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The Great Wall of Saudi Arabia?

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Saudi Arabia has been constructing a 600-mile East-West barrier on its Northern Border with Iraq since September.

The main function of the barrier will be keeping out ISIS militants, who have stated that among their goals is an eventual takeover of the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, both of which lie deep inside Saudi territory, according to United Press International.

This past week, a commander and two guards on the Saudi-Iraq border were killed during an attack by Islamic State militants, the first direct ground assault by the group on the border.

“It is the first attack by Islamic State itself against Saudi Arabia and is a clear message after Saudi Arabia entered the international coalition against it,” Mustafa Alani, an Iraqi security analyst with close ties to Saudi Arabia’s interior ministry, told Reuters.

The Saudi “Great Wall” as it’s being dubbed by some media outlets, will be a fence and ditch barrier that features soft sand embankments that is designed to slow down infiltrators on foot and are too step to drive a tired-vehicle up, according to the Telegraph of London. It will have 40 watchtowers and seven command and control centers complete with radar that can detect aircraft and vehicles as far away as 22 miles as well as day and night camera installations. (Read more about the Great Wall of Saudi Arabia HERE)

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Saudi Religious Leader Says Pedophilia is OK

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Photo Credit: WND Saudi Arabia’s Grand Mufti, Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh, the kingdom’s top religious authority in the ultra-conservative Wahhabi school of Sunni Islam, has ruled it’s acceptable for men to marry girls so young the West would deem it nothing short of pedophilia and rape.

Despite the Saudi justice ministry’s failed efforts to date to set 15 as a minimum age to marry a girl in the kingdom, Grand Mufti Abdulaziz declared there is nothing prohibiting Muslim men from marrying girls even younger.

As Grand Mufti, Abdulaziz is president of the Supreme Council of Ulema (Islamic scholars) and chairman of the Standing Committee for Scientific Research and Issuing Fatwas, which means he speaks authoritatively in Islamic teachings.

Grand Mufti Abdulzaiz’s more recent ruling on marrying young girls comes following a similar ruling in 2011 by Dr. Salih bin Fawzan, a prominent cleric and member of the Saudi’s highest religious council, who issued a fatwa, or religious edict, that there is no minimum age to marry girls, “even if they are in the cradle.”

“The ulema have agreed that it is permissible for fathers to marry off their small daughters, even if they are in the cradle,” the edict declared. “But it is not permissible for their husbands to have sex with them unless they are capable of being placed beneath and bearing the weight of the men. And their capability in this regard varies based on their nature and capacity. Aisha was six when she married the prophet, but he had sex with her when she was nine, that is, when she was deemed capable.” (Read more about what the Saudi religious leader says HERE)

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Geography Lesson for Top Obama Aide: Syria Doesn’t Border Saudi Arabia

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Photo Credit: Daily SignalSpeaking to reporters before President Obama’s Wednesday night address on the terrorist group ISIS, a senior administration official mentioned Saudi Arabia’s “extensive border” with Syria.

Trouble is, Saudi Arabia and Syria share no border.

The senior Obama administration official, who was not identified by name under well-established rules, was speaking about 6 p.m. on a conference call with reporters about ISIS, also known as ISIL or the Islamic State, when he made the geographic gaffe. He said:

ISIL has been, I think, a galvanizing threat around the Sunni partners in the region. They view it as an existential threat to them. Saudi Arabia has an extensive border with Syria … So what we have here is a galvanizing threat from ISIL that is, I think, leading our Sunni partners in the region to join us along the range of potential capabilities that my colleague mentioned.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Talked to Saudi King For More Than Two Hours – But Not About Human Rights

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Photo Credit: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

Photo Credit: AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais

President Obama did not raise human rights concerns during his meeting with Saudi King Abdullah, an administration official confirmed after the two leaders talked for more than two hours.

“The focus of the meeting was strategic and regional topics,” said the official, briefing reporters on background about Friday’s talks at the king’s desert encampment north-west of Riyadh. Asked again specifically whether human rights had come up, the official replied, “No.”

Asked further whether Obama had raised the Saudis’ decision to deny a visa to a Jewish member of the White House press corps wanting to cover the visit, the official, said “I don’t believe it came up in the meeting.”

The official pointed out that national security advisor Susan Rice had brought up the visa denial issue with Saudi officials earlier, and “they certainly know our views and our objection to the way in which that situation was handled.”

Obama’s meeting with Abdullah came a day after the president said he told Pope Francis that “it is central to U.S. foreign policy that we protect the interests of religious minorities around the world.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Al Jazeera Host Asks Why Can’t Arab Armies Be More Humane, Like Israel? (+video)

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Photo Credit: YouTube

Photo Credit: YouTube

An Al Jazeera Arabic anchor recently asked his audience why Arab armies, and, in particular, the regime of Bashar al-Assad, in Syria, can’t behave more humanely towards civilians, like the Israeli and French armies do?

In a clip uploaded to YouTube this week and flagged by Mideast Media Analyst Tom Gross, the anchor asks, “Why don’t they learn from the Israeli army which tries, through great efforts, to avoid shelling areas populated by civilians in Lebanon and Palestine? Didn’t Hezbollah take shelter in areas populated by civilians because it knows that Israeli Air Force doesn’t bomb those areas? Why doesn’t the Syrian army respect premises of universities, schools or inhabited neighborhoods? Why does it shell even the areas of its supporters?”

Read more from this story HERE.

Saudis Turn to Russia in Move to Re-Balance Mideast

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Photo Credit: WND Saudi Arabia is proposing a sweeping deal to Russia that solidifies Moscow’s position in the Middle East and Persian Gulf largely at the expense of the United States, according to informed Egyptian security officials.

The deal incorporates increased Russian involvement in Egypt, Syria and the Persian Gulf, and even involves a Saudi guarantee to aid against terror plots targeting the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

The Egyptian officials said the deal seeks to replace the U.S. with Russia as the major weapons dealer to Egypt.

However, the weapons sales to Cairo are only the tip of the potential re-balancing iceberg that follows a major fallout with the Saudis after President Obama’s outreach efforts to Iran.

The Saudis asked for the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad while Riyadh would help establish a permanent central Russian role in the future of Syria, with a military presence in the country, the officials said.

Read more from this story HERE.

State Dept. Cites Russia, But Won’t Comment on S. Arabia’s Death Penalty for Gays

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Photo Credit: APAlthough the U.S. State Department recently singled out Russia by name to criticize its law prohibiting homosexual propaganda aimed at youth, the same State Department refused to comment on Saudi Arabia where homosexual conduct is punishable by death.

On Oct. 24, Uzra Zeya, the acting assistant secretary of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, spoke at the ILGA-Europe annual conference in Zagrab, Croatia. ILGA is the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association. In her remarks, Secretary Zeya said that promotion of human rights, including those for LGBT people, is a “foreign policy priority” of the United States.

Zeya praised new hate crimes legislation in Europe and then said, “But the United States remains extremely concerned about negative trends in a number of countries. The anti-gay propaganda law in Russia and the proposed law to strip gay parents of their parental rights are alarming.”

“Laws, even when it is unclear how they will be enforced, are incredibly important,” she said. “They are a statement of a country’s values and they have a teaching effect. Laws that validate discrimination, as we have seen in Russia, can lead to an increase in violence and harassment. This is particularly true when authorities don’t act to protect all of their citizens and when they fail to investigate and prosecute crimes committed by or against particular groups.”

Assistant Secretary Zeya also said, “I’ve singled out Russia but, as you all know, it is not the only place where there were disturbing events in 2013.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Saudi Arabia Said to Have Bought Nukes from Pakistan

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Photo Credit: Youtube/Al Jazeera EnglishSaudi Arabia may be prepared to field nuclear bombs it has purchased from Pakistan in response to Iran’s alleged military nuclear program, and may already have deployed missile systems capable of delivering the bombs, the BBC reported on Wednesday.

According to Mark Urban, diplomatic and defense editor for the BBC’s Newsnight, there are suggestions that the Saudis have paid for a number of nuclear weapons that are ready and waiting in Pakistan. If the reports are accurate, the kingdom could have atomic weapons on its missiles even before Iran has that capability.

Urban said it was an assessment shared by the former head of the IDF’s head of intelligence, Amos Yadlin, and cited comments Yadlin made to that effect at a conference in Sweden last month.

“The Saudis will not wait one month,” Yadlin reportedly said. “They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring.”

Another source, described as “a senior NATO decision maker,” told Urban earlier this year of an intelligence report about Pakistani-made nuclear weapons ready for delivery to the kingdom.

Read more from this story HERE.

John Kerry Smooths Over US-Saudi Tensions on Riyadh Visit

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Photo Credit: Faisal al-Nasser/ReutersJohn Kerry has sought to ease recent tensions between the US and Saudi Arabia, a key strategic ally in the Arab world, highlighting enduring relations between the two countries and hailing the kingdom’s role as “the senior player” in the Middle East.

On a brief visit to Riyadh, the secretary of state said the US would ensure that its relationship with Saudi Arabia was “on track, moving forward and doing the things that we need to accomplish”.

There was much agreement between the two allies on the civil war in Syria, the Iranian nuclear programme and attempts to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, he said.

The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, also attempted to smooth over recent diplomatic differences, saying: “The fact of the matter is that the historic relationship between the two countries has always been based on independence, mutual respect and constructive co-operation.”

However, he told his US counterpart that “a true relationship between friends is based on sincerity, candour and frankness, rather than mere courtesy”.

Read more from this story HERE.

Saudi Arabia Threatening to Cut Ties with US Over Response to Conflict in Syria

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Photo Credit: Reuters Upset at President Barack Obama’s policies on Iran and Syria, members of Saudi Arabia’s ruling family are threatening a rift with the United States that could take the alliance between Washington and the kingdom to its lowest point in years.

Saudi Arabia’s intelligence chief is vowing that the kingdom will make a ‘major shift’ in relations with the United States to protest perceived American inaction over Syria’s civil war as well as recent U.S. overtures to Iran, a source close to Saudi policy said on Tuesday.

Prince Bandar bin Sultan told European diplomats that the United States had failed to act effectively against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, was growing closer to Tehran, and had failed to back Saudi support for Bahrain when it crushed an anti-government revolt in 2011, the source said.

‘The shift away from the U.S. is a major one,’ the source close to Saudi policy said. ‘Saudi doesn’t want to find itself any longer in a situation where it is dependent.’

It was not immediately clear whether the reported statements by Prince Bandar, who was the Saudi ambassador to Washington for 22 years, had the full backing of King Abdullah.

Read more from this story HERE.