Brussels, Washington and Kiev are stepping up efforts to consolidate international support for a Ukrainian plan for hypothetical peace talks with Russia. Last Sunday it was announced that a major international meeting of around 30 states will be held in Jeddah this weekend, 5-6 August, to discuss the process. In …
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Washington is contemplating lifting its ban on US sales of offensive weapons to Saudi Arabia ahead of President Joe Biden’s visit to Riyadh later this week, Reuters reported on Monday, citing four sources familiar with the discussions. Strictly internal at this time and at an early stage, the deliberations are …
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US President Joe Biden has defended his plan to visit Saudi Arabia by saying engagement with Riyadh is paramount for countering “Russia’s aggression,” achieving “greater stability” in the Middle East, and ensuring Washington’s ability to “outcompete China.” In an op-ed published in the Washington Post on Saturday evening, Biden directly …
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Saudi Arabia will maintain its extensive trade relations with both Ukraine and Russia, Economy and Planning Minister Faisal Al-Ibrahim said on Tuesday on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos. Speaking to Japan’s Nikkei newspaper, the minister said Western sanctions against Russia are “unilateral” and will remain as …
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Saudi Arabia has announced a halt to all military operations in Yemen, with the eye of reaching a permanent solution to the conflict in the neighboring country, the spokesman for the Riyadh-led coalition announced on Tuesday evening. Yemen’s Houthi rebels had offered a three-day armistice earlier, which they said could …
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Saudi Arabia declared on Monday that it “won’t bear any responsibility” for surging oil prices or contracting supply following a series of attacks on a refinery and other energy facilities by Houthi rebels a day earlier. In a statement acknowledging that the attacks could have “serious consequences” for energy markets …
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will not be making a trip to Saudi Arabia in the “near future,” the country’s foreign ministry said, formally denying a recent report citing a local official. In a missive carried by the Saudi Press Agency on Saturday, the FM “denied reports circulated in …
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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s bid to secure the assistance of Middle East oil exporters in pressuring President Vladimir Putin to end Moscow’s military offensive in Ukraine has come up empty, failing to win any immediate pledges from Saudi Arabia and the UAE to increase crude production. Johnson ended his …
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UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to travel to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates to discuss how to boost Middle Eastern oil and gas exports and reduce purchases from Russia, denouncing Moscow’s military action in Ukraine while saying nothing of the seven-year conflict still raging in Yemen. …
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Three members of an Iranian separatist group, the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahwaz (ASMLA), were found guilty of promoting terrorism, as well as of spying for Saudi Arabia by a Danish court in Roskilde, near Copenhagen, on Friday. The defendants, who were not identified in line with …
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