draw any conclusions about what happened in Istanbul.Mr. Trump signaled late Wednesday that he thought it was likely that the Saudis did kill Mr. Khashoggi and said that he would be upset if it were confirmed. “I would not be happy at all,” he said in an interview with Fox News. “I guess you would have to say so far it’s looking a little like that.”But the president expressed reluctance to punish Saudi Arabia by cutting off arms sales, as some in Washington were proposing. “I think that would be hurting us,” he said. “We have jobs we have a lot of things happening in this country.”VideoPresident Trump said that he is concerned over the disappearance of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi and that he has spoken to Saudi officials. Agents from Saudi Arabia have been accused of assassinating Mr. Khashoggi.Published OnOct. 10, 2018CreditCreditImage by Michael Reynolds/EPA, via ShutterstockEven before the murky events in Istanbul, Mr. Kushner’s partnership with Prince Mohammed was running into headwinds. Saudi Arabia rebuffed Mr. Trump’s pleas to settle a bitter dispute with Qatar, its neighbor. Its arms purchases have fallen far short of the $110 billion trumpeted by Mr. Kushner, in part because of resistance in Congress and in part because that price tag was always somewhat exaggerated.The prince’s father, King Salman, ruled out public support for Mr. Kushner’s peace plan after Mr. Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel — a move that alienated the Palestinians.Most important, from the perspective of lawmakers, Saudi Arabia has continued to kill civilians in Yemen with errant airstrikes, in a much-criticized intervention masterminded by Prince Mohammed in that country’s civil war.ImageA portrait of Mohammed bin Salman on display during Saudi National Day last month in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Prince Mohammed has tried to paint himself as a reformer in the conservative kingdom.CreditFayez Nureldine/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesReports of Mr. Khashoggi’s potentially grim fate have only fed the criticism from Republicans and Democrats on Capitol Hill, who have long been wary of Saudi religious extremism and ties to terrorism.Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina and one of Mr. Trump’s closest allies in Congress, said that if the Saudis were responsible for Mr. Khashoggi’s death, there would be “hell to pay.”“I’ve never been more disturbed than I am right now,” he said. “If this man was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, that would cross every line of normality in the international community.”Policymakers across Washington expressed concern that the Saudi government’s lack of transparency and refusal to provide any information about Mr. Khashoggi’s whereabouts reflected a darker consequence of the kingdom’s relationship with the Trump White House.“It does seem like the Saudis are less concerned about U.S. views than ever before, both because they assume Trump won’t care and because they think they don’t need U.S. approval,” said Gerald M. Feierstein, a former ambassador to Yemen who was the State Department’s second-ranking diplomat for Middle East policy from 2013 to 2016.Saudi Arabia’s muscle will be on display next week, when American technology and financial titans gather at the investor conference in Riyadh that the crown prince will attend. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will represent the Trump administration at the meeting, which participants have called “Davos in the Desert” and is held at the same Ritz-Carlton hotel where Prince Mohammed jailed dozens of wealthy Saudis in what he said was an anticorruption campaign.Among the prominent figures scheduled to take part are Jamie Dimon, the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase; Stephen A. Schwarzman, the chief executive of the Blackstone Group; and Dara Khosrowshahi, the chief executive of Uber.Two other scheduled attendees have ties to Mr. Trump: Thomas J. Barrack Jr., a financier who is a friend of the president’s; and Dina H. Powell, a Goldman Sachs executive and former deputy national security adviser who worked closely with Mr. Kushner on Saudi Arabia and is a leading candidate to replace Nikki R. Haley as ambassador to the United Nations.The Treasury Department said Mr. Mnuchin was still planning to attend. A person working with American business executives said that if proof emerged that Saudi Arabia ordered Mr. Khashoggi’s killing, at least some would cancel.The New York Times, one of several major news organizations that were media sponsors of the conference, has decided to withdraw from the event, Eileen Murphy, a spokeswoman for the paper, said Wednesday night.Mr. Kushner’s relationship with Prince Mohammed dates back to March 2017, when the two bonded over lunch at the White House. Mr. Kushner, 37, persuaded Mr. Trump to make Riyadh his first foreign trip as president. In return, he extracted commitments from the Saudis to take steps to curb terrorism, including a new center to monitor militants.ImageA man injured by mortar fire in Yemen. Lawmakers have grown increasingly critical of the Saudi-led air campaign there.CreditAndrew Renneisen/Getty ImagesThe blossoming relationship paid quick dividends for Prince Mohammed when Mr. Trump backed Saudi Arabia in its feud with Qatar, even over the reservations of his secretary of state at the time, Rex W. Tillerson.Even in those days, a former administration official said, Mr. Trump’s aides regarded the ties between Mr. Kushner and Prince Mohammed as a mixed blessing. While it gave the White House a channel to Saudi Arabia’s designated heir, it ruled out the possibility of sending an older, more seasoned official to give advice to the young prince.Mr. Tillerson, who had a bad relationship with Mr. Kushner, could not play that role, and even Mr. Pompeo, who made an early trip to Saudi Arabia as secretary of state, has deferred to Mr. Kushner on the crown prince.Mr. Pompeo recently certified to Congress that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were doing enough to minimize the deadly consequences of their aerial campaign in Yemen. This came despite an Aug. 9 airstrike on a school bus in Yemen that killed more than 40 children.He also overruled the recommendations of State Department experts who concluded that the Saudi-led coalition had not yet demonstrated enough progress in mitigating civilian casualties, according to Andrew Miller, a former State Department official.A growing number of Pentagon officials and senior American military commanders are also voicing exasperation over a conflict that has spiraled into one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.“There’s a level of frustration we need to acknowledge,” Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, said in an interview in late August.For all the turbulence, defenders of Saudi Arabia say, Prince Mohammed has proved himself a valuable ally for the United States.“It’s been a rocky road, P.R. wise, but they made the right call, strategically,” said Ali Shihabi, the founder of the Arabia Foundation, who has close ties to the Saudi royal court. “They have an ally who is on the same page as they are.”Still, the growing criticism from all quarters complicates those shared goals.“Although from a distance the U.S.-Saudi relationship appears rock solid, there are cracks in the foundation,” said Robert Malley, a former White House coordinator for the Middle East, North Africa and the gulf during the Obama administration.“If one adds what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, and if some of the horrifying stories turn out to be true,” Mr. Malley said, “one can imagine this having profound implications for U.S.-Saudi relations.”Reporting was contributed by Maggie Haberman and Alan Rappeport from Washington; David D. Kirkpatrick from Ankara, Turkey; and Kate Kelly and Malachy Browne from New York; and Peter Baker from Erie, Pa.A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Kushner’s Work Cast Into Doubt in Saudi Mystery. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe Read More | https://ift.tt/2CajE7n |

Business Khashoggi’s Disappearance Puts Kushner’s Bet on Saudi Crown Prince at Risk, in 2018-10-11 04:44:06