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An excerpt from senior Trump adviser Jared Kushner’s new book, ‘Breaking History: A White House Memoir On February 23, I departed for the Middle East, along with Avi Berkowitz, Jason Greenblatt, and Brian Hook. The trip included our first visit to the Sultanate of Oman. Strategically located along the mouth of the Persian Gulf, Oman shares a border with Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Yemen. Across the Strait of Hormuz is Iran, a mere twenty-one miles away. Upon arriving in the afternoon, we headed to the hotel and waited for a call from the palace with instructions on what time...

How perfect is this! The image reminds me of the beginning of the Charles Bukowski novel 'Post Office' - "It began as a mistake..." How I would've so loved to seen the confused expression on MBS' face as his Saudi political advisors explained the concept of the 'fist bump' greeting he was to perform with this biden fellow. How do you say WTF in Arabic?

US President Joe Biden sought to use his first Middle East tour in office to reassert Washington's influence but emerged without a single diplomatic breakthrough, an outcome analysts said was no surprise. On issues ranging from energy prices to human rights and Israel's role in the region, Biden could point only to small -- if any -- gains after four whirlwind days of meetings and speeches. Driving the point home, as Air Force One flew back to Washington Saturday evening, Biden's Saudi hosts downplayed one of the trip's few concrete announcements: their lifting of airspace restrictions on flights to and...

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia—For Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, his high-profile meeting with President Biden was an immediate victory, signaling that his isolation on the world stage is over. But the American president will have to wait weeks, perhaps months, before the world knows if his sojourn to the Middle East paid off for the U.S. On Saturday, Mr. Biden left Saudi Arabia, the second and final stop on a four-day Middle East tour that also took him to Israel. His aim was to reaffirm U.S. ties with an oil-rich region, following a rift with Saudi leaders after Mr. Biden...

JEDDAH — Leaders who participated in the Jeddah Security and Development Summit released the final statement of Summit, stressing their keenness to confront challenges in the region and preserve security in the Middle East. The summit, hosted by Saudi Arabia, kicked off on Saturday with the participation of all GCC countries and Egypt, Jordan and Iraq – also known as GCC+3. US President Joe Biden and other US officials who arrived in the Kingdom on Friday also took part in the regional summit. In the communique, the leaders renewed their call on Iran to fully cooperate with the International Atomic...

Tehran is technically capable of making a nuclear bomb but has yet to decide whether to build it, a senior adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei told Al Jazeera's Arabic service on Sunday. Tehran will also directly respond against Israel should its security be targeted, the report says citing the advisor. "In a few days we were able to enrich uranium up to 60% and we can easily produce 90% enriched uranium ... Iran has the technical means to produce a nuclear bomb but there has been no decision by Iran to build one," Kamal Kharrazi said.

Excerpt: "Biden yesterday reaffirmed his commitment to returning to the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran– a deal which saw the Obama government send $100 billion to Iran, including a C-130 Hercules carrying $400 million in cash on January 16, 2016, as CNN reported. The Islamist regime then used that money to wage war in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Gaza and around the world, massively destablizing the world. Now, Biden’s offer to the Ayatollahs threatens to dwarf even that gargantuan act of treason. “Under the deal, Iran gets a financial package worth up to $275 billion in the first year and...

Russian President Vladimir Putin will be meeting with Iran's leader, Sayad Ali Khamenei, during his visit to Teheran which will begin on the 19th of July.

President Biden accused Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister of lying when he contradicted the president’s claim that had raised the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi with Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and bristled when asked about the fist bump with the royal. Returning early Sunday morning to the White House after his four-day trip to Israel and Saudi Arabia, Biden was asked whether A​del al-Jubier was telling the truth when he said he didn’t hear the president bring up Khashoggi with the prince, commonly referred to as MBS. “No,” Biden responded bluntly, according to a White House pool report. The president,...

The Biden administration debacle in Afghanistan has convinced America’s enemies of the administration’s weakness and vulnerability. The timing of Vladimir Putin’s march on Ukraine is undoubtedly connected to the perception in Moscow of Washington’s lack of will to engage in a confrontation. Communist China is astutely waiting for the right time to seize Taiwan. Should Moscow achieve its objectives, Xi Jinping, China’s dictator would follow Putin’s example and act, knowing full well that the Biden administration would pay lip service to the violation of Taiwanese sovereignty, and perhaps demand UN sanctions, but ultimately, Washington would live with the new...

Egypt, Jordan and Iraq agreed to bolster security and economic cooperation at a tripartite summit Sunday that saw an Egyptian head of state visit Iraq for the first time in three decades. The visits by Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Jordan's King Abdullah II came as Iraq seeks to move closer to Arab allies of the United States in the Middle East. Iraq is also seeking to establish itself as a mediator between Arab countries and Iran, after reportedly hosting talks in April between Tehran and Riyadh. Sisi and Abdullah met Iraqi President Barham Saleh and Prime Minister Mustafa...

‘Twas the night before Sunday, when through GCC, No Spirit was stirring, for those gifts had ceased. The hymnals were nestled all snug in their pews, For J-Mac was coming to preach the good news. Then in crept Ol' Gavin, with loathing and spite To snatch up those hymnals, in the dead of the night. He went one by one, threw each one in his sack From the very first pew, to the one in the back. Then Newsom he laughed, such a terrible laugh, And said, “This will cut their dumb service in half!” “No worship, no singing, they’ll...

Syrian military positions in the province of Hama and Aleppo were targeted Sunday by a series of strikes that caused an explosion reportedly strong enough to trigger an earthquake observed by neighboring countries. Citing an unnamed military source, the official Syrian Arab News Agency reported that military positions in villages of Hama and Aleppo were hit by a still unidentified rocket attack at around 10:30 p.m. local time ...

WASHINGTON - Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, and the UAE on Tuesday issued statements welcoming the Trump administration's peace plan. "The Kingdom reiterates its support for all efforts aimed at reaching a just and comprehensive resolution to the Palestinian cause," said the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "The kingdom appreciates the efforts of President Trump's administration to develop a comprehensive peace plan between the Palestinian and the Israeli sides, and encourages the start of direct peace negotiations between the Palestinian and Israeli sides, under the auspices of the United States," the statement reads. It also called to resolve any disagreements with...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — France’s defense minister criticized the U.S. on Saturday over what she described as “unanswered” attacks in recent months threatening the Persian Gulf, warning that the decades-long American deterrence in the oil-rich region appeared to be losing its power. Florence Parly separately said France “deplored” both U.S. President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal of America from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers that led to the re-imposition of crushing sanctions, as well as Tehran recently breaking the deal’s enrichment, stockpile and centrifuge limits. While saying France would continue to talk to Iran, her speech before...

The oil giant released a valuation target ranging from $1.6 trillion to $1.7 trillion. The figures fall short of the $2 trillion target Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been fixed on for more than two years. The difference in value illustrates the operational, geopolitical and governance risks that investors face betting on the offering, writes Ben Dummett. The IPO still has potential to be the world's biggest by surpassing the $25 billion Alibaba raised in 2014. But the stock listing is beginning to reveal a set of dueling interests for Saudi Arabia. Saudi leadership wants the stock offering...

CAIRO (REUTERS) - ARAB League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Saturday led Arab foreign ministers in lambasting Turkey's military operation in northeast Syria as an "invasion of an Arab state's land and an aggression on its sovereignty". Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Alhakim, president of the current Arab League session, also condemned Turkey's offensive into Syria during an emergency meeting of the body, called by Egypt. The offensive "will exacerbate humanitarian crises, increase the suffering of the Syrian people, and strengthen the ability of terrorists to reorganize their remnants," Alhakim said. Alhakim and Lebanon's Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil called...

Israel received surprising support from Bahrain’s Foreign Minister, who backed the Jewish state’s retaliatory strikes in Lebanon after the Hezbollah terror organization attacked IDF targets on Sunday, blaming Lebanon for the situation. The aggression of one state against another is prohibited by international law. A state standing by, watching battles taking place on its borders and putting its people in danger is a state that greatly neglects its responsibilities,” Minister Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa tweeted. He further said that “it is unacceptable for Lebanon to be put in a situation of a possibility of a devastating war in which it has no...

U.S. President Donald J. Trump backed the United Kingdom after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps seized a British-flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, saying the Islamic Republic is in “big trouble”. “Iran is showing their true colours,” President Trump told reporters outside the White House, adding: “Iran is in big trouble.”The President’s relationship with British government ministers and prominent opposition politicians, such as hard-left Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn and London mayor Sadiq Khan, has often been strained, as they have rushed to commentate negatively on his administration in hopes of winning the approval of left-liberal activists and media commentators.Nevertheless, the American leader’s attitude to his...

WASHINGTON (AP) — With Iranian military threats in mind, the United States is sending American forces, including fighter aircraft, air defense missiles and likely more than 500 troops, to a Saudi air base that became a hub of American air power in the Middle East in the 1990s but was abandoned by Washington after it toppled Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein in 2003. The Saudi Foreign Ministry announced the basing agreement Friday without mentioning details.