Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia enters the fray in Yemen.

The USS Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Group is on its way to the Gulf of Aden, ready to assist in evacuations and operations in Yemen.

Can a nation be both a friend and a foe to the United States at the same time? Today we have a situation in which Iran is a de facto ally of ours in the fight against ISIS, but also a country we’re actively trying to subvert in places like Yemen. While arrangements like this leave […]

Following the fall of Sana’a to the Houthis, President Hadi relocated to Aden, the southern port city of Yemen and the center of the Southern Mobility Movement. Deciding that, since part of the agreement with the Houthis that led to Hadi’s abdication as president (followed by his entire cabinet) had been violated, the entire agreement […]

Questions have arisen as to just how ISIS could take Mosul, Tikrit, and Bayji, and now Taji as well, according to Rudaw, while hardly firing a shot. While conspiracy-mongering is par for the course in the Middle East, making Maliki’s claims of betrayal sound initially suspect, names are beginning to come up that make the […]

On April 15, 2014, the Saudi King Abdullah relieved Prince Bandar bin Sultan, previously Ambassador to the United States, and for the last two years the head of Saudi intelligence, of his posting. According to Saudi news sources, this was by his own request, and Bin Sultan’s recent health problems (he’s 65 years old and […]

In remarks on Monday, Feb 17, Secretary of State John Kerry criticized Russia’s continued support for the Assad regime.  In Jakarta, just before flying to Abu Dhabi, UAE, he said, “They’re, in fact, enabling Assad to double down, which is creating an enormous problem.” US policy has been, for some time now, to push for […]

In October of 2013, SOFREP reported that Saudi Arabia had effectively threatened Vladimir Putin with terror attacks at the upcoming Olympic games if Putin did not withdraw support from the Assad regime in Syria. In a bid to topple the Assad regime and weaken the long-standing Sunni-Shia divide currently fought by Saudi Arabia and Iran, […]

In recent discussions with European diplomats, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief and ambassador to the US, said that the Kingdom was considering severing diplomatic ties with the United States over Syria, Palestine, and Iran. Bin Sultan claimed that the US has deliberately not pursued military action against Bashar al Assad, making this the […]

Saudi Arabia has been quietly involved in the Syrian civil war since its beginning.  The Saudis found Hafez al-Assad to be a reasonable man to work with (which is an interesting comment on Saudi Arabia, given that Hafez was a Baathist who ordered the massacre of the entire city of Hama to put down a […]