Saudi king leaves hospital, TV shows him walking
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has left a New York hospital in “good health” after a month of treatment, state media said on Wednesday, showing pictures of the elderly monarch walking down a corridor.
Media gave no date for when King Abdullah, who is around 87 and had arrived at the hospital in a wheelchair, might return home.
Saudi Shi’ites mark Ashura festival in anxious mood
(Photos above and below: Saudi Shi’ite Muslims mark Ashura in Qatif, December 16, 2010/Zaki Ghawas)
Like their Shi’ite brethren across the Middle East, Hussein and his Saudi friends marked the mourning day of Ashura on Thursday, their mood tinged with worry over their future in the strict Sunni Muslim kingdom. Hundreds of black-clad Shi’ites in the small Gulf town of Qatif, in Saudi Arabia’s oil-rich Eastern Province, rose early to join once-forbidden processions to mark the slaying in 680 of Prophet Mohammad’s grandson, Imam Hussein.
Long viewed as heretics or even agents of Iran by the Saudi authorities and hardline Sunni clerics, Shi’ites have been testing pledges to let them practice their rites more freely. Now they fear a reversal in their long struggle for recognition. The freedom to mark Ashura relatively unhindered in Qatif and nearby villages is a fruit of changes launched by King Abdullah since he ascended the throne in 2005.
Analysis – Saudi Arabia plays Yemen double game – experts
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi funding of Yemeni tribes for help against al Qaeda risks undermining central authority in the kingdom’s poor neighbour at a moment when the government there needs all its clout to fight security threats.
The West relies heavily on the top oil exporter to help stabilise Yemen: Saudi Arabia is the largest financial donor, bankrolling the government of ally President Ali Saleh Abdullah, helping supplying Yemeni forces and building hospitals.
Saudi Arabia plays Yemen double game says experts
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi funding of Yemeni tribes for help against al Qaeda risk undermining central authority in the kingdom’s poor neighbor at a moment when the government there needs all its clout to fight security threats.
The West relies heavily on the top oil exporter to help stabilize Yemen: Saudi Arabia is the largest financial donor, bankrolling the government of ally President Ali Saleh Abdullah, helping supplying Yemeni forces and building hospitals.
Saudi king well after surgery in U.S.: royal court
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia’s elderly King Abdullah had a successful second operation in New York on Friday, the royal court said in a statement released by the kingdom’s state news agency.
Earlier on Friday, the court said the king, believed to be aged about 86 or 87, would have surgery to stabilize vertebrae in his spinal column.
Saudis think Yemen is failed state — leaked US cable
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia regards neighbouring Yemen as a failed state where President Ali Abdullah Saleh is losing control, the Saudi counter-terrorism chief said, according to a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable.
The Gulf Arab kingdom is worried that al Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing is exploiting instability in its impoverished neighbour to stage more attacks inside Saudi Arabia, after Riyadh halted a militant campaign with the help of foreign experts in 2006.
Saudi thinks Yemen is a failed state: leaked cable
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia sees neighboring Yemen as a failed state whose President Ali Abdullah is losing control, the kingdom’s counter-terrorism chief said, according to a diplomatic cable leaked by whistleblower WikiLeaks.
The Gulf Arab kingdom is worried that al Qaeda’s Yemen-based wing is exploiting instability in its impoverished neighbor to stage more attacks inside Saudi Arabia, after Riyadh halted a militant campaign with the help of foreign experts in 2006.
WikiLeaks expose hidden Gulf views on Iran
RIYADH/DUBAI (Reuters) – The disclosure in leaked U.S. cables that Gulf Arab leaders want Washington to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme exposes long-hidden views that will kill any chance of detente with Tehran.
From Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, to tiny Bahrain, Gulf Arab rulers revealed a reality they had spent years trying to hide publicly.
Analysis: Wikileaks expose hidden Gulf views on Iran
RIYADH/DUBAI (Reuters) – The disclosure in leaked U.S. cables that Gulf Arab leaders want Washington to destroy Iran’s nuclear programme exposes long-hidden views that will kill any chance of detente with Tehran.
From Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, to tiny Bahrain, Gulf Arab rulers revealed a reality they had spent years trying to hide publicly.
Foiled Saudi Qaeda cells were recruiting, goverment says
RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia said on Friday it had captured 149 al Qaeda militants in recent months who were raising money and recruiting members to carry out attacks inside the kingdom, with links to other militants in Somalia and Yemen.
The announcement by the world’s largest oil-exporting country was made with elderly Saudi King Abdullah in the United States recovering from surgery to treat a blood clot complication from a slipped disc.
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