While the Saudi-led coalition imposes restrictions on Sanaa airport, forces in the south prevent those seeking treatment abroad from leaving through Aden.

Hussein Saeed, 45, has been suffering from liver cancer for the past year and has tried to receive proper treatment in Sanaa, the Yemeni capital currently held by Houthi rebels, without success.

The Saudi-led coalition battling the Houthis imposed restrictions on Sanaa airport on 9 August 2016, and with no commercial flights able to leave or enter, medicines cannot arrive in the city.

Over the past year, Saeed’s health has declined, and although he has been moved between several hospitals in the capital he has failed to receive proper healthcare.

Having heard of dozens of cancer patients dying in Sanaa, Saeed decided his best option would be to leave the country to receive medical treatment in India, where many other patients have received treatment for the disease.

However, it has subsequently transpired that Jeremy Hunt’s recent campaign for the leadership of the British Conservative Party was largely financed by a close associate of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman. The South African banker and philanthropist Ken Costa has been described in some quarters as Bin Salman’s “point-man” in the UK.

Or bagman, if you prefer.

It is unsurprising, then, that Hunt publicly bats for Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) at every available opportunity, for example in deflecting criticism regarding the Saudi role in the precipitation of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, and also in consistently demonstrating hostility toward Iran.

It has been reported that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman originally came up with the idea for the city when he “pulled up a map of his country on Google Earth and saw its northwest quadrant was a blank slate.” He ultimately decided that it would be an ideal location for “the city of the future”, and he enlisted an army of U.S. consultants to help him fulfill his dream.

But will his dream ultimately become a nightmare? There are some extremely alarming things that I want to tell you about, but first let’s talk about some of the cool stuff that is planned for the city…

The in-development Saudi Arabian city-state will have robot maids, flying taxis, and glow-in-the-dark sand, according to confidential planning documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. An artificial moon will light up the sky every night, and a Jurassic Park-style island will let visitors mingle with robot dinosaurs.

Sounds like a fun place to live, right?

The United States Senate on Monday failed to override President Donald Trump's vetoes of legislation passed by Congress that would have blocked the sale of certain weapons to Saudi Arabia.

In the first of three separate efforts to overturn the Republican president's vetoes, supporters failed by a vote of 45-40, well short of the two-thirds needed. Five of the chamber's 53 Republicans joined Democrats in voting to override Trump.

It was big news. U.S. military forces streamed into Saudi Arabia in response to a supposedly serious threat to the kingdom’s eastern region. The American troops were invited by nervous Saudi royals; it wasn’t an American invasion per se. Everything unfolded smoothly at first; still, the consequences would be severe for the United States. Pick up the latest Military Times, or any other news source, and the story will seem recent, if not worthy of any special attention or alarm. Indeed, US troops are headed into Saudi Arabia right now, but that’s not the situation described above.

Attacks by the Shi’ite Houthi movement against pro-Saudi and pro-UAE targets in southern Yemen have killed at least 51 people, most of them military forces loyal to the UAE, and a high-ranking UAE official.

The largest incident was a missile fired by the Houthis, which hit a military parade in the southern capital of Aden. The casualties included a number of military commanders, and parading fighters.

Despite drone and missile attacks being launched by the Houthis, and the Houthis being very clear about that fact, Saudi Arabia wasn’t going to miss a chance to use anything bad happening to blame Iran.

Saudi Arabia is at the centre of a new scandal involving the use of Facebook to spread misinformation through fake campaigns promoted on the pages of the social media giant. Details uncovered by the Guardian show that the kingdom paid millions of pounds to a firm owned by Sir Lynton Crosby – a prominent right-wing political strategist – to improve the image of Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman.

If anyone knows where the skeletons are buried contradicting the official 9/11 narrative then it's none other than alleged terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The Wall Street Journal and others report that he's ready to spill the beans on Saudi Arabia's involvement in the worst terror attack to ever take place on American soil as part of a victims' lawsuit seeking damages from the kingdom as a state sponsor.

A letter filed in the US District Court in Manhattan disclosed an offer to spare Mohammed the death penalty in exchange for his willingness to be deposed by the victims, who are seeking billions of dollars in damage from the kingdom, making it extremely politically sensitive regarding both embarrassing secrets of Riyadh's role in 9/11 and the potential to severely damage US-Saudi economic ties.

SOURCE: ZEROHEDGE

If anyone knows where the skeletons are buried contradicting the official 9/11 narrative then it's none other than alleged terror mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The Wall Street Journal and others report that he's ready to spill the beans on Saudi Arabia's involvement in the worst terror attack to ever take place on American soil as part of a victims' lawsuit seeking damages from the kingdom as a state sponsor.

A letter filed in the US District Court in Manhattan disclosed an offer to spare Mohammed the death penalty in exchange for his willingness to be deposed by the victims, who are seeking billions of dollars in damage from the kingdom, making it extremely politically sensitive regarding both embarrassing secrets of Riyadh's role in 9/11 and the potential to severely damage US-Saudi economic ties.

The only member of the delegation identified by local media was Saudi student and activist Mohammed Saud, who regularly tweets in support of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Saud was chased out by Palestinians and worshippers from the al-Aqsa mosque compound in the Old City of Jerusalem on 22 July when they realized he was a member of the delegation.

Local media circulated videos showing Palestinians calling him “cheap,” telling him to “go pray in the Knesset,” spitting on him and throwing chairs and objects at him:

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
A UAE-backed commander was amongst those killed when an explosion struck a military parade in Yemen’s southern city of Aden today.

Scores were injured and killed in the blast which rocked the seat of Yemen’s Saudi-backed internationally recognised government.

The Houthi movement said it was behind the attack. Their official channel Al Masirah TV said it had launched a medium-range ballistic missile and an armed drone at the military parade.

“The blast occurred behind the stand where the ceremony was taking place at Al Jalaa military camp in Buraiqa district in Aden,” Reuters reported a witness saying.

The Yemeni army says it has launched several drones against an airbase in southwestern Saudi Arabia after the kingdom and its allies slew more than a dozen people in northern Yemen.

On Monday, army spokesman Yahya Sare'e was quoted by the al-Masirah television network as saying that the aircraft had stricken the King Khalid Airbase in the kingdom’s Asir region. The counter-raid used unmanned aerial vehicles of the Qasef 2K make, he added.

“The attack targeted warplane hangers and important military sites accurately,” Sare’e was cited by the network as saying.

Using ample Western support, the kingdom and its most important regional allies have been hitting Yemen in an indiscriminate invasion since March 2015. The military aggression has been seeking to restore the impoverished country’s former Saudi-allied government, whose officials have fled the country and refused to negotiate power.

Former US diplomat Michael Springmann says the United States continues to support Saudi Arabia in its war on Yemen despite the humanitarian catastrophe there.

US President Donald Trump has vetoed congressional efforts to block $8bn in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that his administration had authorised without the approval of lawmakers.

Wednesday's vetoes come after both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed resolutions to halt the arms deals.

The State Department bypassed Congress to push the sales through by declaring an emergency, citing growing tensions with Iran.

The Senate will vote within the next few days on whether to override Trump's veto, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said.

A Saudi blogger visiting the Old City of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa compound on an Israeli-sponsored visa was chased and driven out by Palestinian residents, who called him “trash”, “cheap” and “Zionist”, and spat in his face.

Mohammed Saud, a self-styled blogger and vocal admirer of Israel, was on a trip officially sponsored by Israel’s Foreign Ministry.

He was part of a delegation of six journalists from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt, who met with members of Israel's parliament, the Knesset, and visited the Holocaust Museum.

Video circulated on social media shows Palestinian residents of Jerusalem hurling plastic chairs and light bulbs at Saud, who has called on his Twitter account for full normalisation between the State of Israel and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs on Sunday condemned Iran's seizure of a British flagged tanker in the Strait of Hormuz and urged the international community to take action to deter such "unacceptable" behavior.

"Any attack on the freedom of navigation is a violation of international law," Adel Aljubeir said in a Twitter post.

Iran’s ambassador in London warned on Sunday that the UK government must get its "domestic political forces" pushing for regime change under control or else the two countries will face dangerous escalation. The public statement came two days after the British-flagged Stena Impero was boarded and captured by IRGC commandos, and over two weeks after the tanker Grace 1 was seized by UK Royal Marines off Gibraltar.

Iranian Ambassador Hamid Baeidinejad urged via his personal Twitter account that continued pressure on Iran would be "unwise" given that Tehran stands “firm and ready for different scenarios”.

An Iranian oil tanker, held by Saudi Arabia two months ago, has reportedly been released and is returning home with the entire crew.

Reports said Saturday that the oil tanker, named Happiness I, had been released and was heading towards Iran’s waters.

There was no immediate confirmation from Saudi or Iranian authorities.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have escalated in the last few months as Iran withdraws from voluntary obligations under the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal and the US builds up its military presence in the Middle East under the pretext of “the Iranian threat.”

The US president’s administration is reportedly prepared to send its military personnel to Saudi Arabia, according to CNN, citing two unnamed defence officials.

According to the report, five hundred troops are slated to be deployed to the Prince Sultan Air Base, located to the east of the country’s capital of Riyadh.

The US troops will reportedly become reinforcements to the US military and support personnel already on the site with beginning preparations for a Patriot surface-to-air missile system, a runway and other airfield improvements.

The UN “list of shame” over nations that violate child rights is looking to sidestep its annual problem of the situation in Yemen by trying to avoid further mention of all the children killed in Saudi-led airstrikes there.

This has been a serious problem for the past several years with this list, as early drafts mention Saudi Arabia, the Saudis freak out, and the UN ultimately caves in and revises the report to omit them.

Last year, the compromise was to put Yemen in a whole separate section which included a bunch of praise for the Saudis trying to reduce the number of children they are killing and maiming. That section is to remain intact.

The UK government can appeal a High Court ruling that its decision to license the sales of arms to Saudi Arabia was unlawful, the Court of Appeal decided on Friday.

The court, however, upheld a ban on future arms sales to the kingdom made as part of the landmark decision last month in the court battle over the legality of Riyadh's war in Yemen.

As a result of the ban, 57 applications for export licenses to sell arms to Saudi Arabia will not be allowed to proceed as the government reviews its practices, according to the Department for International Trade.

Lawyers for the London-based Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) had argued that the sales are in breach of international humanitarian law because of the disproportionate harm the weapons cause to civilians.

It was truly baffling to hear a grilled US official claim during a Senate hearing that the sales of weapons to Saudi Arabia are a ‘manifestation’ of exporting human rights and open society, an anti-war activist told RT.
R. Clarke Cooper, the US State Department’s assistant secretary for political-military affairs, was grilled during a hearing at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday. Defending arms sales to Saudi Arabia, he said that the deal itself means more than just selling weapons.

“Our policy is not just limited to arms transfers. It is a manifestation of what else we export: open society, human rights. That is a part of our policy,” he said. The official added that Washington does not cut security ties with partners like Riyadh that carry “so much weight for our interests.”

As the UAE announced this week it would withdraw its forces from Yemen as a longtime lead country in the Saudi coalition which has fought Houthi rebels since 2015, the United Nations issued a damning report on what it previously dubbed the "world's worst humanitarian crisis" and what many analysts have described as the "forgotten war," due to the little coverage it receives in the mainstream media.

War-ravaged Yemen has seen more than than 460,000 suspected cholera cases so far this year, which is significantly higher that the total number for all of 2018, at 380,000 — the UN stated early this week.

This as the over four-year long war is has reached casualty numbers on par with the opening half of the Syrian war, expected to reach an estimated 233,000 deaths by the end of 2019, according to a previous UN report issued in May.

SOURCE: ZEROHEDGE

The gradual liberalization of Saudi Arabia's repressive laws and social mores continued on Thursday with WSJ reporting that Crown Prince MBS plans to drop restrictions barring women from traveling out of the country without a male guardian's permission. Though we suspect that this time, there will be no glowing NYT op-ed praising the young crown prince - the kingdom's de facto ruler - for his reformist tendencies and his respect for human rights.

It won't happen right away: WSJ says the kingdom plans to end the ban some time this year. The plan would end guardianship laws relating to travel for men and women over 18 years old. As it stands, women of any age, and men under 21, must have a guardian's permission to travel internationally. Soon, that won't be the case.

Authored by James M. Dorsey via Lobe Log

A United Arab Emirates decision to withdraw the bulk of its forces from Yemen shines a spotlight on hard realities underlying Middle Eastern geopolitics.

The pullback suggests that the UAE is preparing for the possibility of a US military confrontation with Iran in which the UAE and Saudi Arabia could emerge as prime battlegrounds.

It also reflects long-standing subtle differences in the approaches of Saudi Arabia and the UAE towards Yemen. It further highlights the UAE’s long-standing concern for its international standing amid mounting criticism of the civilian toll of the war as well as a recognition that the Trump administration’s unquestioning support may not be enough to shield its allies from significant reputational damage.

Iranian officials have warned Saudi Arabia against holding an oil tanker "hostage," describing it as an "illegal seizure" and a case of "ransom-seeking" aimed at gaining concessions from Iran.

On May 2, Saudi Arabia announced its coast guard had rescued a distressed Iranian oil tanker, named Happiness I, with 26 on board off the Red Sea port of Jeddah, after it faced "engine failure and the loss of control."

Two months on, despite being fixed, Saudis are refusing to let the vessel leave, and at the same time charge Iran $200,000 a day for maintaining the vessel in Jeddah.

Houthi rebels have attacked a civilian airport in Saudi Arabia for the second time in less than two weeks. The Houthis said the strike was in retaliation for Saudi airstrikes in Yemen.

Trump dismissed the murder in the first place over fears of “over $100 billion” in arms sales, and is now saying they’re going to spend $400 billion to $450 billion “over a period of time, all money, all jobs.”

Trump spoke with the Crown Prince last week, roughly at the time the UN report that once again blamed him for the murder came out. Trump, however, said that the murder “really didn’t come up” in their conversation.

It’s not clear which is the more disturbing possibility here, if President Trump was pressured once again by the Crown Prince to cover up this murder, or if he’s moved on so far from being bought off on that murder that he didn’t bother to bring it up in a week when both a UN report on the murder was coming and the Senate was voting against arms sales specifically because of that murder.

Authored by Federico Pieraccini via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Tensions in the Persian Gulf are reaching a point of no return. In recent weeks, six oil tankers have been subjected to Israeli sabotage disguised to look like Iranian attacks to induce the United States to take military action against the Islamic Republic. Some days ago Iran rightfully shot out of the sky a US Drone. In Yemen, the Houthis have finally started responding with cruise and ballistic missiles to the Saudis’ indiscriminate attacks, causing damage to the Saudi international airport of Abha, as well as blocking, through explosive drones, Saudi oil transportation from east to west through one of the largest pipelines in the world.

Many Trump Administration officials have been, by way of reconciling President Trump’s insistence that he doesn’t want war with Iran and their desire for something very much resembling a war, been presenting US military action, and the US backing of such action, as necessarily stabilizing to the region.

So with Special Envoy Brian Hook on Friday. Hook, who made headlines Wednesday by claiming not to be a “scholar” when asked if Iran was behind 9/11, is now pushing for Iran to be “countered” in Yemen. He says the alternative risks regional conflict and destabilizing the area.

To be clear, Iran isn’t actually in Yemen in the first place. Rather, there is the Shi’ite Houthi movement, whom the Saudis have attempted to brand as Iranian proxies, as it facilitates an ongoing Saudi war in Yemen, which the US is supporting.

In sharp contrast to Iran, its revolutionary identity and revisionist tendencies, Saudi Arabia has traditionally been a proponent of the prevailing order and status-quo balance of power in the Middle East.

This seems to be changing under Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, who continues to receive extraordinary support from US President Donald Trump's administration.

Whether it is an attempt to revise the status quo in favour of Riyadh, or prevent it from being revised by others, Saudi Arabia's nuclear and missile programmes are bound to have significant regional implications.

SOURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
The United States yesterday added Saudi Arabia to a blacklist of countries that do not play a sufficient role in fighting human trafficking.

According to the US’ annual report on human trafficking, Saudi Arabia has failed to prevent large scale violations committed against its foreign labour force, Lebanese newspaper the Daily Star reported.

The US also accused Cuba of human trafficking under the guise of a program to send doctors abroad, pointing out that similar action has been taken against 22 countries.

US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, said of the countries named in the report: “If you don’t stand up to trafficking, America will stand up to you.”

Channel 13 says Tehran has ruled out striking at US bases; quotes Arab sources saying some in IRGC want to hit Israeli targets, others warn of ‘suicidal’ risk of conflict with US

Saudi Arabia has bought $300 million worth of spy software from Israel as part of a large scale military deal.

Senior Arab sources told Al Khaleej Online that the deal was struck without a mediator, despite the fact that the two countries do not maintain formal diplomatic relations. The sources stressed that the Saudi intelligence services have sought to obtain advanced spyware in order to trace the Kingdom’s citizens – both in the country and abroad – amidst increasing criticism of the Saudi royal family.

Saudi Arabia therefore reached out to the Israeli market and struck a deal worth $300m with representatives of Israeli firms, the sources said, adding that both sides met and reached the deal in UK capital London.

Saudi Arabia is reported to have cancelled the death sentence issued against a teen, Murtaja Qureiris, now 18 years old, who led anti-government protests at the age of 13, Reuters quoted Saudi official as saying.

The Saudi prosecution has sought the death penalty for 18-year-old Qureiris for allegedly committing a series of crimes, including participating in anti-government demonstrations. Some of the charges date back to when he was about 10 years old.

Activists, including the European-Saudi human rights organization which has been following his case for years, said the boy would not be executed and could be released by 2022.

The United States yesterday added Saudi Arabia to a blacklist of countries that do not play a sufficient role in fighting human trafficking.

According to the US’ annual report on human trafficking, Saudi Arabia has failed to prevent large scale violations committed against its foreign labour force, Lebanese newspaper the Daily Star reported.

The US also accused Cuba of human trafficking under the guise of a program to send doctors abroad, pointing out that similar action has been taken against 22 countries.

A United Nations expert and special rapporteur has submitted a 101-page report calling on UN secretary-general António Guterres to initiate a “follow-up criminal investigation” after finding “sufficient credible evidence” that the grisly Oct. 2 murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the Saudi consulate in Istanbul was on the direct orders of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MbS) and other high level officials.

Agnes Callamard, the UN special rapporteur on extrajudicial executions, described in her report that Khashoggi was the “victim of a deliberate, premeditated execution, an extrajudicial killing for which the state of Saudi Arabia is responsible under international human rights law”.

Yemeni forces have targeted a power plant in Jizan province southwest of Saudi Arabia using a cruise missile in retaliation for the Riyadh regime's deadly war on their country.

The missile hit the power plant in al-Shuqaiq area on Wednesday night, al-Masirah TV quoted spokesman for Yemeni Armed Forces Brigadier General Yahya Saree as saying.

The US Senate has voted to block arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, dealing a blow to Donald Trump who had approved the deals in an emergency declaration without congressional oversight.

In three separate votes, senators approved 22 resolutions on Thursday in an attempt to stop the transfer of more than $8bn in weapons to the two Gulf countries amid the ongoing war and humanitarian crisis in Yemen.

The vote was 53-45 on two resolutions to block the sales of precision-guided munitions, some of which would be produced in Saudi Arabia. Twenty other resolutions passed in a single 51-45 vote.

Trump drew bipartisan criticism from lawmakers late last month when Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declared the administration's plans to bypass Congress and force the arms sales to Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, citing tensions with Iran.

Late on June 19, Ansar Allah (also known as the Houthis) carried out a new one “cruise missile” strike on Saudi Arabia. The missile strike targeted a major power plant in the area of al-Shuqaiq in the Kingdom’s southern province of Jizan.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Sari, a spokesman for the part of the Yemeni Armed Forces loyal to the Ansar Allah government said that the strike was a response to the continued crimes of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. He also promised “great surprises” for “the Saudi regime” if it continues its invasion of Yemen.

This was the second cruise missile strike on southern Saudi Arabia in a week. On June 12, a cruise missile hit Abha International Airport. Then, Ansar Allah stressed that the missile hit the control tower and put it out of service. According to this version of events, the strike was aimed at a military-related part of the infrastructure. The Saudi side reported dozens of civilian casualties saying that the missile hit the arrival hall.

The US government has obtained intelligence that Saudi Arabia has significantly escalated its ballistic missile program with the help of China. Watch for more!

SOURCE: MINT PRESS
HODEIDA, YEMEN — News that a U.S. government drone was shot down over Yemen’s port city of Hodeida has provoked anger among local residents, who say it is clear evidence of direct U.S. involvement in a war which has resulted in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, according to the UN, and has left almost 25 million people in need of aid.

On Sunday, Lieutenant Colonel Earl Brown, a spokesman for the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), said in a statement that on June 6 Houthi fighters shot down a U.S. government MQ-9 Reaper drone using an SA-6 surface-to-air missile, adding that the altitude at which the drone was shot down “indicated an improvement over previous Houthi capability.”

Britain does not merely supply the bombs that fall on Yemen – it provides the personnel and expertise that keep the war going. But is the government breaking the law?

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has blocked the inclusion of Saudi Arabia on a U.S. list of countries that recruit child soldiers, dismissing his experts’ findings that a Saudi-led coalition has been using under-age fighters in Yemen’s civil war, according to four people familiar with the matter.

A Saudi teenager who was facing the death penalty after being arrested aged 13 will not be executed and could be freed within three years, the Arab kingdom has said.

Murtaja Qureiris, now 18, had been sitting in pre-trial detention since his arrest in 2014 for taking part in the Arab Spring protests three years before.

But he has now been sentenced to 12 years in jail - with time served since his arrest deducted - with an additional four years which was suspended because of his young age, a Saudi official told Reuters.

Last week, we learned that Saudi prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for 18-year-old Murtaja, who is being tried in an anti-terror court. CNN reports that the prosecutors want to “impose the harshest form of the death penalty, which may include crucifixion or dismemberment after execution.”

Got that? The unelected government of a close ally of the United States is planning on brutally executing an 18-year-old member of a minority group, for crimes allegedly committed when he was 10 years old.

Let me repeat: Ten. Years. Old.

We shouldn’t forget the person who is primarily responsible for this outrage: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, or MBS.

Congress wants the Pentagon to hold the Saudi-led coalition accountable for paying off the last of its overdue refueling bills for the Yemen war.

The Senate version of the National Defense Authorization Act, released today, calls on Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan to notify Congress each month of any outstanding bills for the $299 million cost of the three-year refueling mission until the federal government is repaid in full.

The Pentagon refueled warplanes for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates starting in March 2015. The assistance ended in November 2018, when both sides agreed to terminate the mission as Congress pressed to end US support for the Yemen campaign.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says his kingdom does not want war
But he 'will not hesitate to deal with threats to its people, its sovereignty or its vital interests', according to comments published by Saudi-owned newspaper.

The US have also claimed Iranians fired a missile at a US drone in the area hours before the attack but missed, an official told CNN.

The tankers were attacked in strikes south of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route and major transit route for oil.

'The kingdom does not want a war in the region but it will not hesitate to deal with any threats to its people, its sovereignty, or its vital interests,' he added.

Tehran and Washington have both said they have no interest in war - but this has done little to assuage concerns the arch foes could stumble in to conflict.

OURCE: MIDDLE EAST MONITOR
Yemen’s Houthi movement launched fresh drone attacks targeting Jizan and Abha airports in southern Saudi Arabia, the group’s Al-Masirah TV said on Saturday, adding the installations were out of service, Reuters reports.

The Saudi-led coalition said in a statement that it had intercepted and downed a Houthi drone targeting the southwestern city of Abha.

The Iran-aligned group said multiple drone strike targeted control rooms at Jizan airport and a fuel station at Abha airport.

“The two airports are now out of service. We promise the Saudi regime more painful days as long as the aggression and siege continue on our country,” the group’s armed forces spokesman said in a tweet published by Al-Masirah TV’s account.

The Houthis have launched several strikes targeting Abha airport since Wednesday, when a missile attack against the same airport wounded 26 people.

Bin Salman said the kingdom does not want a war in the region but would not hesitate to deal with any threat to its vital interests, amid heightened tensions with rival Iran.

Yemen’s Houthi movement launched fresh drone attacks targeting Jizan and Abha airports in southern Saudi Arabia, the group’s Al-Masirah TV said on Saturday, adding the installations were out of service, Reuters reports.

The Saudi-led coalition said in a statement that it had intercepted and downed a Houthi drone targeting the southwestern city of Abha.

The Iran-aligned group said multiple drone strike targeted control rooms at Jizan airport and a fuel station at Abha airport.

“The two airports are now out of service. We promise the Saudi regime more painful days as long as the aggression and siege continue on our country,” the group’s armed forces spokesman said in a tweet published by Al-Masirah TV’s account.

Facing growing opposition from Congress on arms sales to Saudi Arabia, the Trump Administration’s officials are lining up to dismiss concerns about whether Saudi war crimes and the murder of Jamal Khashoggi might warrant ending those sales.

The go-to administration argument was expressed by Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan on Wednesday, when he insisted the US must sell the Saudis all the arms they want or risk losing those sales to Russia and China.

Khalid al-Falih condemned the strikes against the tankers — one of which carried methanol from Saudi Arabia — in the Gulf of Oman, which followed an attack last month on four vessels, including two Saudi oil tankers, off the United Arab Emirates.

He said the energy ministry of the world’s top oil exporter and state oil giant Aramco had raised the level of readiness to deal with “such aggressive terrorist acts” and reaffirmed the kingdom’s commitment to the reliable supply of oil to international markets, the state news agency SPA said.

American and Saudi officials have blamed Iran for the May 12 sabotage of tankers off the UAE’s Fujairah bunkering hub that lies outside the Strait of Hormuz, a charge Tehran denies.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the United States has assessed, based on intelligence, type of weapons used and level of expertise needed, that Iran is responsible for Thursday’s attacks on tankers in the Gulf of Oman.

In a brief press conference Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressed no doubt about who attacked two tankers in the Gulf of Oman, saying Iran was “responsible for the attacks.”

He did not, however, immediately offer any proof of the intelligence behind that assessment.

The attack certainly bears the hallmark and capabilities of previous aggressive actions undertaken by Iran and its paramilitary cohorts in the Persian Gulf.

But questions abound over who actually stands to benefit most from an attack in a region beset by violence and convoluted proxy conflicts raged between and Iran and Saudi Arabia and its allies.

Was the attack carried out by Iran, or other Gulf States seeking to sow conflict ? or did the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps operate outside of Tehran’s directives to further its own agenda?

Strained relations between Washington and Tehran got worse last month after the US parked a carrier strike group in the Arabian Sea and built up its presence in the Middle East while accusing Iran of involvement in the sabotage of four tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates.

Iranian Air Defence Force commander Brig. Gen. Alireza Sabahifard has urged Tehran's adversaries to keep their distance from the country's frontiers.

"We are warning the enemy: there is no safe zone for extraterritorial military aircraft in Iranian skies... Even approaching Iran's borders would be met with a strong response. Thus, I advise you to move as much away [from Iran's borders] as you can," the commander said, as quoted by PressTV.

In a Thursday statement, Iran's mission to the United Nations announced the country rejects the US claim that Tehran was responsible for attacks on two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman earlier in the day.

"Iran categorically rejects the US unfounded claim with regard to 13 June oil tanker incidents and condemns it in the strongest possible terms," reads the mission statement.

Tehran's remarks follow US Central Command's deployment of the US Navy destroyer USS Mason to the Gulf of Oman after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo labeled Iran responsible for torpedo attacks on the oil tankers Kokuka Courageous and Front Altair.

Oil prices spiked on Thursday after two vessels were seemingly attacked in the Gulf of Oman, one of the world’s most important shipping lanes.

Fears of military conflict between Washington and Tehran in the aftermath of the incident involving The Front Altair and the Kokuka Courageous tankers sent the oil price up over 4.5%, with Brent crude hitting $62.64 per barrel and US crude touching $53.45, dragging oil away from the five-month lows struck last night.

The US has dispatched another warship to the Gulf of Oman, but says it has “no interest” in engaging in a new Middle East conflict. The State Department accused Iran of attacking two tankers there, which Tehran denies.
Guided missile destroyer USS Mason will join the destroyer USS Bainbridge on station near the Kokuka Courageous, a damaged tanker just outside the Persian Gulf, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Thursday, adding that “Iranian small boats” were spotted in the area.

No interference with USS Bainbridge, or its mission, will be tolerated.

The Florida-based combat command called the attacks on tankers “a clear threat to international freedom of navigation and freedom of commerce.”

"We have no interest in engaging in a new conflict in the Middle East,” CENTCOM added. “We will defend our interests, but a war with Iran is not in our strategic interest, nor in the best interest of the international community.”

SOURCE: ZEROHEDGE
Amid fast escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf surrounding Thursday morning's mysterious "attacks" on two tankers which US officials are already blaming on Iran, Saudi Arabia has released CCTV footage of this week's previously reported Yemeni Houthi missile attack on a civilian airport terminal in the southern part of the kingdom.

"The Iran-backed Houthi terrorist militia, through its media, claimed full responsibility for this terrorist act using a cruise missile – as they claim- which constitutes a clear recognition and full responsibility for the targeting of civilians and civilian places that are subject to special protection under international humanitarian law, this may amount to a war crime,” a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, Col. Turki al-Malki, said in an official statement.

Amid fast escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf surrounding Thursday morning's mysterious "attacks" on two tankers which US officials are already blaming on Iran, Saudi Arabia has released CCTV footage of this week's previously reported Yemeni Houthi missile attack on a civilian airport terminal in the southern part of the kingdom.

On June 12, the Ansar Allah movement (also known as the Houthis) launched a cruise missile at Abha International Airport in southern Saudi Arabia. The movement said that the missile had successfully hit the airport, which has a large military part to it.

Brig. Gen. Yahya Sari, a spokesman for the pro-Ansar Allah part of the Yemeni Armed Forces, said that “advanced U.S. air-defense systems” deployed inside the airport were not able to intercept the missile.

In their turn, the Saudi side said that the missile had hit the arrival hall in the airport injuring 26 civilians, including three women and two children. Most of the injured civilians were treated on the spot. Eight were transported to nearby hospitals.

A teenager who has been imprisoned by the Saudi Arabian government for nearly 5 years is facing execution for taking part in a protest that happened 8 years ago when he was just 10 years old. Murtaja Qureiris was initially arrested when he was 13 years old, 3 years after an Arab Spring related protest that he took part in.

He has spent at least 15 months of his 5 years in prison isolated in solitary confinement.

The Saudi government has charged him with engaging in anti-government protests, possession of a firearm and they also allege that he was affiliated with a terrorist organization. A boy that was only ten years old at the time is accused of being a gun-wielding terrorist, and now they want to torture and kill him, then mutilate his body.

The prosecutor in the case has recommended that after the now 18-year-old young man is killed, his body should be dismembered, or crucified.

President Trump’s hope to circumvent Senate oversight with an emergency declaration on arms sales to Saudi Arabia appears to have backfired. If anything, this effort seems to have drawn even more attention to the planned sales, and fueled even more Senate objections.

Now, in addition to 22 resolutions objecting to the sales, the Senate is introducing a new bill on Monday aimed to force a vote on all security aid to Saudi Arabia, including arms sales, and conditioning them on a Congressional review of Saudi human rights issues.

Trump aimed to bypass oversight on $8.1 billion in sales, knowing they would face objections, by claiming an “emergency” that meant it couldn’t wait for Congress to vote. Since the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudi government, there has been discomfort with arms sales to the Saudis. Trump has objected to this additional resistance, arguing that the sales are worth a lot of money.

SOURCE: OIL PRICE

Contemporary Middle Eastern history is strongly influenced by energy politics. Besides providing revenue for the state’s coffers, oil is also a potent geopolitical tool in the hands of resource-rich countries. Recently, officials from Lebanon, Syria and Iraq have engaged in talks to restart the dysfunctional pipeline that once connected oilfields near Kirkuk in Iraq with the coastal city of Tripoli in Lebanon. Restarting the pipeline could have long-term political, economic, and strategic consequences for the involved states and the wider region.

THE ART OF THE DEAL

SOURCE: RT
Tehran’s military displayed a brand-new indigenous air defense missile system, capable of tracking and shooting down six targets at the same time. The weapon was rolled out amid growing tensions around the Persian Gulf.
Iran unveiled its new domestically-designed air defense missile system Khordad 15 on Sunday. Equipped with long-range Sayyad 3 missiles, it can shoot down enemy jets and combat drones at a range of 120 kilometers, Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami said.

Full video of 15 khordad air defence system ( ?? ?????)pic.twitter.com/izgZKfBIBl

— ???s??? ????? (@persianintel) June 9, 2019
The complex can also track “stealth targets,” intercepting them 45 km away. Overall, the weapon can destroy six targets simultaneously, according to military officials.

SOURCE: ALJAZEERA

When US President Donald Trump bypassed Congress last month to approve a multibillion-dollar arms deal to Saudi Arabia, he also allowed the kingdom to develop complex precision-bomb parts, according to the New York Times.

Trump's emergency declaration allows American arms firm Raytheon to share technology with Riyadh that could allow Saudi Arabia to develop its own laser-guided bombs, the newspaper reported on Friday.

Among the components which the Saudis are now allowed to work on with the firm are the control systems and vital electronics for Raytheon's Paveway series of smart bombs. That technology was previously closely guarded by Washington.

The technology sharing is just one part of a sweeping arms package Trump bypassed Congress to push through by declaring a national emergency, citing tensions with Iran.

Outrage on Capitol Hill

The war in Yemen is still raging on with no end in sight and the Saudis are beginning to see the war come home to them. The Houthi regime has been increasing drone strikes inside of Saudi Arabia, hitting an oil pipeline and an arms depot in recent weeks. While the Saudis are beginning to see blowback from their brutal military campaign in the country, we must not forget that this war would not be possible without US intelligence and weapons. President Trump recently bypassed congress by declaring a state of emergency to sell more weapons to the Saudis, using the "Iranian threat" as the excuse.

The public enthusiasm for the trade war by elites within the Trump Administration cabinet, including Rothschild banking agent Wilber Ross, Council On Foreign Relations member Robert E. Lighthizer, Goldman Sachs member Steve Mnuchin, and Bilderberg attendee Mike Pompeo showcases a desire based on globalization to perpetuate an escalation in tensions.

Whether or not you agree with the rationalizations behind the trade war, the point is, the only people who will ultimately benefit from it are those striving for globalization.

US intelligence indicates that Saudi Arabia has significantly improved its ballistic missile program with assistance from China, according to a report released Wednesday, Anadolu reports.

The development is at odds with decades of US policy geared toward reigning in missile development in the region over fears that proliferation could quickly spark an arms race in the volatile region.

President Donald Trump’s administration did not make the intelligence available to key lawmakers, angering Democrats, CNN reported, citing three anonymous individuals with knowledge of the intelligence.

Those Democrats learned about the intelligence “outside of regular US government channels and concluded it had been deliberately left out of a series of briefings where they say it should have been presented,” CNN reported, citing the sources.

Saudi Arabia has significantly escalated its ballistic missile programme by buying technology from China, according to a US media report.

In a story published on Wednesday, broadcaster CNN said the United States government had obtained intelligence on the technology transfers, but the administration of US President Donald Trump did not initially share its knowledge with key members of Congress.

Jeff Stacey, a US national security consultant who worked at the State Department under former President Barack Obama, told Al Jazeera the news report was "significant and alarming".

Nearly 400 hospitals and medical facilities in Yemen were destroyed during the four-year war period as a result of the Saudi-led coalition air strikes, Health Ministry spokesman Youssef Hadiri said in an interview with Sputnik News, on Thursday.

“More than 375 hospitals and medical facilities were destroyed because they were hit directly or indirectly by bombs and missiles launched by the coalition,” Hadiri said.

The spokesman added that the Yemeni medical sector is in critical condition due to the war that is exacerbated by Saudi-led aggression.

Hadiri also said that more than 5,000 people in Yemen need to undergo dialysis or kidney transplants and that in the war period at least 1,200 people died from not receiving the treatment or medication needed for kidney disease. In addition, the spokesman said that the humanitarian crisis in Yemen has led to the death of more than 700,000 people.

US President Donald Trump’s closeness with Saudi Arabia is harming American national security, says a top senator, slamming the commander in chief’s seven-time approval of nuclear tech transfer to the kingdom, twice in the wake of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder.

American Senator Tim Kaine made the comments in a statement released Tuesday, Politico reported.

“President Trump’s eagerness to give the Saudis anything they want, over bipartisan congressional objection, harms American national security interests and is one of many steps the administration is taking that is fueling a dangerous escalation of tension in the region,” said the Virginia Democrat.

The Donald Trump administration issued two authorisations for the transfer of technical "nuclear expertise" to Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi late last year, US Senator Tim Kaine has revealed.

Kaine, a Democrat from Virginia, where Khashoggi resided, called the decision "shocking" - as it came amid global outrage over the Saudi journalist's gruesome murder on 2 October.

The two approvals were issued on 18 October - only 16 days after Khashoggi was killed - and on 18 February, respectively.

Known as "Part 810 authorisations", they allow US companies to discuss and work on nuclear-related projects in the Gulf kingdom.

"I have serious questions about whether any decisions on nuclear transfers were made based on the Trump family's financial ties rather than the interests of the American people," Kaine said in a statement on Tuesday.

SOURCE: DEEP STATE BLOG

Eli Lake, the pro-Israel Bloomberg columnist, thinks selling Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to Saudi Arabia not a good idea. Lake recently met Palestinian blogger Ayad al-Baghdadi (no relation to the ISIS leader of the same name) who has reportedly been targeted by the Saudi regime.

Now living in exile in Norway, al Baghdadi still has to fear the long arm of Saudi intelligence as empowered by Israeli technology.

Pegasus and similar hacking programs are now able to break into a phone without requiring the user to even click a link. In some cases, a bogus WhatsApp call is enough to infect the phone and make it a powerful tracking device. That makes it particularly suited to monitor Arab dissidents like Al-Baghdadi, who rely on the encrypted messaging service to make contact with networks of activists across the Middle East.

The Saudi-funded spread of Wahhabism began as a result of Western countries asking Riyadh to help counter the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told the Washington Post.

Speaking to the paper, bin Salman said that Saudi Arabia's Western allies urged the country to invest in mosques and madrassas overseas during the Cold War, in an effort to prevent encroachment in Muslim countries by the Soviet Union.

The Pentagon has introduced restrictions that will prevent American companies from using Russian space rocket launches and satellite services, set to take effect in 2023.

The rule will levy “additional prohibitions with regard to acquisition of certain foreign commercial satellite services, such as… satellites and launch vehicles,” according to a Pentagon notice published on the US Federal Register website on Thursday.

Is Saudi Arabia losing its military campaign in Yemen despite being the stronger party enjoying the support of its many allies? The Saudi-led coalition includes countries like Egypt, Bahrain, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Sudan, Jordan and Morocco, as well as Qatar before it fell out with Riyadh. Major countries like France and Italy help by providing arms while the US supplies arms, intelligence and technical assistance such as in-flight refuelling, although this was suspended recently.

The coalition is fighting a loose cluster of groups headed by the disciplined and battle-hardened Houthi rebels who are, allegedly, supported by Iran. It is a very asymmetrical conflict.

French rights group ACAT sought on Tuesday to block the loading of what it said were munitions onto a Saudi Arabian ship docked in southern France, Reuters reports.

As pressure mounts on Paris to stop military sales to the kingdom, ACAT said it had filed a legal challenge to prevent the vessel from taking delivery of its cargo.

“The Bahri Tabuk is due to load French weapons for Saudi Arabia, one of the main belligerents in the Yemeni conflict,” the group said. It added that it is “mobilizing and is calling on civil society and local networks to prevent these munitions from going to Saudi Arabia.”

Another Saudi ship left France’s northern coast two weeks ago without a cargo of weapons after dockers threatened to block its arrival in the port of Le Havre.

Donald Trump is currently visiting Japan, whose prime minister is said to be considering serving as a mediator in possible peace talks between Iran and the United States.

The United States is not looking to overthrow Iran's government, President Donald Trump said on Monday, as tensions between the two countries flared with Washington deploying troops to the region.

"I know so many people from Iran, these are great people. It [Iran] has a chance to be a great country, with the same leadership. We are not looking for regime change, I just wanna make that clear," Trump said at a press conference in Tokyo, adding that he thinks "we'll make a deal" with Tehran.

In a collective demonstration of solidarity between European civilians and the suffering Yemeni civilians, the Saudi ship Bahri Yanbu was turned away from ports in France and Italy without loading its deadly cargo of weapons.

Last summer, the Saudi-led coalition targeted a school bus in Yemen, killing 54 people, including 44 small children. Human Rights Watch conducted interviews with a large group of witnesses and survivors and came to the conclusion that the attack was an apparent war crime, as there had not been any military target in the area at that time. Lockheed Martin, an American weapons manufacturer had made the 500-pound laser-guided bomb that was sold and used by Saudi Arabia.

Not long after he reportedly agreed to send another 1,500-2,000 troops to the Middle East in yet another show of strength to combat an increasingly belligerent Iran, President Trump steamrolled Congress on Friday to approve $8 billion in arms sales to the UAE and Saudi Arabia and expedite delivery, WSJ reports.

The administration invoked a rarely used provision of American arms control laws to bypass Congress and approve the weapons sales, citing the escalating tensions with Iran as justification. WSJ's sources said the $8 billion figure encapsulates a package of 22 separate deals.

A US senator has warned that President Donald Trump may use the tensions Washington has been stocking with Iran as a pretext to sell more bombs to the Saudi regime without congressional approval.

In a series of tweets on Wednesday, Chris Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said that the Trump administration may cite tensions with Iran as an “emergency” to justify supplying more arms to the Riyadh regime.

“I am hearing that Trump may use an obscure loophole in the Arms Control Act and notice a major new sale of bombs to Saudi Arabia (the ones they drop in Yemen) in a way that would prevent Congress from objecting. Could happen this week,” Murphy said.

“Arms control law allows Congress to reject a sale to a foreign country. But Trump would claim the sale constitutes an ‘emergency’ which means Congress can't take a vote of disapproval. It would go through automatically,” he added.

Yemeni forces have warned of more retaliatory attacks as the Saudi war continues to claim civilian lives. Yemen’s Ansarullah also rejected Saudi allegations about the movement’s plan to attack holy sites as big lies, and part of new plots.

Reports that three prominent and moderate Saudi Arabian Sunni scholars held on multiple charges of “terrorism” will be executed shortly after Ramadan are startling, not because the charges are false, but more so because of US complacency towards egregious human rights abuses, along with Washington’s continued support for regimes responsible for such things. Since President Donald Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, the relationship between America’s Jared Kushner, the UAE’s Mohammed Bin Zayed, and Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed Bin Salman has solidified, establishing an even stronger alliance between the three countries.