middle-east
Saudi raises number of hajj pilgrims this year
Saudi Arabia raised the number of Hajj pilgrims from inside and outside the kingdom to one million in 2022, authorities announced in a statement on Saturday.
The statement comes after two years of cancellations and restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hajj is open to those who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and are under the age of 65, added the statement.
Pilgrims travelling from abroad will also need to have a negative PCR test taken no more than 72 hours before their departure for Saudi Arabia, the statement said.
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The decision seeks to allow the largest number of pilgrims to take part in the Hajj, while preserving the health gains achieved by the Kingdom in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic, the ministry said.
The increase will be according to the quotas allocated to countries, taking into account health recommendations.
Last year, 58,745 pilgrims performed Hajj because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to official data.
Before the pandemic, some 2.5 million people would travel every year to Saudi Arabia for Hajj.
Shooter kills 2, wounds several in crowded central Tel Aviv
An attacker opened fire into a crowded bar in central Tel Aviv on Thursday, killing at least two people and wounding several others before fleeing into a dense residential area, Israeli officials said.
Police said there were “indications" it was a politically motivated attack — the fourth deadly assault in Israel in less than three weeks at a time of heightened Israeli-Palestinian tensions. The militant Hamas group that rules the Gaza Strip praised the attack but did not claim responsibility.
Hours after the shooting, the suspected gunman remained at large. Hundreds of Israeli police officers, canine units, and army special forces were conducting a massive manhunt in central Tel Aviv, searching building by building through densely populated residential neighborhoods.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett met with top security officials and ordered reinforcements into the city. “Wherever the terrorist is — we'll get to him. And everyone who helped him indirectly or directly — will pay a price,” he said in a statement.
Also read: Israel raids West Bank, 2 Palestinians killed in gun battle
Amichai Eshed, the Tel Aviv police commander, said the shooter opened fire at a packed bar at around 9 p.m. and then fled the scene.
“Our working assumption is that he is still in the vicinity," he told reporters. “As of right now, there are indications pointing to this being a terrorist attack, but I have to be very delicate about this, and say that we are also checking other leads.”
Israel's Magen David Adom emergency service said two men around 30 years old were killed. Another seven people were wounded, three of them seriously, it said.
The shooting took place on Dizengoff Street, a central thoroughfare that has seen other attacks over the years. In the most recent, an Arab citizen of Israel shot and killed two Israelis and wounded several others on the street in January 2016.
Thursday's attack took place at the start of the Israeli weekend in the popular nightlife area. Medics described scenes of panic, with dozens of people fleeing after the shots rang out.
Tensions have been high after a series of attacks by Palestinian assailants killed 11 people just ahead of the holy Islamic month of Ramadan, which began nearly a week ago. Last year, protests and clashes in Jerusalem during Ramadan ignited an 11-day Gaza war.
Also read: Palestinian PM calls on int'l community to stop Israeli attacks against Palestinians
Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders have held a flurry of meetings in recent weeks, and Israel has taken a number of steps aimed at calming tensions, including issuing thousands of additional work permits for Palestinians from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.
Prior to the attack, Israel had said it would allow women, children and men over 40 from the occupied West Bank to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in east Jerusalem on Friday, the first weekly prayers of Ramadan. Tens of thousands were expected to attend.
The mosque is the third holiest site in Islam and sits on a hilltop that is the most sacred site for Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount. The holy site has long been a flashpoint for Israeli-Palestinian violence.
Israel has worked to sideline the Palestinian issue in recent years, instead focusing on forging alliances with Arab states against Iran. But the century-old conflict remains as intractable as ever.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians want all three territories to form their future state. The last substantive peace talks broke down more than a decade ago, and Bennett is opposed to Palestinian statehood.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally and considers the entire city to be its capital. It is building and expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, which most of the international community considers illegal.
It withdrew soldiers and settlers from Gaza in 2005. But along with neighboring Egypt, it imposed a crippling blockade on the territory after the militant Hamas group seized power from rival Palestinian forces two years later. Israel and Hamas have fought four wars since then.
Hamas spokesman Abdelatif Al-Qanou said late Thursday that the "the heroic attack in the heart of the (Israeli) entity has struck the Zionist security system and proved our people’s ability to hurt the occupation.”
On March 29, a 27-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank shot and killed five people in the central town of Bnei Brak. Two days earlier, a shooting attack by two Islamic State group sympathizers in the central city of Hadera killed two police officers. The week before, an IS supporter killed four people in a car-ramming and stabbing attack in the southern city of Beersheba. The Hadera and Beersheba attacks were carried out by Palestinian citizens of Israel.
The recent attacks appear to have been carried out by lone assailants, perhaps with the help of accomplices. No Palestinian militant group has claimed them, though Hamas has welcomed the attacks.
Israel says the conflict stems from the Palestinians' refusal to accept its existence as a Jewish state and blames attacks in part on incitement on social media. Palestinians say such attacks are the inevitable result of a nearly 55-year military occupation that shows no sign of ending.
Yemen’s president steps aside amid efforts to end war
Yemen’s exiled president stepped aside and transferred his powers to a presidential council on Thursday, as international and regional efforts to end the country’s long-running civil war gained momentum with a two-month truce.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, major players in the conflict appear to have played a role in President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi's decision, quickly welcoming it with a pledge of $3 billion in aid. The head of the new council has close ties to Riyadh.
Whether the switch will expedite an end to the grinding war remains to be seen, as U.N.-sponsored negotiations have been at an impasse and fighting, airstrikes and missile attacks continued until late last month. The Houthis did not immediately comment on Hadi's announcement.
Also read: Yemen rebels strike oil depot in Saudi city hosting F1 race
Peter Salisbury, Yemen expert at the International Crisis Group, described the power transfer as “A Big Deal.” The development, he tweeted, is the “most consequential shift in the inner workings of the anti-Houthi bloc since war began.”
Hadi, 76, said the newly established council will run the internationally recognized government and lead negotiations with the Iranian-backed Houthis, according to a statement aired on state-run media.
The move is meant to unify the anti-Houthi camp after years of infighting and disputes, and was almost certainly orchestrated in Riyadh, where Yemeni factions were meeting over the past week to discuss efforts to end the war.
“With this declaration a Presidential Leadership Council shall be established to complete the implementation of the tasks of the transitional period. I irreversibly delegate to the Presidential Leadership Council my full powers,” Hadi declared on Yemen’s state-run TV.
Hadi also sacked Vice President Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, a powerful military figure, and also delegated al-Ahmar’s powers to the presidential council.
The presidential council is chaired by Rashad al-Alimi, an advisor to Hadi and former interior minister with the government of late strongman President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Al-Alimi enjoys close ties with Saudi Arabia and other political groups inside Yemen, including the powerful Islah party — the transnational Muslim Brotherhood’s branch in Yemen.
The council has seven other members, all whom have political and military influence on the ground in Yemen. That includes Aydarous al-Zubaidi, head of the secessionist Southern Transitional Council — an umbrella group of heavily armed and well-financed militias propped up by the UAE since 2015.
Sheikh Sultan al-Aradah, the powerful governor of energy-rich Marib province, was also named a member of the council. So was Tariq Saleh, a militia leader and nephew of the late president who has close ties with the UAE.
Hadi was named president of Yemen in 2012 with a mission to oversee a democratic transition following its Arab Spring uprising that ended Saleh's longtime rule.
However, the Houthis, a religious movement turned rebel militia, allied with Saleh and seized the capital Sanaa in 2014, forcing Hadi and his government into exile in Saudi Arabia.
Months later, Saudi Arabia formed a military coalition and entered the war to try to restore Hadi’s government to power.
The conflict has in recent years become a regional proxy war that has killed more than 150,000 people, including over 14.500 civilians. It has also created one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
Welcoming Hadi's move, Saudi Arabia urged the presidential council to embark on U.N.-led negotiations with the Houthis to find a “political, final and comprehensive” settlement to the conflict, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency.
Powerful Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has also met with the council head and its members, according to Saudi state-run TV.
Also read:UAE intercepts Yemen missile as Israeli president visits
The warring sides announced a two-month cease-fire earlier this month, the first nationwide truce in Yemen in six years.
Hadi’s announcement came as Yemeni talks called by the Saudi-based Gulf Cooperation Council entered their final day on Thursday. The Houthis boycotted the GCC-facilitated efforts because they're taking place in Saudi Arabia, their adversary’s territory.
Jordan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates issued a statement welcoming Hadi's decision and hailing the aid package pledged by Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
Ramadan kicks off in much of Middle East amid soaring prices
The Muslim holy month of Ramadan — when the faithful fast from dawn to dusk — began at sunrise Saturday in much of the Middle East, where Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has sent energy and food prices soaring.
The conflict cast a pall over Ramadan, when large gatherings over meals and family celebrations are a tradition. Many in the Southeast Asian nation of Indonesia planned to start observing Sunday, and some Shiites in Lebanon, Iran and Iraq were also marking the start of Ramadan a day later.
Muslims follow a lunar calendar and a moon-sighting methodology can lead to different countries declaring the start of Ramadan a day or two apart.
Muslim-majority nations including Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Syria, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates had declared the month would begin Saturday morning.
A Saudi statement Friday was broadcast on the kingdom’s state-run Saudi TV and Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto leader of the United Arab Emirates, congratulated Muslims on Ramadan’s arrival.
Jordan, a predominantly Sunni country, also said the first day of Ramadan would be on Sunday, in a break from following Saudi Arabia. The kingdom said the Islamic religious authority was unable to spot the crescent moon indicating the beginning of the month.
Indonesia’s second-largest Islamic group, Muhammadiyah, which counts more than 60 million members, said that according to its astronomical calculations Ramadan begins Saturday. But the country’s religious affairs minister had announced Friday that Ramadan would start on Sunday, after Islamic astronomers in the country failed to sight the new moon.
It wasn’t the first time the Muhammadiyah has offered a differing opinion on the matter, but most Indonesians — Muslims comprise nearly 90% of the country’s 270 million people — are expected to follow the government’s official date.
Many had hoped for a more cheerful Ramadan after the coronavirus pandemic blocked the world’s 2 billion Muslims from many rituals the past two years.
With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, millions of people in the Middle East are now wondering where their next meals will come from. The skyrocketing prices are affecting people whose lives were already upended by conflict, displacement and poverty from Lebanon, Iraq and Syria to Sudan and Yemen.
Ukraine and Russia account for a third of global wheat and barley exports, which Middle East countries rely on to feed millions of people who subsist on subsidized bread and bargain noodles. They are also top exporters of other grains and sunflower seed oil used for cooking.
Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, has received most of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine in recent years. Its currency has now also taken a dive, adding to other pressures driving up prices.
Shoppers in the capital Cairo turned out earlier this week to stock up on groceries and festive decorations, but many had to buy less than last year because of the soaring prices.
Ramadan tradition calls for colorful lanterns and lights strung throughout Cairo’s narrow alleys and around mosques. Some people with the means to do so set up tables on the streets to dish up free post-fast Iftar meals for the poor. The practice is known in the Islamic world as “Tables of the Compassionate.”
2 killed, 8 injured in car bomb blast in western Afghanistan
At least two people were killed and eight others wounded in a car bomb blast in Afghanistan's western province of Herat on Friday, a provincial public health official confirmed.
"Based on initial information, two were killed and eight wounded in the car bomb blast. The injured were admitted to a regional hospital in provincial capital Herat city...," Mirwais Jalali, physician-in-chief of Herat Regional Hospital, told Xinhua.
The wounded were receiving treatment in an intensive care unit, he said.
READ: 4 Afghan children killed in unexploded ordnance blast: gov't
The incident occurred in Jebraheel locality of Herat city around Friday evening, a provincial security source told Xinhua earlier.
He said the Taliban security forces have cordoned off the area for precautionary measures.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack yet.
Afghanistan's Taliban-led administration has vowed to crack down on the outlaws and criminals to ensure law and order in the Asian country.
Stadiums built but scrutiny endures for Qatar World Cup head
A dozen years of defending Qatar's suitability to host the World Cup can leave Hassan Al-Thawadi exasperated at the enduring glare of scrutiny and the accusatory, rather than celebratory, tone.
At times, Al-Thawadi can seem to be the face — even leader — of this Persian Gulf nation given his prominence. As head of the bid, and now general secretary of the organizing committee, Al-Thawadi has rights groups, protesting football federations and fans worldwide to answer to.
The responses do not always placate those aghast at the suffering of migrant workers whose low-paid labor was relied on to build not only stadiums but also Qatar’s wider infrastructure that is beyond Al-Thawadi’s direct remit.
Also read: Ukraine asks FIFA to postpone World Cup playoff vs Scotland
But it is the changes to working conditions and rights in the nation that Al-Thawadi is trying to accentuate on the eve of the World Cup draw when the finalists discover who and where they will be playing in November.
“Human suffering is a tragedy. Simple as that," Al-Thawadi said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday. “We recognized from day one from before we bid to host the World Cup, that things had to change. This is not something that dawned upon us as a result of the World Cup.”
And yet changes to labor laws were not part of the public Qatar bid. They only came in recent years rather than before construction started on the eight new stadiums required after the 2010 vote once groups, including Amnesty International, applied pressure.
“We knew that this World Cup will be an accelerant,” he said, “and will assist the government in terms of making that change.”
They include the introduction of a minimum wage and the dismantling of the “kafala” sponsorship system binding workers to their employer. Enforcement across Qatar is the challenge, especially as investigators hone in on construction sites away from the eight World Cup stadiums that are complete.
Al-Thawadi sees Qatar as setting the “benchmark” — particularly with more restrictive working practices enduring elsewhere in the Gulf — and pointing to how some of the “most ardent of critics” are now working with them.
“Nobody accepts any sort of suffering, and we are doing our bit to ensure that this doesn’t occur,” he said. "I’m working very diligently and we’re very committed that this progress that has been done over the last 12 years will continue after 2022 and will remain.”
But Al-Thawadi went from the interview to the FIFA Congress where Norwegian football federation president Lise Klaveness called out the freedoms and safety denied to workers and the lack of LGBTQ+ protections in Qatar.
Al-Thawadi was riled, claiming in response that Klaveness had not attempted to contact him. It is a sign of how vexed Al-Thawadi can be having to continue justifying Qatar as the Middle East's first World Cup host.
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“The World Cup is an opportunity for everybody to come and get to understand different people of different backgrounds with different values," Al-Thawadi said. "We don’t necessarily always ... agree on everything ... but that in itself has to be respected and accepted.
“What we say is what we’re offering them, providing a safe World Cup, a welcoming World Cup for everybody. And this is the opportunity for everybody to sit down and build relations."
Al-Thawadi is hoping people will listen, even if the answers or Qatari laws do not satisfy them.
“People are very quick to pass judgment," he said. “Very quick and very firm in their judgment with that, whether they have the full information or not.”
Israel raids West Bank, 2 Palestinians killed in gun battle
Israeli forces raided a refugee camp in the occupied West Bank early Thursday, setting off a gun battle in which two Palestinians were killed and 15 were wounded, the Palestinian Health Ministry said.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian stabbed a 28-year-old Israeli man on a bus in the West Bank before being killed by a bystander, the Israeli military said. The Magen David Adom emergency service said the stabbing victim was treated and taken to a hospital.
Videos circulated online showed smoke rising from the center of the Jenin refugee camp as gunfire echoed in the background. Others appeared to show Israeli soldiers and Palestinian gunmen moving through the narrow streets.
The raid came two days after a Palestinian from a village near Jenin shot and killed five people in central Israel, part of a wave of attacks in recent days that have left a total of 11 people dead.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said 17-year-old Sanad Abu Atiyeh and 23-year-old Yazid al-Saadi were killed. It said 30-year-old Nidal Jaafara was shot and killed near the West Bank town of Bethlehem, apparently referring to the stabbing incident.
Also read: Palestinian gunman kills 5 in 3rd attack in Israel in a week
The Israeli military said troops came under fire after entering Jenin to arrest suspects. It said one soldier was wounded and evacuated to a hospital for treatment.
The Jenin refugee camp was the scene of one of the deadliest battles of the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising. In April 2002, Israeli forces fought Palestinian militants in the camp for nearly three weeks. Twenty-three Israeli soldiers and at least 52 Palestinians, including civilians, were killed, according to the U.N.
The Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the occupied West Bank and coordinates with Israel on security matters, appears to have had little control over Jenin in recent years. Israeli forces operating in and around the city and refugee camp often come under fire.
The Islamic Jihad militant group announced a “general mobilization” of its fighters after Thursday's raid.
In Tuesday’s attack, a 27-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank village of Yabad, near Jenin, methodically gunned down victims, killing five. On Sunday night, a shooting attack by two Islamic State sympathizers in the central city of Hadera killed two police officers. Last week, a combined car-ramming and stabbing attack in the southern city of Beersheba — also by an attacker inspired by IS — killed four. The two attacks claimed by IS were carried out by Arab citizens of Israel.
President Joe Biden spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Wednesday. Biden expressed his condolences after the recent attacks and said the U.S. “stands firmly and resolutely with Israel in the face of this terrorist threat and all threats to the state of Israel,” the White House said.
The recent wave of violence has brought the Palestinian issue back to the fore at a time when Israel is focused on building alliances with Arab states against Iran. There have been no serious Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in more than a decade, and Bennett is opposed to Palestinian statehood.
Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian leaders have held a flurry of meetings in recent weeks, and Israel has announced a series of goodwill gestures, in an effort to maintain calm ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which begins this weekend.
Also read: Israeli jets hit militant targets in Gaza after rocket fire
They hope to avoid a repeat of last year, when clashes in Jerusalem set off an 11-day Gaza war, but the recent attacks have sent tensions soaring. After a Security Cabinet meeting late Wednesday, Israel nevertheless decided to carry on with plans to ease restrictions on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Israel captured east Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza in the 1967 Mideast war, territories the Palestinians want for a future state. Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a move not recognized internationally. In the West Bank, it is steadily building and expanding Jewish settlements, which most of the internationally community views as illegal.
Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and the Palestinian militant group Hamas seized power there two years later. Since then, Israel and Hamas have fought four wars and Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade on the territory, which is home to more than 2 million Palestinians.
Yemen rebels strike oil depot in Saudi city hosting F1 race
Yemen’s Houthi rebels attacked an oil depot on Friday in the Saudi city of Jiddah ahead of a Formula One race in the kingdom. It was the rebels’ highest-profile assault yet, though Saudi authorities pledged the upcoming grand prix would go on as scheduled.
The attack targeted the same fuel depot that the Houthis had attacked in recent days, the North Jiddah Bulk Plant that sits just southeast of the city’s international airport and is a crucial hub for Muslim pilgrims heading to Mecca. No injuries were reported in the attack.
The publicly traded Saudi Arabian Oil Co., known as Saudi Aramco, did not respond to a request for comment. Saudi authorities acknowledged a “hostile operation” by the Houthis targeting the depot with a missile.
In Yemen, Saudi Arabia leads a coalition battling the Iran-backed Houthis, who seized Yemen’s capital of Sanaa in September 2014. The kingdom, which entered the war in 2015, has been internationally criticized for its airstrikes that have killed scores of civilians — something the Houthis point to as they launch drones, missiles and mortars into the kingdom.
Brig. Gen. Turki al-Malki, a spokesman for the Saudi-led coalition, said the fire damaged two tanks and was put out without injuries.
Read: Ukraine war fuels global economic downturn
“This hostile escalation targets oil facilities and aims to undermine energy security and the backbone of global economy,” al-Malki said, according to the state-run Saudi Press Agency. “These hostile attacks had no impact or repercussions in any way, shape or form on public life in Jiddah.”
The Saudi-led coalition warned overnight it would launch new attacks on Yemen, including on the hard-hit port city of Hodeida.
Jake Sullivan, White House national security adviser, condemned the attacks and called them “clearly enabled by Iran” despite an ongoing U.N. arms embargo. While Tehran denies arming the Houthis, U.N. experts and Western nations have linked weaponry in the rebels’ hands back to Iran.
In Tehran, authorities bathed its Azadi, or “Freedom,” Square in a light projection showing the faces of Houthi leaders.
“At a time when the parties should be focused on de-escalation and bringing needed life-saving relief to the Yemeni people ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, the Houthis continue their destructive behavior and reckless terrorist attacks striking civilian infrastructure,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken separately said in a statement.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the Houthi attacks on Twitter. “These strikes put civilian lives at risk and must stop,” he wrote.
An Associated Press photojournalist covering practice laps at the F1 track in Jiddah saw the smoke rising in the distance to the east, just after 5:40 p.m. As the flames rose, the tops of the tanks of the bulk plant were clearly visible some 11.5 kilometers (7 miles) away.
Drivers raced on into the evening even as the fire burned.
The second-ever Saudi Arabian Grand Prix in Jiddah is taking place on Sunday, though concerns had been raised by some over the recent attacks targeting the kingdom.
Hours later, the F1 said plans for Saturday’s third practice and qualifying and Sunday’s race were still set to go ahead. The Saudi Motorsport Co., which promotes the race, acknowledged the attack but said the “race weekend schedule will continue as planned.”
We “remain in direct contact with Saudi security authorities, as well as F1 and the FIA to ensure all necessary security and safety measures,” the company said, referring to motorsport’s governing body.
“The safety and security of all our guests continues to be our main priority.”
The al-Masirah satellite news channel run by Yemen’s Houthi rebels later claimed they had attacked an Aramco facility in Jiddah, along with other targets in Riyadh and elsewhere.
Meanwhile, Saudi state TV also acknowledged attacks in one town targeting water tanks that damaged vehicles and homes. Another attack targeted an electrical substation in an area of southwestern Saudi Arabia near the Yemeni border, state TV said.
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The North Jiddah Bulk Plant stores diesel, gasoline and jet fuel for use in Jiddah, the kingdom’s second-largest city. It accounts for over a quarter of all of Saudi Arabia’s supplies and also supplies fuel crucial to running a regional desalination plant.
The Houthis have twice targeted the North Jiddah plant with cruise missiles. One attack came in November 2020. The last came on Sunday as part of a wider barrage by the Houthis.
At the time of the 2020 attack, the targeted tank, which has a capacity of 500,000 barrels, held diesel fuel, according to a recent report by a U.N. panel of experts examining Yemen’s war. Repairing it after the last attack cost Aramco some $1.5 million.
The U.N. experts described the facility as a “civilian target,” which the Houthis should have avoided after the 2020 attack.
“While the facility also supplies the Saudi military with petroleum products, it is mostly supplying civilian customers,” the panel said. “If the plant had been out of service of a significant period, the impact on the kingdom’s economy as well as on the welfare of the residents of the Western region would likely have been significant.”
Cruise missiles and drones remain difficult to defend against, though the U.S. recently sent a significant number of Patriot anti-missile interceptors to Saudi Arabia to resupply the kingdom amid the Houthi attacks.
In September, the AP reported that the U.S. had removed its own Patriot and THAAD defense systems from Prince Sultan Air Base outside of Riyadh.
The attacks have renewed questions about the kingdom’s ability to defend itself from Houthi fire as a yearslong war in the Arab world’s poorest country rages on with no end in sight. It also comes as Saudi Arabia issued an unusually stark warning that it is unable to guarantee its oil production won’t be affected by further attacks — which could push global energy prices even higher amid Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Benchmark Brent crude prices rose above $120 a barrel in trading Friday.A cloud of smoke rises from a burning oil depot in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, Friday, March 25, 2022. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Saudi Arabia says it's not responsible for high oil prices
Saudi Arabia said Monday that it “won't bear any responsibility" for a shortage in global oil supplies after a fierce barrage of attacks by Yemen's Houthi rebels affected production in the kingdom, the world's largest oil exporter.
The unusually stark warning marked a departure from the giant oil producer's typically cautious statements, as Saudi officials remain aware that even their smallest comments can swing the price of oil and rattle global markets.
The salvo of rebel attacks on Saudi Arabia's oil facilities marked a serious escalation in the war, which erupted in 2014 when the Iran-backed Houthis seized the capital, Sanaa, and much of the country's north. Saudi Arabia and its allies responded with a devastating air campaign to dislodge the Houthis and restore the internationally recognized government.
Seven years later, the conflict has turned into a bloody stalemate and spawned one of the worst humanitarian disasters in the world.
Also read: Asian shares extend losses as oil prices push higher
The state-run Saudi Press Agency quoted the Saudi Foreign Ministry as saying that the kingdom “declares that it will not bear any responsibility for any shortage in oil supplies to global markets in light of the attacks on its oil facilities.”
The announcement comes as the kingdom remains in lockstep with OPEC and other oil-producing countries in a deal limiting production increases. Gulf Arab oil producers have so far resisted pressure from the Biden administration to pump more crude to help bring down oil prices that have soared amid Russia's war on Ukraine.
Already, gasoline prices have hit record highs around the world. Gas prices in the U.S. topped $4.25 on Monday, according to auto club AAA, just below the historic record of $4.33 reached earlier this month.
“The international community must assume its responsibility to preserve energy supplies," the Saudi statement added, in order to deter attacks that jeopardize “the kingdom’s production capability and its ability to fulfill its commitments."
The international oil benchmark Brent crude hovered over $112 a barrel in trading Monday, up more than 4% for the preceding session. The price remained below a peak of nearly $140 hit earlier this month, but still some $15 a barrel more than before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
On Sunday, Yemen's Iran-backed rebels launched one of their most intense series of attacks targeting the kingdom's oil and natural gas production, sparking a fire at a petroleum distribution center in the port of Jiddah, the country’s second-largest city, and disrupting production at a petrochemicals complex in Yanbu on the Red Sea coast.
The overall extent of damage at the installations remained unclear. The Saudi Energy Ministry acknowledged a temporary drop in oil output at the 400,000-barrel-a-day Yanbu site, without elaborating.
The government condemned the attacks as a threat to the security of global oil supplies “in these extremely sensitive circumstances." Even before Russian tanks rolled into Ukraine, global energy supplies were struggling to keep pace with surging post-pandemic demand. The West's punitive sanctions on Moscow, among the world's largest oil producers and exporters, unleashed more turmoil on the market.
The relentless wave of Houthi strikes began before dawn Sunday and sporadically pounded sites throughout the kingdom's south and west for hours, with the roar and thump of missile interceptors rattling residents in Jiddah until just before midnight.
The attacks on installations run by the state-controlled national oil company Aramco, among the world's most significant and valuable companies, exposed the gaps in Saudi defenses and recalled the dramatic attacks on two key oil installations in the country's east that temporarily knocked out half of Saudi Arabia’s total oil production.
Also read: Oil prices jump, shares sink as Ukraine conflict deepens
The Houthis claimed responsibility for that sophisticated attack in September 2019, which the U.S. and Riyadh later blamed on Iran. Even after shrapnel blasted through the critical Abqaiq oil processing facility, Saudi Arabia delivered no such similar warning about its responsibility for global oil supplies and swinging prices. Instead the kingdom stressed it would speedily return to normal levels of production.
After Sunday's strikes, a senior administration official confirmed that the United States has transferred a significant number of Patriot antimissile interceptors to help Saudi Arabia thwart the barrage of Houthi drone and missile attacks.
“We condemn the weekend attacks on Saudi Arabia by the Iran-supported Houthis and will continue to help Saudi Arabia defend its territory,” tweeted U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. “These are attacks against civilians, and they must end.”
Emirati-flagged cargo ship sinks in Persian Gulf off Iran
An Emirati-flagged cargo ship, longer than a soccer field, sank in stormy seas off Iran’s southern coast in the Persian Gulf on Thursday, authorities said. Rescuers were trying to account for all of the vessel’s 30 crew members.
Capt. Nizar Qaddoura, operations manager of the company that owns the ship, told The Associated Press that the Al Salmy 6 encountered treacherous weather. The choppy waters forced the vessel to list at a precarious angle and within hours fully submerged the ship.
Emergency workers dispatched from Iran successfully saved 16 crew members, Qaddoura said, and civilian ships had been asked to help with the rescue efforts. Another 11 survivors made it into life rafts, while one person was plucked and saved from the water by a nearby tanker. Two crew members were still bobbing in the sea, he said.
The crew consisted of nationals from Sudan, India, Pakistan, Uganda, Tanzania and Ethiopia, Qaddoura said. The ship had been bound for the port of Umm Qasr, in southern Iraq, carrying cars and other cargo. It had left Dubai days earlier.
Also read: Bangladeshi migrants among 43 missing as boat sinks off Tunisia
The ship’s owners, the Dubai-based Salem Al Makrani Cargo company, specializes in car freighters.
The vessel capsized some 50 kilometers (30 miles) off the coast of Asaluyeh, in southern Iran, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. The search-and-rescue operation was complicated by bad weather, the report added, and was continuing.
Iranian media released images and footage of the ship, flipping over on its side after being rocked by waves, that matched with previous images of the Al Salmy 6, a roll-on, roll-off carrier — so named because automobiles can drive on and off.
The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, which patrols in the Mideast, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the incident.
Crucial oil and cargo shipping lanes flow past Iran through the Strait of Hormuz, delivering energy supplies from the oil-rich Gulf Arab states to the rest of the world.
Vessels sinking and other accidents remain rare in the busy waters. But dust and sand storms, gale-force winds and other poor weather typically sweeps across the region as seasons change from the chilly winter to sizzling summer.
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Severe weather began to pound the Persian Gulf on Wednesday, the state-run Iran Meteorological Organization reported, bringing wind gusts in excess of 70 kph (40 mph) and high waves to Iran’s Bushehr province. The agency issued a “red alert” this week, warning of disruption to maritime activities in the gulf and damage to offshore facilities through Saturday.