Latest news with #MohammedBinSalman
Zawya
12 hours ago
- Business
- Zawya
Saudia Group transports 3,900 Iranian Pilgrims daily
Jeddah: In line with the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and the recommendation of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, Saudia Group continues to operate dedicated flights to support the return of pilgrims from the Islamic Republic of Iran. These efforts are carried out in close coordination with the Ministry of Hajj and Umrah, ensuring the delivery of all necessary services for a safe and smooth return to their homeland. Daily flights operated by Saudia and flyadeal depart from the Hajj and Umrah Terminal Complex at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah. As part of this operation, approximately 3,900 pilgrims are transported each day, with 2,700 pilgrims traveling to Arar airport in Saudi Arabia and coordination is underway to transport 1,200 pilgrims daily to Muscat, the capital of the Sultanate of Oman. Saudia Group's coordinated return operations have been conducted under close supervision of senior officials, who were present on-site to ensure smooth departures. This level of engagement reflects the Kingdom's deep-rooted commitment to serving pilgrims with excellence, providing care, hospitality, and operational efficiency at every step of their journey. About Saudia Group Saudia Group is one of the largest aviation conglomerates in the MENA region. The Group drives industry development with its 13 subsidiaries, and offers world-class air transport, cargo services, ground services, logistics, maintenance, catering, private aviation, real estate, training, and medical services. The mission of Saudia Group is to inspire people to go beyond borders with a purpose that is rooted in unlocking human potential and connecting the world in ways never thought possible. The group is committed to reshaping the aviation ecosystem in the MENA region and beyond, by embracing innovation and a customer-centric approach. Media Center Saudia Airlines Headquarters Jeddah 21231, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Email: mediacenter@ X: @SaudiaGroup Linkedin: SAUDI AIRLINES WhatsApp: Saudia Group | مجموعة السعودية
Khaleej Times
a day ago
- Business
- Khaleej Times
Saudi sovereign fund PIF launches new company to run Expo 2030
Saudi Arabia's $925 billion sovereign wealth fund PIF said on Thursday it had launched a new unit that will be responsible to build and operate the facilities for the Expo 2030 world fair. The company will be called Expo 2030 Riyadh Company, PIF said in a statement to Reuters, adding that the masterplan for the project covered an area of 6 million square metres to the north of the city, close to the future King Salman International Airport. Expo 2030 is set to take place the same year Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's economic diversification plan culminates. Under the programme, dubbed Vision 2030, the Gulf country is pouring billions in sectors including tourism to wean its economy off oil revenues. Expo 2030 represents another large-scale building project that the kingdom has committed to on a strict deadline, even as its economy faces lower oil prices. Oil prices have jumped to mid-seventies in recent weeks as investors weighed the chance of supply disruptions from the Iran-Israel conflict. Saudi Arabia is committed to hosting several other large international events in succession, each of which require significant spending on construction and development, including the 2029 Asian Winter Games and the 2034 World Cup. Expo 2030 Riyadh is projected to attract more than 40 million visits and, once operational, it is expected to contribute around $5.6 billion to Saudi Arabia's GDP, PIF said.
Reuters
a day ago
- Business
- Reuters
Saudi PIF launches new company to run Expo 2030
DUBAI, June 19 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's $925 billion sovereign wealth fund PIF said on Thursday it had launched a new unit that will be responsible to build and operate the facilities for the Expo 2030 world fair. The company will be called Expo 2030 Riyadh Company, PIF said in a statement to Reuters, adding that the masterplan for the project covered an area of 6 million square meters to the north of the city, close to the future King Salman International Airport. Expo 2030 is set to take place the same year Saudi Arabia's de-facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's economic diversification plan culminates. Under the programme, dubbed Vision 2030, the Gulf country is pouring billions in sectors including tourism to wean its economy off oil revenues. Expo 2030 represents another large-scale building project that the kingdom has committed to on a strict deadline, even as its economy has been hamstrung by lower oil prices. The kingdom faces a widening budget deficit with the International Monetary Fund saying Riyadh needs a price of oil of over $90 per barrel to balance its books. Oil prices have jumped to mid-seventies in recent weeks as investors weighed the chance of supply disruptions from the Iran-Israel conflict. Saudi Arabia is committed to hosting several other large international events in succession, each of which require significant spending on construction and development, including the 2029 Asian Winter Games and the 2034 World Cup. Expo 2030 Riyadh is projected to attract more than 40 million visits and, once operational, it is expected to contribute around $5.6 billion to Saudi Arabia's GDP, PIF said.
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
A Saudi journalist tweeted against the government – and was executed for ‘high treason'
The tweet posted by Saudi journalist Turki al-Jasser in 2014 was chillingly prescient: 'The Arab writer can be easily killed by their government under the pretext of 'national security',' he wrote. On Saturday, the Saudi interior ministry announced that al-Jasser had been executed in Riyadh, for crimes including 'high treason by communicating with and conspiring against the security of the Kingdom with individuals outside it'. Al-Jasser is believed to have been in his 40s and the execution – which in most cases in Saudi is carried out by beheading with a sword – followed seven years of detention. Dissidents who spoke to the Guardian alleged he was subjected to torture during his imprisonment. It was the first high-profile killing of a journalist by the Saudi state since the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist and prominent critic of Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman who was lured into the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and murdered by Saudi agents. A UN report concluded that the murder was an extrajudicial killing by the state, and an intelligence assessment released by then president Joe Biden in 2020 concluded that bin Salman approved the murder. But the circumstances around that murder and al-Jasser's killing, and the international response to it, are markedly different. Most dissidents and experts who followed al-Jasser's case say he was likely detained by Saudi authorities in 2018 after being identified as the writer behind a popular anonymous Twitter account that accused the Saudi royal family of alleged corruption and human rights abuses. In public, al-Jasser was the founder of the news blog Al-Mashhad Al-Saudi (The Saudi Scene), which press freedom group Reporters without Borders said regularly addressed topics such as women's rights and Palestine. But it was the account on what was then known as Twitter (and now as X) that is believed to have riled Saudi authorities and led to his arrest during a broader crackdown on dissent. 'Turki had two Twitter accounts. While he was vocal using his real name, he was even more satirical and vocal with the other account, which was in the crosshairs of the Saudi government,' says Abdullah Alaoudh, senior director for countering authoritarianism at Middle East Democracy Center. 'The government assumed his and other anonymous Twitter accounts were part of a coordinated effort and delusional conspiracy to topple the Saudi government.' The Saudi government gained access to the real identities and IP addresses behind thousands of anonymous Twitter accounts following Saudi agents' infiltration of the company in 2014-2015. The Department of Justice charged two former Twitter employees and a Saudi national in the plot. Ahmad Abouammo was found guilty by a federal jury of fraud, conspiracy, acting as a foreign agent for bribes, and conveying user information to the kingdom on behalf of the royal family. At the time, assistant attorney general Matthew Olsen of the justice department's national security division, said the guilty verdict showed the justice department would hold accountable anyone who aids 'hostile regimes in extending their reach to our shores'. Two other indicted men fled to Saudi before they could be arrested. A Twitter spokesperson said in 2021 that it acted swiftly at the time of the incident when it learned there were malicious actors accessing Twitter user data. That view has been challenged by the family of another man who was arrested after the Twitter breach, who believe the social media platform is at least partly responsible for dissidents' arrests. Abdulrahman al-Sadhan, a former aide worker, was arrested in 2018 and sentenced three years later to 20 years in prison and a 20-year travel ban. He is alleged to have maintained an anonymous account that mocked the kingdom's leaders. 'They broke his hand, smashed his fingers, saying this is the hand you tweet with,' Areej al-Sadhan told CBS News in a 2023 interview. 'They tortured him with electric shocks, beating and sleep deprivation.' Reporters without Borders said al-Jasser was the first journalist to be sentenced to death and executed in Saudi under the rule of Mohammed bin Salman, and the second in the world since 2020, when Amadnews director Ruhollah Zam was put to death in Iran. The state department did not respond to a request for comment. When the Saudi crown prince was asked by Fox News's Brett Baier in 2023 about a case in which a Saudi court sentenced a man – Mohammed bin Nasser al-Ghamdi – to death for posts on X and his YouTube activity, bin Salman blamed 'laws' in the kingdom and said he was doing his best to 'change them'. 'Do we have bad laws? Yes. We are changing that, yes,' he said. Asked whether al-Ghamdi would ultimately be killed bin Salman said: 'I'm hoping that in the next phase of trials, the judge there is more experienced, and they might look at it totally different.' Al-Ghamdi's death sentence was later commuted. Legal scholars have pointed out that the crown prince could legally have intervened in al-Jasser's own execution. Under Saudi law the crown prince or the king must approve every execution. The Saudi government has been approached for comment. 'With Jasser's execution, Mohammed bin Salman has once again shown us that he remains a vindictive, thin-skinned tyrant who kills people who criticize him,' said Sarah Leah Whitson, executive director of Dawn, a pro-democracy group founded by Khashoggi. 'He has weaponized the Saudi judiciary to prosecute and execute a Saudi man under the country's bogus counter-terrorism law exclusively because of his critical commentary about the country on social media. Western governments are eager to pretend that MBS has morphed into some kind of reputable statesman, but it's hard to reform a sociopathic autocrat with zero domestic guardrails.'
The National
3 days ago
- Politics
- The National
France under pressure over new date for UN Palestinian recognition summit
French President Emmanuel Macron must move swiftly to set a new date for a UN conference on Palestinian statehood after the Iran-Israel war derailed plans to hold it on Tuesday, activists have told The National. Mr Macron had said he may recognise a Palestinian state during the conference co-chaired with Saudi Arabia, raising some hope European countries would follow suit and increase diplomatic pressure on Israel to accept the proposal. The Iranian-Israeli conflict and track is itself part of the wider sort of issue emanating from the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict John Lyndon, Allmep executive director The French President has vowed to push on with diplomatic efforts to achieve a two-state solution despite the delay, which he justified by saying that neither Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas nor Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman could fly to New York after Israel bombed Iran on Friday. The attack has triggered retaliatory attacks and the closure of the airspace of several countries in the region. Peace organisations who came to Paris for a conference on Friday on the two-state solution will be campaigning to ensure he delivers on his promise, said Brussels-based activist Dan Sobovitz, who took part in the meeting that was organised to contribute to this week's conference in New York. About 400 participants in Friday's conference were invited to the Elysee Palace to talk to the President, who reportedly told them he remained focused on supporting Palestinian statehood. "His main message was: you can count on me," Mr Sobovitz told The National. "He should commit to a date." The next UN General Assembly meeting is scheduled for September. In a closed-door meeting with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot, the organisers of Friday's conference, the Alliance for Middle East Peace (Allmep), a network of 170 civil society organisations, highlighted concerns that the Palestinian issue would be sidelined by the latest Iran-Israel escalation. At least 15 Palestinians were killed on Sunday by Israeli fire near an aid centre in Gaza, bringing the total number of Palestinians killed in the enclave since October 2023 to more than 55,200. "The number one priority has to be ending Gaza's war," said John Lyndon, Allmep's executive director. "The situation between Iran and Israel is deeply concerning. It's incredibly destabilising for the region, but the Iranian-Israeli conflict and track is itself part of the wider sort of issue emanating from the unresolved Israeli-Palestinian conflict." France may reorganise the conference in the "coming weeks", Mr Barrot said, without giving a date. "The momentum is unstoppable," he told TV network Public Senat. Israel's ally For now, most French politicians, including Mr Macron, have rallied behind Israeli claims that the bombing was justified because of its right to defend itself in the face of Iran's nuclear programme. Some have called on President to remain focused on Palestine. The French government views Iran's nuclear programme as an existential threat for Europe and Israel, and Paris's relations with Tehran have become increasingly tense over Iran's three-year long detention of two French citizens in conditions "akin to torture". Last week, the UN nuclear watchdog's 35-nation board of governors declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations for the first time in almost 20 years. "France must take Iran's threats against Israel seriously, while at the same time pushing for a solution to the Palestinian problem," Raphael Glucksmann, a leading socialist politician, said in an interview with national broadcaster TF1 on Monday. Some French analysts suggest Mr Macron had been struggling to gain momentum for the New York conference. Delaying it may give him more time to rally international support after a US campaign to discourage states from taking part. The President's initial hope of a "mutual recognition process" involving more Arab countries establishing ties with Israel, alongside other western countries, faced difficulties as Gaza ceasefire talks broke down. "It's catastrophic that once again, the decade-old Israeli-Palestinian question is pushed aside and taken hostage by war," said international affairs commentator Pierre Haski. "Postponing the conference is also a way of not exposing oneself to failure, though comments made both by Mr Macron and Mr Barrot show they're strongly committed to the idea of holding the conference considering the amount of energy and political capital they've invested in it," Mr Haski told The National. Shaddad Al Attili, head of the Palestine Liberation Organisation's negotiation unit, welcomed the delay, saying the Iran-Israel war would have overshadowed any announcements. "In these conditions, it's best to wait," he said. No empty gestures Yet the latest war has left many peace activists – both Palestinian and Israeli – wondering what comes next, as concerns mount over regional instability. One Palestinian NGO worker, who asked to remain anonymous due to online threats to participants of Friday's conference, said the postponement was understandable given that Palestinian cities including Ramallah and Jericho had been closed by Israel because of the Iranian attacks. "It's a horrible time," they said, speaking from Ramallah after returning from Paris via Jordan. "The bombings are not just on Tel Aviv, they're also near us." About 224 people in Iran, including senior officials and nuclear scientists, have been killed in Israeli bombing since Friday, and 24 in Israel have died in Iranian missile attacks. In Israel, Mr Macron's two-state solution initiative has been rejected by the government and viewed by many as a hostile move. Many Israeli peace activists who took part in Friday's conference were left stranded in Paris by the closure of Israeli airspace, which remains in place. "Recognition is too important to be offered as an empty gesture. It needs to be done at a time when people can give priority to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," Israeli analyst Gil Murciano told The National. "It should be used as a tool to promote a two-state solution. Right now, people care about whether they'll be alive tomorrow."
