Saudi King's Month-Long Journey In Asia With Traveling Court Of 1,000

March 11, 2017

Mar 11: Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz's month-long journey through Asia has been eye-catching because of its scale. The world's most powerful royal is touring seven countries with a traveling court of more than 1,000 people, including 25 princes and 10 ministers.

salman

The entourage's total baggage weighs a reported 506 tons.

This week, Salman decided to extend his stay at a luxury resort on the scenic Indonesian island of Bali - perhaps an easy decision - ahead of stops in Japan and China. Salman began his trip in Malaysia, where he oversaw the inking of lucrative oil pacts and was apparently the subject of a foiled assassination attempt before he called on the sultan of Brunei.

The trip has huge implications, both for regional politics and for Washington. The Saudis are deeply aware of the need to diversify their economy, which is heavily dependent on oil exports, and are keen to attract investment from major Asian economies in addition to spreading their own largesse. They also see Southeast Asia, with its huge population of Sunni Muslims, as a realm where they can exert power.

At a time when uncertainty and political paralysis seems to be gripping the West, a pivot to Asia makes a great deal of sense. "There can also be no doubt that the not-too-subtle subtext of the king's tour is a signal that Saudi Arabia will preserve its flexibility when it comes to its dealings with the United States," wrote Gerald Feierstein in Foreign Affairs.

But one arena for Saudi expansion is perhaps surprising: the Maldives, which Salman will visit on the way back to Riyadh. The nation made of Indian Ocean islands may have a tiny population - about 400,000 people - but it is a vast ocean state, spanning some 1,000 kilometers across some of the world's most significant shipping routes. Controversy is swirling there about a reported Saudi plan to invest billions of dollars in Faafu atoll, which comprises 26 islands.

The Maldivian government, led by President Abdulla Yameen, has argued that the deal would lead to infrastructure investment and new housing in a country imperiled by rising sea levels. Critics insist the government is essentially handing a chunk of the country to foreign buyers in order to line its own pockets.

A government statement this week rejected such claims. "The administration categorically rebuts allegations that the atoll has been 'sold off' to a foreign entity," it read. But little has been revealed about the plans for the atoll or the nature of the investment deal.

"I find it very difficult to believe this is a straightforward commercial enterprise," said opposition leader Mohamed Nasheed during a trip to Washington. "Usually you have to have a proper, transparent bidding process, but President Yameen has chosen to do it in the dark."

Nasheed, who lives in exile in London, endured years of imprisonment as a political dissident before helping bring down a three-decade-long dictatorship. He won the Maldives' first free and fair democratic elections in 2008, but his rule was cut short by what most international observers characterized as a coup in 2012.

A tumultuous period followed, in which Nasheed won fresh elections, was thwarted by political opponents and eventually ended up in jail once more on trumped-up charges. The work of an international team of lawyers, including Amal Clooney, won him medical leave last year and led him to claim asylum in Britain.

But Nasheed has not given up the fight, and he said he worries about the corrosive influence the Saudis may have on his country. "It's one thing not to have democracy and freedom of expression, to have a dictator," Nasheed said. "But it's another thing to lose an atoll, to lose sovereignty. I am sure that the Maldivian people are very worried, and they may see how they want to push back these designs."

The disquiet extends beyond simply the Saudi role in the atoll deal. The Maldives is an almost-exclusively Sunni Muslim country. In recent years, a troubling religious radicalization has taken root in what was historically one of the most laissez-faire corners of the Muslim world. An estimated 200 to 300 Maldivians have gone to Syria to join jihadist groups, an astonishing statistic when you consider the size of the nation's population. (If Americans went to Syria in the same proportion, there would be just under 165,000 of them - at minimum.)

Nasheed lays this in part at the feet of the Saudis, who have spent decades spreading their stridently orthodox brand of Islam to other Muslim-majority nations. In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim country, a network of Saudi-built schools, mosques and medical facilities has bred both goodwill toward the kingdom and a new generation of adherents to its uncompromising faith. "This very narrow version of Islam favors their authoritarian rule," Nasheed said of the Saudis. "It has been propagated in the Maldives for many years and has created a breeding ground for radical Islam."

The Saudis aren't the only outside power interested in the Maldives. China sees the Maldives as a key linchpin in its vision of a "new maritime Silk Route," threading Chinese energy and trade interests to the Middle East. Beijing has been steadily expanding its footprint in the Indian Ocean and deepening ties with Yameen's government.

Nasheed suggests Beijing may also have a role in the Saudi atoll project and may use its increasing leverage over the Maldives to shoulder aside its regional rival, India. The Maldivian government last year gave a Chinese state-run company a 50-year lease on an uninhabited island near the capital isle, Male.

"We do not want to sit in the middle of a Cold War in between countries," Nasheed said.

But when the mammoth entourage of the Saudi monarch eventually circles over the Maldives' turquoise lagoons, it will be hard not to see the start of a new Great Game in Asia.

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Agencies
January 4,2020

Baghdad, Jan 4: At least five people were killed on Saturday by an airstrike on a vehicle convoy of Iraq's Shia Popular Mobilization Forces in northern Baghdad, a source in security forces told Sputnik.

Earlier in the day, the source told Sputnik about a powerful explosion in Baghdad's northern district of Taji.

"A vehicle convoy of the Popular Mobilization Forces has been attacked. According to preliminary data, five people have died. Their names have not been clarified so far," the source said.

On Friday, several senior members of the Popular Mobilization Forces, as well as commander of the elite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Qasem Soleimani, were killed by a US drone attack near the Baghdad International Airport.

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Agencies
July 20,2020

Riyadh, Jul 20: Saudi Arabia's King Salman has been admitted to a hospital in the capital, Riyadh, for medical tests due to inflammation of the gallbladder, the kingdom's Royal Court said Monday in a statement carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.

The statement said the 84-year-old monarch is being tested at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital. The brief statement did not provide further details.

King Salman has been in power since January 2015. He is considered the last Saudi monarch of his generation of brothers who have held power since the death of their father and founder of Saudi Arabia, King Abdulaziz.

King Salman has empowered his 34-year-old son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as his successor. The crown prince's assertive and bold style of leadership, as well as his consolidation of power and sidelining of potential rivals, has been controversial.

With the support of his father, Prince Mohammed has transformed the kingdom in recent years, opening it up to tourists and eroding decades of ultraconservative restrictions on entertainment and women's rights as he tries to diversify the Saudi economy away from reliance on oil exports.

The prince has also detained dozens of activists and critics, overseen a devastating war in Yemen, and rounded up top members of the royal family in his quest for power.

The Saudi king has not been seen in public in recent months due to social distancing guidelines and concerns over the spread of the coronavirus inside the kingdom, which has one of the largest outbreaks in the Middle East.

He has been shown, however, in state-run media images attending virtual meetings with his Cabinet and held calls with world leaders.

King Salman, who oversees Islam's holiest sites in Makkah and Medinah, was a crown prince under King Abdullah and served as defense minister. For more than 50 years prior to that, he was governor of Riyadh, overseeing its evolution from a barren city to a teeming capital.

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Agencies
June 20,2020

Riyadh, Jun 20: Saudi Arabia will end a nationwide curfew and lift restrictions on businesses from Sunday morning after three months of lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus, state news agency SPA quoted a source in the interior ministry as saying on Saturday.

The curfew will be lifted as of 6 AM local time on Sunday. Restrictions will remain, however, for religious pilgrimages, international travel and social gatherings of more than 50 people.

The kingdom introduced stringent measures to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus in March, including 24-hour curfews on most towns and cities.

In May, it announced a three-phase plan to ease restrictions on movement and travel, culminating in the curfew completely ending on June 21.

The number of coronavirus infections has risen in recent weeks following a relaxation of movement and travel restrictions on May 28.

The kingdom has recorded 154,223 cases of COVID-19 and a total of 1,230 deaths, the highest in the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council.

Saudi Arabia plans to limit numbers at the annual haj pilgrimage to prevent a further outbreak of coronavirus cases, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters earlier this month.

Some 2.5 million pilgrims visit the holiest sites of Islam in Mecca and Medina for the week-long haj, a once-in-a-lifetime duty for every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it. Saudi Arabia asked Muslims in March to put haj plans on hold and suspended the umrah pilgrimage until further notice.

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