Category: Politics

By Steve Holland and Matt Spetalnick WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden turns his attention this month to a sensitive trip to the Middle East that will test his ability to reset relations with Saudi Arabia’s powerful crown prince after Biden denounced him as a pariah. So far, Biden has been pointedly unclear on whether he will have face-to-face talks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi de facto leader who the U.S. intelligence community concluded was behind the 2018 murder of Washington Post journalist and political opponent Jamal Khashoggi. While Biden is expected to…

Read More “Back from Europe, Biden turns to diplomatically delicate Saudi Arabia trip” »

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Monday described the ongoing war in Yemen as useless, that has only resulted in the suffering of its people. Raisi stressed that a permanent ceasefire must be implemented to resolve the conflict, as he met with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi in Tehran. His comments come a day after Saudi Arabia discussed with the UN a truce in Yemen and the need to reach a political process to end the war. Saudi Ambassador Muhammad al-Jaber and UN Special Envoy to Yemen Hans Grundberg met in the de-facto capital, Aden. Will Yemen’s shaky UN-brokered peace withstand? …

Read More “Iran president urges ceasefire in ‘useless’ Yemen war” »

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi arrived in Iran on Sunday, Iranian state TV reported, a day after he travelled to Saudi Arabia in a bid to revive talks between the regional rivals to ease years of hostility. Iran and Saudi Arabia, the leading Shia and Sunni Muslim powers in the Middle East, severed ties in 2016, with both parties backing allies fighting proxy wars across the region, from Yemen to Syria and elsewhere. “The Iraqi prime minister has arrived in Tehran with a high-ranking delegation of political and economic officials to discuss regional and bilateral issues,” Iran’s state …

Read More “Iraqi PM arrives in Iran after Saudi visit to push for revival of Tehran-Riyadh talks” »