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Liquidity Crunch or Worse Saudi Arabia burnt through its reserves faster than anyone thought. In signs of a huge liquidity crunch, at best, the country has delayed paying contractors and now considers paying them in IOUs and tradable bonds. In retrospect, the Saudi threat to dump US assets looks more ridiculous than ever. Please consider Saudi Arabia Considers Paying Contractors With IOUs. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-05-18/saudi-arabia-said-to-consider-paying-contractors-with-ious

Previously we documented that as a result of the still low oil prices, largely a result of Saudi Arabian strategy to put high cost producers out of business and to remove excess supply, none other than Saudi Arabia has been substantially impacted, with the result being dramatic state budget, a sharp economic slowdown and mass worker layoffs. Just three weeks ago we reported that the biggest construction conglomerate in the middle east, the Saudi Binladin Group had announced it would layoff 50,000 workers ot a quarter of its workforce, slammed by the weak economy. Now, Saudi Arabia has admitted that...

The Treasury Department said Monday that Saudi Arabia held $116.8 billion in U.S. debt at the end of March, revealing for the first time the holdings of the world's biggest oil exporter. The pile puts Saudi Arabia among the largest foreign nation holders of American debt. Still, it sits well behind countries like China and Japan, which both had more than $1 trillion in Treasury securities at the end of March. Saudi Arabia's holdings could be even larger than officially listed, according to Bloomberg, which first reported the total. Saudi Arabia has about $587 billion in foreign reserves and central...

Is there a smoking gun in the 28 pages that were redacted from the congressional joint inquiry on intelligence from before and after the 9/11 attacks that links the Saudi Arabian government to the attacks? A co-chair of that inquiry, former Forida Sen. Bob Graham thinks there is one. He also says the link goes all the way to the top of the Saudi government and that the government’s funding of terrorist groups continues to this day. Graham, who has been advocating for the release of those pages for over a decade, sat down with Yahoo News host Stephanie Sy...

WASHINGTON — A bill that would let the families of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks sue Saudi Arabia for any role in the terrorist plot passed the Senate unanimously on Tuesday, bringing Congress closer to a showdown with the White House, which has threatened to veto the legislation. The Senate’s passage of the bill, which will now be taken up in the House, is another sign of escalating tensions in a relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia that once received little scrutiny from lawmakers. Administration officials have lobbied against the bill, a view that the White...

WASHINGTON — A bill that would let the families of those killed in the Sept. 11 attacks sue Saudi Arabia for any role in the terrorist plot passed the Senate unanimously on Tuesday, bringing Congress closer to a showdown with the White House, which has threatened to veto the legislation.The Senate’s passage of the bill, which will now be taken up in the House, is another sign of escalating tensions in a relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia that once received little scrutiny from lawmakers.Obama administration officials have lobbied against the bill, a view that the White House...

A group of 51 Muslim states has blocked 11 gay and transgender organizations from attending a high-level meeting at the United Nations next month on ending Aids, sparking a protest by the US, Canada and the EU. Egypt wrote to the president of the 193-member general assembly on behalf of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to object to the participation of the 11 groups. It did not give a reason in the letter, which Reuters has seen. Samantha Power, US ambassador to the UN, wrote to the general assembly president, Mogens Lykketoft, and said the groups appeared to have been...

A Saudi groom who took his bride to a new home for their honeymoon got the shock of his life when he discovered that she brought with her a gun. When he recovered from the shock, he immediately divorced her. The unnamed groom had just moved into the new home with his wife in the Southern Saudi town of Baha when he found that there was a gun in her bag. “He was shocked…just after getting into his new house, he decided to take the bride back to her home after divorcing her,” Sada newspaper said. “The bride’s father blamed...

The Kingdom’s first woman pilot, Hanadi Zakaria Al-Hindi, 37, is optimistic about receiving the green signal from Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia) to fly its commercial aircraft. “I am studying offers from various UAE airlines to fly commercial planes, but still hope to be able to enter into a contract with Saudia,” she told the Emirati site, Seven Days. About those who might mock her dream to work as a pilot in a country that does not allow women to drive four-wheelers, she responded, “I think it’s better to have a driver in order to avoid the suffering of looking for...

A U.N. panel against torture on Friday expressed concerns about allegations of “excessive use of force,” including deadly force, by Israeli security forces in Palestinian areas, and warned about authorities barring access to detained suspects, including minors. The Committee Against Torture, which works under the office of the U.N. human rights chief, released its “concluding observations” about Israel and five other countries — France, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the Philippines — as part of regular reviews by the panel. […] In a 12-page segment on Israel, the committee pointed to “allegations of excessive use of force, including lethal force,...

A Daily Caller News Foundation investigation reveals that Bill and Hillary Clinton received at least $100 million from autocratic Persian Gulf states and their leaders, potentially undermining Democratic presidential candidate Hillary’s claim she can carry out independent Middle East policies. http://dailycaller.com/2016/05/11/exclusive-persian-gulf-sheikhs-gave-bill-hillary-100-million/

Scandal: A new investigation reveals that Bill and Hillary Clinton took in at least $100 million from Middle East leaders. Can such a financially and ethically compromised candidate truly function as our nation’s leader? The investigation by the Daily Caller News Foundation has uncovered a disturbing pattern of the Clintons’ raising money for the Clinton Foundation from regimes that have checkered records on human rights and that aren’t always operating in the best interests of the U.S. By the way, the $100 million we mentioned above doesn’t appear to include another $30 million given to the Clintons by two Mideast-based...

In a surprise move, Saudi Arabia sacked its long-time oil minister over the weekend, an event that illustrates the near-total control that the new young Saudi prince has obtained over the country’s energy industry. For many years, Ali al-Naimi, the outgoing Saudi oil minister, was the voice of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry and policy. Even seemingly insignificant remarks from al-Naimi could move oil prices up or down. But the 80-year old oil minister has seen his power eclipsed by the 30-year old Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. In April, when al-Naimi was forced to backtrack on the Doha oil...

Saudi Arabia revealed more details about its planned initial public offering of the state-owned oil company Saudi Aramco. As part of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vision to diversify the Saudi economy over the next decade and a half, the IPO of Aramco could raise cash while also making the company more transparent. The Telegraph reported that Saudi Aramco plans a three-way listing, with shares listed in London, New York, and Hong Kong. Also, Aramco hopes to convince some of the oil majors, including ExxonMobil, BP and China’s Sinopec, into taking “strategic stakes” in Aramco, “offering them long-term access...

The end of Ali al-Naimi's more than two-decade tenure as Saudi Arabia's oil minister signals a new era for crude markets, analysts said on Saturday, and appeared to be a reaffirmation of Saudi policy to let oil set its own pricing. On Saturday, Saudi Arabia issued a royal decree that replaced al-Naimi with Khalid al-Falih, chairman of Saudi Aramco, as part of a broad reshuffling of the cabinet. The move came as the world's largest oil producer continues to grapple with the fallout from the global bear market in crude oil. Al Naimi was the most watched figure in the...

Saudi Arabia's King Salman on Saturday replaced his veteran oil minister and restructured some big ministries in a major reshuffle apparently intended to support a wide-ranging economic reform programme unveiled last week. The most eye-catching move was the creation of a new Energy, Industry and Natural Resources Ministry under Khaled al-Falih, chairman of the state oil company Aramco. He replaces the 80-year-old oil minister Ali al-Naimi, in charge of energy policy at the world's biggest oil exporter since 1995. But major changes were also made to the economic leadership, with Majed al-Qusaibi named head of the new Commerce and Investment...

A Saudi prince has urged Americans not to vote for Donald Trump in the upcoming general election. Turki al-Faisal, who served as Saudia Arabia’s ambassador to the US from 2005 to 2007, spoke against the presumptive Republican nominee during a foreign policy dinner in Washington, DC on Thursday.

Son’s bid to marry was rejectedA Saudi father who accompanied his son for a planned marriage, himself married after the son’s plan bogged down, a newspaper reported on Wednesday. The father went with his son to the would-be bride’s home but the girl’s mother rejected the proposal on the grounds she wants her elder daughter to marry first. “The son was mad and stormed out of that house. His father stayed behind and asked to marry the elder daughter. Her mother quickly agreed,” Sada newspaper said in a report from the Southern Saudi province of Jazan.

The head of the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees expressed hope Tuesday that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait will come up with $80 million to ensure that 500,000 boys and girls who are refugees can start the next school year on time in August. Last year, a $101 million shortfall in the budget of the agency, known as UNRWA, almost led to a delay in starting school. […] UNRWA operates 700 schools for Palestinian refugees with 22,000 education staff in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. Last year’s funding crisis almost led to a delay...

The man at the helm of the USS Cole when it was attacked by an Al Qaeda cell in 2000 said last month's release of a Guantanamo Bay detainee linked to the bombers denies justice to the 17 people killed aboard the ship. Kirk Lippold, who was commanding officer of the U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer when suicide bombers aboard a small fishing boat blew a hole in the side of the ship, told FoxNews.com Mashur Abdallah Ahmed al Sabri's release was a mistake. "I would have liked to have seen him receive a military commission where he was tried,...