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Saudi Arabia has arrested dozens of senior figures including princes, ministers and a top business tycoon, in what authorities hailed Sunday as a "decisive" anti-corruption sweep as the kingdom's crown prince consolidates power. Prominent billionaire Al-Waleed bin Talal was among the 11 princes arrested late Saturday, reports said, immediately after a new anti-corruption commission headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was established by royal decree.

Saudi Arabia’s newly formed anti-corruption commission arrested 10 princes and dozens of former government ministers on Saturday, Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television reported, citing unnamed sources.The arrests came soon after the commission, headed by powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, was established by royal decree."Arrest of 10 princes and dozens of former ministers in Saudi Arabia," Al Arabiya tweeted.There was no official confirmation of the arrests.

Saudi authorities carried out a new wave of arrests targeting royals and former cabinet ministers, people familiar with the matter said, a move that appears intended to further consolidate power in the hands of the Saudi leadership at a time of political transition. At least 10 princes and more than two dozen former ministers were detained by Saudi authorities on Saturday night, according to people familiar with the matter. It was unclear if charges were filed. [snip]

BREAKING: Saudi Arabia arrests several senior princes including billionaire Waleed bin Talal and head of National Guard Miteb bin Abdullah

Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made a discreet visit to Israel despite the fact that the Jewish state and Saudi Arabia do not have official diplomatic ties, Israeli and Arab media speculated earlier in the week. Rumors about the momentous visit, which was not confirmed by Israel, started swirling when Israel Radio's diplomatic correspondent covering Arab affairs, Simon Aran, took to Twitter to announce the visit. Aran tweeted that a senior Arab figure from the Gulf region paid a visit to Tel Aviv last week, stirring immense interest in the Arab media. Israel Radio's Arabic-language broadcast reported that...

Yousef Otaiba ridicules Gulf ally in email exchange, betraying years of frustration at Riyadh old guard that coalesced into efforts to change it The UAE's ambassador to Washington described Saudi Arabia's leadership as "f***in' coo coo!", in one of a series of leaked emails that suggest years of Emirati frustration with Riyadh's old regime that has coalesced into a clear strategy to usurp it by bolstering the rise of the young Mohammed bin Salman. The messages, obtained by Middle East Eye through the GlobalLeaks hacking group, show Otaiba mocking Saudi Arabia to his Egyptian wife, Abeer Shoukry, over the Saudi...

I see that Prince Abdul-Rahman bin Abdulaziz al Saud died the other day. If you're having trouble keeping track of your Saudi princes, well, I don't blame you. Unlike the closely held princely titles of the House of Windsor, the House of Saud is somewhat promiscuous with the designation: there are (at the time of writing) over 10,000 Saudi "princes" running around the country - and, in fact, at this time of year, more likely running around Mayfair and the French Riviera, exhausting the poor old blondes from the escort agencies. I believe that's Abdul-Rahman at right, although to be...

US President Donald Trump received gifts from Saudi King Shah Salman with worth of $ 1.2 billion during his first visit to kingdom. The gifts given by Saudi King included a precious diamond, armband made of pure gold with King Salman’s photo imprinted on it and 25 kilogram heavy sword made of pure gold with different diamonds and stones on it. The sword is worth of $ 200 million. Furthermore, gold and diamond made watches, worth of $ 200 million, were also gifted to Trump and his family. A small replica of Statue of Liberty but made with gold, diamond...

Trusting Saudi Arabia to combat terrorists and extremists and "drive them out," as President Trump called on the kingdom and other Arab and Muslim nations to do in his Riyadh speech, is akin to forging an alliance with the Ku Klux Klan to combat racism and anti-Semitism. Saudi Arabia has for years promoted the very evil they now "commit" to fighting through a newly established Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology. Never forget that 15 of the 9-11 hijackers were citizens of Saudi Arabia. President Trump's speech was written by Westerners, delivered by a westerner and based on a...

Donald Trump touched down in Saudi Arabia late last night for his first trip abroad. When the doors opened, and the President stepped off of Air Force One, what he saw shocked and amazed him. When the doors opened, and the President stepped off of Air Force One, what he saw shocked and amazed him. King Salman of Saudi Arabia threw a massive celebration and personally went to meet Trump on the runway. Now, before you go thinking "Oh, the Saudis do this for everybody," they don't. The Saudi King is an elderly man at age 81 who does not...

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia's King Salman issued a decree late Saturday naming one of his sons, an air force pilot who has taken part in coalition strikes against the Islamic State group, as the kingdom's new ambassador to the U.S. The appointment of Prince Khaled bin Salman to Washington signals the kingdom's eagerness to strengthen bilateral ties under President Donald Trump. As the king's son, the prince has a direct line to the Saudi monarch. Saudi Arabia is the world's third largest defence spender. Prince Khaled's appointment positions him as an influential broker in deals with U.S. manufacturers....

The King of Saudi Arabia praised President Trump for conducting airstrikes on the Syrian regime, the White House said Saturday. “The King reaffirmed strong Saudi support for the United States’ military strike against the Sayrat Airfield in Syria and thanked the President for his courageous action, which both agreed was a necessary response to the horrible chemical weapons attack on innocent civilians,” the White House said.

President Donald Trump met with Saudi Arabian Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the White House on Wednesday. President Trump broke protocol and had lunch with the Saudi Prince in the family hall. VIDEO: Recapping #Trump's meeting with #SaudiArabia's Deputy Crown Prince #MohammedbinSalman https://t.co/U9sx9xDjsA pic.twitter.com/jL8qrAHZXL — Al Arabiya English (@AlArabiya_Eng) March 16, 2017 After the Saudi Prince met with President Trump he called the president a “True friend of Muslims.” Breitbart.com reported: Following a successful meeting between Donald Trump and his senior advisor, the Saudi Arabian Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman described Trump as a “true friend of...

Today King Salman agrees to a primary expressed policy position of President Trump. Saudi Arabia will support and finance “safe zones” within Syria and Yemen. This is a big, big deal. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman, in a phone call on Sunday with U.S. President Donald Trump, agreed to support safe zones in Syria and Yemen, a White House statement said.

TANGIER, Morocco — Behind a tall perimeter wall, studded with surveillance cameras and guarded by Moroccan soldiers, a sprawling new palace for King Salman of Saudi Arabia rose on the Atlantic coast here last summer. Even as the Saudi government canceled a quarter of a trillion dollars’ worth of projects back home as part of a fiscal austerity program, workers hustled to finish bright blue landing pads for helicopters at the vacation compound and to erect a tent the size of a circus big-top where the king could feast and entertain his enormous retinue. The royal family’s fortune derives from...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has vetoed a bill that would have allowed the families of 9/11 victims to sue the government of Saudi Arabia. The move sets Obama up for a possible first veto override by Congress.

It’s called the “tick tock” email, just recently released by Wikileaks. The email shows Hillary Clinton’s office outlining how Mrs. Clinton must be given full credit for what took place in Libya before and after the fall of the Gaddafi regime – a fall that resulted in a missing 1.5 billion dollars sent to Libya by Hillary Clinton, the subsequent death of four Americans, including the first U.S. ambassador to die on duty in more than thirty years, and thousands more deaths as Libya descended into anarchy. And it was all done after the House of Saud wished it so...

Saudi Arabia was funding Muslim radicalism in mosques and charities at the time the Sept. 11, 2001, hijackers were gathering in the United States and making contacts with Saudi nationals, according to a declassified intelligence document. To jihad watchers, the paper confirms their charges that the Saudi government and its wealthy citizens fund extremist teachings in America. To this day, the kingdom is pressing its harsh Wahhabi Sunni Islam on American Muslims as it seeks to spread Islam around the world, they say. In the document, one Saudi who was receiving money from Prince Bandar bin Sultan, Riyadh’s ambassador to...

Four separate studies since 1999 all found that 80% of U.S. mosques were teaching jihad, Islamic supremacism, and hatred and contempt for Jews and Christians. There are no countervailing studies that challenge these results. In 1998, Sheikh Muhammad Hisham Kabbani, a Sufi leader, visited 114 mosques in the United States. Then he gave testimony before a State Department Open Forum in January 1999, and asserted that 80% of American mosques taught the “extremist ideology.” Then there was the Center for Religious Freedom’s 2005 study, and the Mapping Sharia Project’s 2008 study. Each independently showed that upwards of 80% of mosques...

The 28-page section of the 9/11 report detailing Saudi involvement in the September 11, 2001 jihad attacks have finally been released (albeit with substantial portions still redacted), and it is now clear why one President who held hands with the Saudi King and another who bowed to him worked so hard all these years to keep these pages secret: they confirm that the 9/11 jihad murderers received significant help from people at the highest levels of the Saudi government. The report states that Omar al-Bayoumi, who “may be a Saudi intelligence officer,” gave “substantial assistance to hijackers Khalid al-Mindhar and...