by Middle East Eye – A little-known Saudi prince with no history as an art collector, no publicly declared source of wealth but close associations with the crown prince has been revealed as the buyer of the $450m Leonardo da Vinci painting the Salvator Mundi. Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud was named […]

article represent opinion of the author – by Hannes Baumann – washington post – Last month, Lebanon’s prime minister, Saad Hariri, resigned in Saudi Arabia — only to later rescind his resignation. This sparked fear of a Saudi-backed war against Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese ally. Riyadh has few local military assets to confront the Shiite movement but could […]

(CNN)American evangelicals, especially those close to President Donald Trump, hailed his announcement on Wednesday that the United States now recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. But other religious leaders, including Pope Francis and Christians living in Israel, expressed dire concerns that the move would incite unrest in the volatile region. “I have determined that it is […]

  Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri rescinded his resignation on Tuesday and said all members of the government had agreed to stay out of conflicts in Arab countries. . The Lebanese government said in a statement read by Mr Hariri: “The cabinet thanks its leader [Hariri] for his position and for revoking his resignation.” “All […]

(CNN)– By Tim Lister –   Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was President of Yemen for decades and once compared governing the country to “dancing on the heads of snakes,” was killed on Monday at the age of 75. His death will instantly transform the political landscape in Yemen, a country that’s been gripped by conflict for […]

PARIS (Reuters) – Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri will meet ministers from major powers in Paris on Friday to discuss ways of stabilizing his country a month after his shock resignation plunged it into political turmoil, three diplomats said. The Arab and European diplomats said Hariri would take part in the meeting of the International […]

By Calvert W. Jones – washingtonpost.com  – Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, isn’t just consolidating power before his probable ascent to the throne. He’s also trying to remake Saudi society. He bluntly told reporters that his country is “not normal.” And so, like Ataturk in post-World War I Turkey, the shah in pre-revolutionary Iran and other […]

By Calvert W. Jones – washingtonpost.com  – Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, isn’t just consolidating power before his probable ascent to the throne. He’s also trying to remake Saudi society. He bluntly told reporters that his country is “not normal.” And so, like Ataturk in post-World War I Turkey, the shah in pre-revolutionary Iran and other […]

by alaraby.co.uk – Lebanon has denied Saudi allegations that its prestigious banking system is being used to smuggle and launder funds for powerful political and militant group Hizballah. “The Lebanese banking system enjoys international legitimacy in relation to its financial and monetary transactions,” Riad Salameh, the governor of Lebanon’s central bank Banque Du Liban (BDL), told […]

by npr.org — Secretive real estate deals in the Holy Land are putting one of Jerusalem’s most powerful and ancient churches in the spotlight. The Greek Orthodox Church calls itself the second-largest landowner in Israel, after the Israeli government. It says it owns some 30 percent of Jerusalem’s walled Old City, the city’s historic core, and […]