Saudi Arabia

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Sulayman Hajj Ibrahim writes in the London pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-`Arabi [Arab Jerusalem] that Saudi Arabia’s bid to join the 47-member Human Rights Council of the United Nations was rejected resoundingly by the General Assembly. Human Rights Watch waged a campaign against allowing China and Saudi Arabia onto the council. […]

Saudi Arabia

Saudis now Boycott, Oppose Turkey, but once Sought its Security Umbrella: Clinton Files

Middle East Monitor

By Daud Abdullah | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – This is one of the uncomfortable questions raised by the newly declassified Clinton files. A diplomatic dispatch to the former Secretary of State dated 12 October 2011 revealed that the Saudis actually considered Turkey to be a possible security guarantor after the discovery of […]

Saudi Arabia

The Catastrophic Saudi War in Yemen heads for more Disasters, for Yemenis

Middle East Monitor

By Yaseen Tamimi | – ( Middle East Monitor) – The commander of the Southern Transitional Council in Yemen, Aidarus Al-Zoubaidi, appeared last month in the guise of a full-fledged president, surrounded by Saudi Arabian guards, meeting figures who are said to be separatist southerners and raising the separatist flag alongside the Saudi flag. All […]

Human Rights

Saudi Arabia continues to conceal its human rights abuses

Middle East Monitor

By Tasnim Nazeer ( Middle East Monitor ) – Two years since the brutal death of respected journalist Jamal Khashoggi, why has Saudi Arabia still not been held to account? Khashoggi, a veteran journalist from Saudi Arabia, was last seen entering the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul in October 2018, where he was due to obtain […]

censorship

Saudi Arabia: ‘Image Laundering’ Conceals Abuses

Human Rights Watch

(Human Rights Watch) – (Beirut) – The Saudi government has spent billions of dollars hosting major entertainment, cultural, and sporting events as a deliberate strategy to deflect from the country’s image as a pervasive human rights violator, Human Rights Watch said today. On October 2, 2020, Human Rights Watch launched a global campaign to counter […]

censorship

Rethinking Saudi Arabia: A Biden administration could ensure that Khashoggi’s death was not in vain

Middle East Monitor

By Abderrahmane Amor | – Breaking News The Biden-Harris campaign releases a statement on the two-year anniversary of Khashoggi's murder stating that his death "will not be in vain." https://t.co/ZYEmx5kMem pic.twitter.com/rsl7pOWZEP — Abderrahmane Amor/عمور (@TheAmorTimes) October 2, 2020 ( Middle East Monitor) – In an interview a few days after the murder of Jamal Khashoggi […]

Death Penalty

Two years after Khashoggi’s murder, why is Trump’s America still an accomplice to MBS’s crimes?

Medea Benjamin and Nicholas J.S. Davies

( Code Pink) – Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered on October 2, 2018 by agents of Saudi Arabia’s despotic government, and the CIA concluded they killed him on direct orders from Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). Eight Saudi men have been convicted of Khashoggi’s murder by a Saudi court in […]

Democracy

Montesquieu in Najd: Saudi Arabia, World’s Last Absolute Monarchy, Challenged by New Democratic Political Party

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – A group of expatriate Saudi intellectuals announced this week the formation of the National Assembly Party, which they intend as an opposition party working for a rule of law and separation of powers in the kingdom. The group’s manifesto is printed here, declaring that they want to see democracy implemented […]

Archaeology

Prehistoric Arabia Felix: As Humans exited Africa 120K years ago, they headed into Green Nefud

The Conversation

By Richard Clark-Wilson | – Humanity originated on the African continent at least 300,000 years ago. We know from fossil evidence in southern Greece and the Levant (modern-day Israel) that some early members of our species expanded beyond Africa around 200,000 years ago, and again between 120,000 to 90,000 years ago. They likely travelled through […]