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12 Americans injured in Iranian strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia

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Twelve U.S. service members were wounded in an Iranian missile and drone attack on a military base in Saudi Arabia, Fox News has confirmed.

The strike hit Prince Sultan Air Base on Friday, damaging several U.S. refueling aircraft, officials said. Two of the wounded troops were reported to be in serious condition.

At least one KC-135 air refueling aircraft was hit and caught fire during the strike, according to a senior U.S. official.

The attack comes as the monthlong conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran continues to escalate and follows earlier reports that more than 300 U.S. service members have been wounded since the start of Operation Epic Fury.

The Pentagon is continuing to move additional forces into the region, while officials say military options remain on the table as the situation evolves. (Read more from “12 Americans injured in Iranian strike on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia” HERE)

US Embassy in Saudi Arabia Hit in Suspected Iranian Drone Attack: Reports

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The US Embassy in Saudi Arabia’s capital city of Riyadh was damaged in a suspected Iranian drone attack Monday night.

The embassy was hit by two drones, “resulting in a limited fire and minor material damage to the building,” a spokesperson for the Saudi defense ministry wrote on X.

A loud blast was heard, and a small fire was seen at the embassy, Reuters reported.

“The U.S. Mission to Saudi Arabia has issued a shelter in place notification for Jeddah, Riyadh and Dhahran and are limiting non-essential travel to any military installations in the region,” a “security alert” posted by the Riyadh embassy on X read.

“We recommend American citizens in the Kingdom to shelter in place immediately.” (Read more from “US Embassy in Saudi Arabia Hit in Suspected Iranian Drone Attack: Reports” HERE)

Trump Says Saudi Arabia to Get F-35 Jets Under Arrangement Similar to Israel

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By CNA. US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (Nov 18) that the United States would sell advanced F-35 stealth fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, signalling that Riyadh would receive the same top-tier defence equipment long reserved for Israel.

“As far as I’m concerned, I think they are both at a level where they should get top-of-the-line F-35s,” Trump told reporters at the White House, calling Saudi Arabia and Israel “great allies”.

The comments came as Trump hosted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for talks aimed at deepening defence cooperation and expanding a growing US–Saudi security partnership.

Trump said Washington and Riyadh had reached a “defence agreement”, though he offered no details. Saudi Arabia is seeking stronger security guarantees from the US amid heightened regional tensions and has been pushing for access to advanced military hardware.

The crown prince, making his first White House visit in more than seven years, said security cooperation was a core priority of the trip. He also announced that Saudi Arabia would increase its planned investments in the United States to nearly US$1 trillion, up from a US$600 billion pledge made during Trump’s visit to Riyadh in May. (Read more from “Trump Says Saudi Arabia to Get F-35 Jets Under Arrangement Similar to Israel” HERE)

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Israel’s ICC appeal is not about Karim Khan, but Trump – analysis

By The Jerusalem Post. Israel’s appeal to the International Criminal Court’s highest chamber to cancel the arrest warrants outstanding against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant on the basis of disqualifying ICC’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan has much more to do with US President Donald Trump than with Khan.

If the only questions were: “Can Israel get Khan disqualified, and can this lead to the arrest warrants being tossed?” the answer would surely be that the arrest warrants won’t be nixed, even if Khan is.

But there are broader issues at stake here, and, though unlikely, the ICC could choose to use disqualifying Khan as a way out from its nearly year-long conflict with the Trump administration.

Since Trump returned to power in January and gave the ICC a brief ultimatum to withdraw the arrest warrants against Israel, the US government has escalated sanctions against ICC officials, one move after another.

Cumulatively, the ICC has lost employees, funding, and general flexibility in operations due to its stance on maintaining the arrest warrants. (Read more from “Israel’s ICC appeal is not about Karim Khan, but Trump – analysis” HERE)

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Pakistan Says Its Nuclear Program Can Be Made Available to Saudi Arabia Under Defense Pact

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Pakistan’s defense minister says his nation’s nuclear program “will be made available” to Saudi Arabia if needed under the countries’ new defense pact, marking the first specific acknowledgment that Islamabad had put the kingdom under its nuclear umbrella.

Defense Minister Khawaja Mohammad Asif’s comments underline the importance of the pact struck this week between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which have had military ties for decades.

The move is seen by analysts as a signal to Israel, long believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed nation. It comes after Israel’s attack targeting Hamas leaders in Qatar last week killed six people and sparked new concerns among Gulf Arab nations about their safety as the Israel-Hamas war devastated the Gaza Strip and set the region on edge.

Speaking to Geo TV in an interview late Thursday night, Asif made the comments while answering a question on whether “the deterrence that Pakistan gets from nuclear weapons” will be made available to Saudi Arabia. (Read more from “Pakistan Says Its Nuclear Program Can Be Made Available to Saudi Arabia Under Defense Pact” HERE)

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Trump Shares Plan for a Revamped Middle East

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President Donald Trump hailed progress toward peace across the Middle East in an address in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, urging the region to pursue economic development rather than Iran’s “self-destructive” path.

Trump made the comments during a speech in Riyadh shortly after meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Trump vowed to continue America’s strong partnership with the Saudi government and also condemned Western “interventionalist” policies that have brought disaster in the Middle East.

“If the responsible nations of this region seize this moment, put aside your differences and focus on the interests that unite you, then all humanity will soon be amazed at what we will see here in the geographic center of the world, and the spiritual heart of its greatest faiths,” Trump said.

“Before our eyes, a new generation of leaders is transcending the ancient conflicts and tired divisions of the past, and forging a future where the Middle East is defined by commerce, not chaos; where it exports technology, not terrorism; and where people of different nations, religions, and creeds are building cities together, not bombing each other,” he added.

“It is crucial for the wider world to note, this great transformation has not come from Western interventionalists flying in with lectures on how to live or how to govern your own affairs. The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation-builders, neo-cons, or liberal non-profits like those who spent trillions failing to develop Kabul and Baghdad,” he continued. (Read more from “Trump Shares Plan for a Revamped Middle East” HERE)

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Zelensky Cancels Saudi Arabia Trip After Exclusion From U.S.-Russia Talks

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday said he postponed a visit to Saudi Arabia to express his disapproval of the United States and Russia beginning bilateral negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

“We were not invited to this Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia. It was a surprise for us. I don’t want any coincidences, so I’m not going to Saudi Arabia,” Zelensky said after a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.

By “coincidences,” Zelensky evidently meant that he did not want his planned visit to Saudi Arabia to be mistaken as an endorsement of the meetings held between U.S. and Russian diplomats in Riyadh this week.

“The Russian-American meeting in Saudi Arabia came as a surprise to us, just as it did to many others. Yes, we saw the media coverage, but I don’t know who will stay, who will leave, or where anyone is going. To be honest, I don’t really care. What matters to me is that our partners take time to think about us,” he said.

“Any country has a bilateral track with other countries. Please, you can discuss anything, but you can’t make a decision on how to end the war in Ukraine without Ukraine,” he insisted. (Read more from “Zelensky Cancels Saudi Arabia Trip After Exclusion From U.S.-Russia Talks” HERE)

New Evidence of Saudi Gov’t Role in 9/11 Should Halt Security Pact Talk

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There is new evidence that shows that some Saudi government officials were more involved in the 9/11 attacks than previously known. According to a new filing in a lawsuit brought by the families of the 9/11 victims, al-Qaida operatives received significant support from members of the Saudi government in their preparations for the attacks.

As Daniel Benjamin, president of the American Academy in Berlin, and Quincy Institute senior fellow Steven Simon explain in a new article for The Atlantic, the plaintiffs allege that Saudi officials “were not rogue operators but rather the front end of a conspiracy that included the Saudi embassy in Washington and senior government officials in Riyadh.” If the allegations are true, that has important implications for our understanding of the attacks and how international terrorist groups operate, and it also gives Americans another reason to question the wisdom of a security pact with Saudi Arabia today.

There had already been some proof of collusion between Saudi officials and 9/11 hijackers revealed in the past, but as Benjamin and Simon point out, the new evidence suggests that the actions taken by two Saudi officials working in the U.S. to support the hijackers were “deliberate, sustained, and carefully coordinated with other Saudi officials.” If true, the failure of our government to hold the Saudis accountable for the role of their officials in the attacks is inexcusable. It makes the continued indulgence of Saudi Arabia by successive administrations over the last two decades even more repugnant.

The Saudi government predictably denies the allegations, but that is what Riyadh always does when there are credible accusations of wrongdoing against it. In the weeks following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018, the Saudi government claimed that it had done nothing to him and even used a poorly disguised double to promote a false story that he had voluntarily left the consulate in Istanbul. The Saudi government routinely denied responsibility for airstrikes on civilian targets in Yemen when their forces were the only ones that could have launched them. Saudi denials don’t count for much, and I wouldn’t bet on their veracity in this case, either. (Read more from “New Evidence of Saudi Gov’t Role in 9/11 Should Halt Security Pact Talk” HERE)

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Saudi Arabia Publicly Acknowledges It Helped Defend Israel This Weekend

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Saudi Arabia formally acknowledged that it helped shoot down kamikaze drones heading for Israel. It’s part of the Kingdom’s not-so-secret “cozy” relationship with the Jewish state over the past few years. There are no formal diplomatic ties between these two countries yet.

Still, there’s hope that the Trump-era Abraham Accords, where Morocco, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and Sudan signed a normalization treaty with Israel, can be built upon and expanded. There should be cautious optimism. These new revelations reveal that the Middle East, by and large, might not want to be thrust into a destructive regional war. However, recognizing Israel’s right to exist might still be a diplomatic work in progress. Arab nations provided Israel and American forces with vital intelligence during Iran’s assault against Israel over the weekend[.] (Read more from “Saudi Arabia Publicly Acknowledges It Helped Defend Israel This Weekend” HERE)

Saudi Crown Prince Threatened U.S. ‘Economic Consequences’ During Feud Over Oil Production: Report

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The Saudi crown prince privately threatened “major economic consequences” against the US last fall if the Biden administration retaliated against its decision to slash oil production, a new report revealed.

Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made the threat after President Biden promised unspecified “consequences” for Saudi Arabia over the kingdom’s decision to cut oil production during a time of high energy prices, according to a classified document obtained by The Washington Post.

The crown prince claimed in private that “he will not deal with the U.S. administration anymore” and promised “major economic consequences for Washington,” according to the document.

A second leaked document from December warned that Saudi plans to expand its “transactional relationship” with China by procuring drones, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and mass surveillance systems from Beijing.

Biden has not followed through on his word, despite Saudi Arabia’s recent pledge to cut oil production by a further 1 million barrels per day starting in July. (Read more from “Saudi Crown Prince Threatened U.S. ‘Economic Consequences’ During Feud Over Oil Production: Report” HERE)

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Surprise OPEC+ Oil Production Cuts Signal That America’s Relations With Saudis Are Deteriorating

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In the latest evidence of Washington’s loss of sway over world affairs, the oil cartel that includes Saudi Arabia and Russia is announcing it will cut rates of pumping oil in a move that is bound to exacerbate inflation pressures in America and help Russia’s war efforts in Ukraine.

The move, announced at Riyadh Sunday, is yet another blow to President Biden’s foreign policy as the 2024 presidential election nears. For two years, Washington has hammered Saudi Arabia, making the decades-long American Mideast ally a poster boy for human rights violations, and calling it a “pariah state.”

Now Riyadh’s de-facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is tightening relations with America’s adversaries, Communist China, Russia, and even Saudi Arabia’s nemesis, Iran. The Crown Prince’s turn away from America has gained pace faster than expected by Mideast watchers.

Members of the Riyadh-led Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies announced Sunday their intention to cut oil production by 1.15 million barrels a day. Saudi Arabia and Russia would each cut production by half a million barrels a day, while other members of OPEC+, including Russia and other allies, would make cuts as well. (Read more from “Surprise OPEC+ Oil Production Cuts Signal That America’s Relations With Saudis Are Deteriorating” HERE)

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