Saudi Arabia

Pressure Grows for U.A.E. to Free Asim Ghafoor, American Lawyer

Pressure is mounting in the United States for the United Arab Emirates to release a Virginia lawyer who represented Jamal Khashoggi, the Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist who was murdered and dismembered by Saudi agents in 2018. On Thursday, members of Congress and a grouping of Muslim organizations held two separate news conferences to […]

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Twitter Worker Accused of Spying for Saudi Arabia Heads to Trial

SAN FRANCISCO — While working at Twitter from 2013 to 2015, Ahmad Abouammo was responsible for helping celebrities, journalists and other notable figures in the Middle East promote their Twitter accounts. He handled requests for Twitter’s coveted blue verification badges and arranged tours of the San Francisco headquarters. But the Justice Department says he misused […]

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Biden Says He Confronted Saudi Prince Over Khashoggi. How True Is That?

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — As President Biden told the tale, it sounded pretty dramatic. After meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, on Friday for the first time since taking office, the president insisted that he had pointedly blamed him for the murder of the columnist Jamal Khashoggi. “He basically […]

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Biden’s Visit to Saudi Arabia Draws Criticism and Modest Accords

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — President Biden exchanged the shaken fist for a fist bump on Friday as he abandoned his promise to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah” and sat down with the crown prince he deemed responsible for the grisly killing and dismemberment of a columnist who lived in the United States. In the most […]

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Biden’s Saudi Lesson: The Only Path Runs Through M.B.S.

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Saudi Arabia that President Biden will visit this week is a country being actively reshaped by the whims and visions of one man: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. As the de facto ruler of the oil-rich monarchy, the 36-year-old prince has cast himself as a reformer, loosening some restrictions of ultraconservative […]

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Furious Over LIV Golf, British Open Could Change Entry Rules

ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — The organizer of the British Open — openly contemptuous, frustrated and bewildered over the emergence of the Saudi Arabia-backed series that has split golf — issued a warning on Wednesday: One of the world’s most hallowed tournaments might soon change its entry rules. A move by the R&A, the Open organizer, […]

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Nukes, Oil and a Prince’s Redemption: A Trip Fraught With Perils for Biden

JERUSALEM — President Biden left Washington for a four-day trip to the Middle East on Tuesday to try to slow down an accelerating Iranian nuclear program, speed up the flow of oil to American pumps and reshape the relationship with Saudi Arabia without seeming to embrace a crown prince the C.I.A. believes was behind the […]

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Biden to Make First Visit as President to Israel and Saudi Arabia

JERUSALEM — When President Biden arrives in the Middle East this week, on his first visit as American head of state, he will find a region where alliances, priorities and relations with the United States have shifted significantly since his last official trip, six years ago. His visit opens in Israel and the occupied West […]

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LIV Golf Is Drawing Big Names and Heavy Criticism in Oregon

NORTH PLAINS, Ore. — The Saudi government-backed LIV Golf Invitational series arrives in the United States on Thursday as it continues to roil a genteel sport with a slogan that promises, “Golf, but louder.” Except this is probably not the kind of noise its supporters had in mind. There is vehement opposition by some to […]

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