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  • Saudi girl sentenced to 34 years in jail for following, retweeting dissidents on Twitter

    A 34-year-old Saudi girl, arrested final yr, has been sentenced to 34 years in jail for reportedly following and retweeting dissidents and activists on Twitter, prompting human rights organisations to sentence the cruel ruling. The girl, who’s a PhD scholar at UK’s Leeds University, had returned residence for holidays when she was booked, reported The Guardian.

    The ruling is reportedly one of many longest jail sentences given to a Saudi girl’s rights defender.

    Salma al-Shehab was initially sentenced to a few years in jail by a particular terrorist court docket. The court docket mentioned that Shehab used an web web site to “cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security”. Later, on Monday, an appeals court docket revised it to 34 years of imprisonment and a 34-year journey ban.

    Several human rights organisations, together with the Human Rights Foundation, The Freedom Initiative, the European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights and ALQST for Human Rights, have condemned the ruling and known as for her launch.

    “We call on Saudi authorities to free Salma, allowing her to return to care for the children and to complete her studies safely in the United Kingdom,” mentioned The Freedom Initiative in a press release. “Tweeting in solidarity with women’s rights activists is not a crime, ” it added.

    Report I #SaudiArabia: 34 years sentence towards the ladies’s proper activist #SalmaAlShehab

    🔴 Read right here: https://t.co/1S7sMV0gxY pic.twitter.com/ATjTREgxJM

    — ESOHR (@ESOHumanRightsE) August 16, 2022

    A Guardian report mentioned that court docket paperwork allege that Shehab was “assisting those who seek to cause public unrest and destabilise civil and national security by following their Twitter accounts” and by re-tweeting their tweets. The report added that she is hardly a distinguished activist within the nation or overseas, having 2,597 followers on Twitter and 159 followers on Instagram.

    The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom mentioned: “Shehab’s religious identity as a Shi’a Muslim is believed to have been a factor in her arrest and harsh sentencing.”

    Meanwhile, the Berlin-based European Saudi Organisation for Human Rights (ESOHR) described Shehab as “a specialist in oral and dental medicine, a PhD student at the University of Leeds, UK, and a lecturer at Princess Nourah University”, who’s married and has two younger sons. She was arrested on January 15, 2021, days earlier than she was scheduled to return to the UK, mentioned reviews.

    In the #Saudi authorities’ longest jail sentence ever for a peaceable activist, the Specialised Criminal Court of Appeal on 9 August handed down phrases totalling 34 years with out suspension to girls’s rights campaigner Salma al-Shehab. #SaudiArabiahttps://t.co/3bRLwqioec pic.twitter.com/fYgVrATNFX

    — ALQST for Human Rights (@ALQST_En) August 15, 2022

    “The Public Prosecution accused her of several charges, including undermining the security of society and the stability of the state, spreading sedition, providing aid to those who seek to disrupt public order, and spreading false and malicious rumours on Twitter. Appeals court judges invoked the counterterrorism regime and its financing to justify the harsh ruling, even though all charges against her relate to her Twitter activity,” ESOHR mentioned in a press release.

    “Salma was active during campaigns demanding the lifting of the guardianship system over women by their male relatives. She also called for freedom for male and female prisoners of conscience, such as human rights defender Loujain Al-Hathloul and members of ACPRA,” it added.

    The sentencing comes weeks after US President Joe Biden visited Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah on July 15. Biden was criticised for assembly with the Arab chief who has been accused of a number of human rights violations, together with the ordering of the assassination of Saudi critic and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

  • Rights group says UAE has detained U.S. lawyer who represented Khashoggi

    United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities have detained Asim Ghafoor, a U.S. citizen and civil rights legal professional who beforehand served as a lawyer for slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi, mentioned U.S.-based rights group DAWN of whose board Ghafoor is a member.

    A senior U.S. administration official, when requested on Saturday by reporters concerning the detention, mentioned the United States was conscious, however couldn’t say whether or not President Joe Biden would increase the problem in deliberate bilateral talks with the UAE president on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Saudi Arabia.

    “Certainly I think we have points on that about the importance of consular access and everything else,” the official mentioned, including “there’s no indication that it has anything to do with the Khashoggi issue”.

    Saudi journalist Khashoggi was killed by Saudi brokers in 2018 on the kingdom’s Istanbul consulate in an operation that U.S. intelligence says Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman accredited. The prince denies involvement.

    UAE authorities didn’t instantly reply on the weekend to a Reuters request for remark concerning Ghafoor’s detention.

    Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) mentioned in an announcement on Friday that Ghafoor, a civil rights legal professional based mostly in Virginia, was detained on July 14 at Dubai airport en path to Istanbul to attend a household marriage ceremony. It cited U.S. consular officers as saying he was being held in a detention facility in Abu Dhabi on fees associated to an in absentia conviction for cash laundering, however that Ghafoor said he had no data of any authorized matter towards him.

    “We urge the Biden administration to secure the release of an arbitrarily detained American lawyer before agreeing to meet with the UAE’s leader MBZ (Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed) in Jeddah,” DAWN mentioned.

    Biden has mentioned he would increase human rights throughout his journey.

    Rights teams say the UAE has jailed a whole bunch of activists, lecturers and attorneys in unfair trails on broad fees. The UAE has rejected such accusations as baseless and says it’s dedicated to human rights beneath the nation’s charters.

  • Timeline: US-Saudi Arabia ties by good instances and dangerous

    The US-Saudi alliance has weathered many storms over the many years, together with tensions over the Arab-Israeli battle, the fallout of the Sept. 11 assaults, and Iran coverage.

    But the connection stays important to each: Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil exporter and the United States’ largest international navy gross sales buyer.

    Here are some milestones in ties:

    1931: The United States recognises the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd, renamed Saudi Arabia the next yr.

    1933: Saudi Arabia grants an oil exploration concession to Standard Oil of California. Its Saudi department, later renamed Aramco, makes the primary industrial discover in 1938.

    1945: President Franklin D Roosevelt meets King Abdulaziz aboard the USS Quincy within the Suez Canal, setting the stage for many years of shut ties.

    #Diplomatic_Memory | The historic assembly between the King Abdulaziz Al Saud and former #US President Roosevelt pic.twitter.com/7mX0uhxwbB

    — وزارة الخارجية 🇸🇦 (@KSAMOFA) March 18, 2018

    1950: Saudi Arabia renegotiates the Aramco concession, securing extra income.

    1951: Saudi Arabia and the United States conclude a Mutual Defense Assistance Agreement, opening the best way for US arms gross sales.

    1973: Saudi Arabia joins an Arab oil embargo in opposition to the United States and different international locations over their assist for Israel in a 1973 battle with Egypt and Syria. Oil costs had practically quadrupled by the point the embargo was lifted in 1974.

    1979: With US and Pakistani cooperation, Saudi Arabia helps fund Afghan resistance to Soviet occupation. Many Saudis, together with Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, fund and be part of Afghan fighters.

    1980: Saudi Arabia completes buy of 100% of Aramco shares.

    1990: Iraq invades Kuwait. The following yr, US-led forces use Saudi Arabia as a launchpad to expel Iraqi forces. Most US troops then go away Saudi Arabia, however 1000’s stay.

    Police stand close to a wished poster of Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden (Reuters)

    1996: A truck bomb kills 19 US troopers at a US navy advanced in Khobar. Bin Laden declares jihad in opposition to Americans he says are occupying Saudi Arabia.

    2001: Nearly 3,000 individuals are killed within the September 11 assaults by al Qaeda hijackers. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers are Saudis. Saudi Arabia at all times denies any hyperlink to or information of the assaults. A US authorities fee in 2004 finds no proof that Saudi Arabia immediately funded al Qaeda. It leaves open whether or not particular person Saudi officers may need executed so.

    2003: Saudi Arabia opposes the US-led invasion of Iraq. The United States withdraws all remaining fight troops from Saudi Arabia.
    Three suicide bombers kill not less than 35 folks, together with 9 Americans, in Riyadh, a part of a years-long militant insurgency in opposition to foreigners and Saudi authorities services.

    A supporter of Egypt’s ousted President Hosni Mubarak holds his poster outdoors Cairo excessive courtroom, in Cairo, Egypt, May 7, 2015. (Source: AP photograph)

    2011: The Arab world is convulsed by uprisings. Saudi Arabia is anxious by what it sees as President Barack Obama’s abandonment of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a US ally.

    2013: Saudi royals complain publicly about US insurance policies, together with Obama’s method to Iran and Syria.

    2015: World powers strike a take care of Iran easing sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme. Riyadh fears it will strengthen Iran. Saudi Arabia launches a marketing campaign in opposition to Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen, giving Washington just a few hours’ discover. The United States nonetheless offers navy assist.

    2016: Congress overrides Obama’s veto of a legislation eradicating sovereign immunity and opening the best way for kin of September 11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia over the assaults.

    2018: Saudi Arabia welcomes President Donald Trump’s choice to withdraw from the Iran settlement. In November, the United States condemns Khashoggi’s killing on the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. The United States turns into the world’s largest oil producer.

    2019: US lawmakers, citing proof of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s (MbS) function within the Khashoggi case and incensed over the civilian toll from Saudi air assaults in Yemen, enhance efforts to dam arms gross sales to Riyadh. Riyadh blames the killing on rogue operatives, denying MbS had any function. An assault on Saudi oil installations halves manufacturing. Trump says it regarded like Iran was behind the assault however stresses he doesn’t need to go to battle.

    Saudi and US recreate historic assembly between Roosevelt and King Abdulaziz https://t.co/xl0eCOhWuF pic.twitter.com/Ow0HrIaR5O

    — The National (@TheNationalInformation) February 18, 2020

    2020: Saudi Arabia indicators backing for the Abraham Accords beneath which its allies the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain forge ties with Israel. Riyadh stops wanting recognising Israel itself.

    2021: President Joe Biden adopts a harder stance over Saudi Arabia’s rights document. As a presidential candidate, Biden had vowed to make Riyadh a “pariah” over the Khashoggi killing. Biden declares a halt to US assist for offensive operations in Yemen, together with related arms gross sales.

    2022: In June, Biden says Saudi Arabia had proven “courageous leadership” by backing extension of a UN-backed Yemen truce. With oil costs hovering, the White House welcomes a choice by OPEC+ nations to extend provides. Washington broadcasts Biden’s Saudi Arabia go to. Biden says he’s going for a global assembly that MbS would additionally attend. The White House later says he’ll maintain bilateral talks with King Salman and his management staff, together with MbS.

  • Saudi crown prince, Erdogan meet in Turkey with ‘full normalisation’ in sights

    The go to marks a step in efforts by the de facto Saudi chief to rehabilitate his picture past the Gulf, and comes as Erdogan seeks monetary help that might assist relieve Turkey’s beleaguered economic system forward of tight elections for the president.

    In April, Erdogan held one-on-one talks with Prince Mohammed in Saudi Arabia after a months-long drive to fix relations between the regional powers, together with dropping the Turkish trial over Khashoggi’s 2018 homicide in Istanbul.

    Erdogan mentioned final week he and Prince Mohammed would focus on “to what much higher level” they will take ties throughout talks in Ankara.

    The go to is predicted to convey “a full normalisation and a restoration of the pre-crisis period,” a senior Turkish official instructed Reuters on situation of anonymity. “A new era will begin.”

    Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Turkey for the primary time in years, for talks with President Tayyip Erdogan geared toward totally normalizing ties that had been ruptured after the homicide of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi https://t.co/yYe4AuiH13 pic.twitter.com/rB1nIPp0W5

    — Reuters (@Reuters) June 23, 2022

    Erdogan welcomed Prince Mohammed on the presidential palace in Ankara with a ceremony and the 2 shook palms and embraced, earlier than being met by members of the Turkish cabinet.

    In a press release following the talks, the 2 nations emphasised dedication on ushering in a brand new interval of cooperation in bilateral relations.

    The Turkish official mentioned the 2 nations had lifted restrictions on commerce, flights and the screening of TV sequence, with mutual detrimental media protection additionally halted.

    However, he mentioned negotiations on a attainable forex swap line – which might assist restore Turkey’s diminished international reserves – weren’t transferring “as fast as desired” and will likely be mentioned privately between Erdogan and Prince Mohammed.

    The two nations additionally mentioned enhancing cooperation in commerce and sectors similar to defence, vitality and tourism amongst others, the joint assertion mentioned. It added that Ankara invited Saudi funding funds to spend money on Turkish startups.

    Criticism halted

    Prince Mohammed is on his first tour outdoors the Gulf area in over three years together with a go to to Jordan.

    Saudi crown prince, Erdogan meet in Turkey with ‘full normalisation’ in sights https://t.co/vvmve9CKS6 pic.twitter.com/fuXa1bFfD6

    — Reuters U.S. News (@ReutersUS) June 23, 2022

    Ties between Ankara and Riyadh took a flip for the more serious after a Saudi hit squad killed and dismembered Khashoggi in 2018 on the kingdom’s consulate in Istanbul. Erdogan on the time blamed it on the “highest levels” of the Saudi authorities.

    The go to, together with the welcoming ceremony on the palace, marks a turnaround of their relations. Ankara stopped all criticism and halted its homicide trial in April, transferring the case to Riyadh in a transfer condemned by human rights teams.

    Prince Mohammed has been leveraging Saudi Arabia’s huge wealth and oil manufacturing capability to lure in Western leaders and personal enterprise companions, hoping shifting geopolitics and a give attention to social and financial reforms would soften criticism of his human rights report.

    US President Joe Biden is about to go to Saudi Arabia in July as Washington struggles with report excessive gasoline costs and constructing a united entrance towards Russia after its invasion of Ukraine.

    The go to additionally comes as Turkey’s economic system is badly strained by a slumping lira and inflation hovering past 70%. Saudi funds and international forex might assist Erdogan shore up help forward of elections by June 2023, analysts say.

    The Turkish official mentioned Saudi Arabia could also be concerned with corporations inside the Turkish Wealth Fund or elsewhere, or in making investments just like these by the United Arab Emirates in latest months.

    The leaders may even focus on the attainable sale of Turkish armed drones to Riyadh, the particular person added.

    Kemal Kilicdaroglu, chief of the primary opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), mentioned on Tuesday that Erdogan “will embrace the man who ordered the killing” of Khashoggi and accused him of buying and selling “the country’s honour” for monetary support.

    Prince Mohammed denies any involvement within the homicide.

  • Joe Biden to go to Israel, The West Bank and Saudi Arabia in July

    The White House introduced that President Joe Biden will make his first journey to the Middle East subsequent month. He will make visits to Israel, the West Bank and Saudi Arabia. 

    The resolution to pay a name on Saudi leaders in the course of the July 13 to July 16, 2022 journey comes after Biden as a Democratic presidential candidate branded the Kingdom a “pariah” due to its human rights document and pledged to recalibrate the U.S.-Saudi relationship.

    According to a senior official Biden plans to fulfill with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, the de facto ruler of the dominion. This comes after President Biden, upon taking workplace declared that he would keep away from any direct engagement with the crown prince and as an alternative focus his engagements with King Salman. 

    The resolution comes at a time of  skyrocketing costs on the fuel pump, rising worries about Iran’s nuclear program and perpetual concern that China is increasing its international footprint.

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    Human rights advocates together with  some Democratic allies cautioned Biden about visiting the oil-rich kingdom. They claimed that such a go to, with out first getting human rights commitments, would ship a message to Saudi leaders, who’ve been accused of utilizing mass arrests, executions and violence to suppress dissent, that there could be no penalties to violations of human rights. 

     The Biden administration alongside together with his nationwide safety group have decided that freezing out the Saudis, significantly the crown prince, is solely not within the U.S. curiosity, thus the go to.  When confronted with  questions earlier this month a few potential go to to Saudi Arabia, Biden burdened that the connection had a number of aspects that impression U.S. and Middle East safety. He mentioned “I am  not going to change my view on human rights,but as president of the United States, my job is to bring peace if I can, peace if I can. And that’s what I’m going to try to do.”

    President Biden has been invited by King Salman  throughout a gathering of the six GCC nations —Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — in addition to Egypt, Iraq and Jordan, on the port metropolis of Jeddah.

    The journey has been introduced after two strikes made by Saudi Arabia this month. One, that it helped nudge the OPEC+ to ramp up oil manufacturing by 648,000 barrels per day in July and August. Second, it agreed to increase a United Nations-mediated cease-fire in its seven-year conflict with Yemen, that Biden known as “courageous.” According to officers MBS performed a “critical role” in brokering an extension of the cease-fire. 

    White House press secretary, Karine Jean-Pierre mentioned, “While in Saudi Arabia, the President will discuss a range of bilateral, regional, and global issues with his counterparts. These include support to the UN-mediated truce in Yemen, which has led to the most peaceful period there since war began seven years ago.” The president may even talk about the means for increasing regional, financial, and safety cooperation, together with new and promising infrastructure and local weather initiatives, in addition to deterring threats from Iran, advancing human rights, and guaranteeing international vitality and meals safety. 

    Biden’s first cease in the course of the Middle East swing will probably be in Israel for a long-planned go to with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in Jerusalem. He will then meet with Palestinian Authority leaders, together with Mahmoud Abbas, within the West Bank. The journey to Israel comes at a politically fraught time. This contains Bennett’s fragile coalition, his makes an attempt at averting one other election and the potential return to energy of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It additionally contains Iran’s advancing nuclear program. 

    Israeli officers of their engagement with the Biden administration have pressed their viewpoint that U.S. relations with Arab capitals, together with Riyadh, are crucial to Israel’s safety and general stability within the area. 

    Biden’s time in Israel will coincide with the Maccabiah Games, a sporting competitors that brings collectively hundreds of Jewish and Israeli athletes from across the globe. Biden, who visited Israel for the primary time as a younger senator almost fifty years in the past, can also be anticipated to fulfill with the athletes collaborating within the video games.

    The Israeli go to will probably be adopted by his whirlwind  go to to Jeddah for the assembly of GCC leaders and talks with King Salman, the crown prince and different Saudi officers. The go to might additionally present a possibility to kick off talks for what the administration sees as a long-term undertaking of normalizing Israeli-Saudi relations.

  • Netanyahu participates in covert MBS meet: Israel media

    Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel flew to Saudi Arabia for a covert meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, Israeli news media reported on Monday.

    Hours after those reports, attributed to an unidentified Israeli official, the Saudi foreign minister flatly and publicly denied that such a meeting had taken place.

    The confusing turn of events came as Israel and the Trump administration have promoted the idea that a diplomatic opening between Saudi Arabia and Israel is only a matter of time, while Saudis have continued to insist that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal must come first.

    The meeting, if confirmed, would be the first known meeting between high-level Israeli and Saudi leaders.
    But the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, denied that any meeting with Netanyahu had taken place, insisting that Prince Mohammed had met only with secretary of state Mike Pompeo, who was completing a seven-nation farewell tour.

    “There was no meeting,” Prince Faisal wrote in a text message when asked about Netanyahu. Prince Faisal said he had accompanied Pompeo during his visit and that “Saudi and American officials were the only ones present throughout.”