Saudi Arabia

King Salman, the new king of Saudi Arabia, has troubling ties to radical Islamists.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has died on early Friday at the age of 90 and will be succeeded by his half-brother Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, which puts the region's most important Sunni power, OPEC oil supplier and America's closest Arab ally in the hands of a 79-year-old who is reportedly in poor health and suffering from dementia.

The removal of Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a key figure in kingdom’s foreign relations, especially ties with the United States and the crisis in Syria from his post, raised questions as why it happened at such a critical time.

Saudi Arabia's Prince Bandar bin Sultan has been removed from his post as kingdom’s Director General of the Saudi Intelligence Agency with General Youssef Al-Idrissi according to the king's royal decree. The Saudi prince is also known to have had close ties with former US President George W. Bush, and was an advocate of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Saudi Arabia has demanded that Qatar shut down Al-Jazeera satellite network and and expulsion of two US think tanks – identified as Brookings Doha Center and the Rand Qatar Policy Institute -- would be sufficient to prevent Qatar from “being punished”, i.e. being blocked by land and sea, during a recent meeting of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council.

The new case of chemical weapons caused by the coalition of Western powers, Israel, retrograde Gulf monarchies, and executed by takfirist movements has fizzled because of the vigilance of the Syrian-Russian-Iranian alliance. Russian satellites are very active over Syria and the information gathered by the Syrian military command shows that the "chemical film" aims to serve as a pretext for aggression against Syria, to compensate for losses suffered by terrorist gangs sent from Jordan. Israel’s role in inciting aggression against Syria is now clear.

Swiping at the West, Saudi Arabia says the Kingdom, Arab and Islamic nations will step in to help and will cover the loss to Egypt if Western countries cut their financial aid.

The early removal of Saudi Prince Fahd bin Abdullah bin Mohammad Al Saud as deputy defense minister and the appointment of Prince Salman bin Sultan bin Abdel-Aziz to the post was due to two mistakes, according to a detailed leaked information.

Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, Director General of the Saudi Intelligence Agency, is becoming problematic for Saudi Arabia due to his personal ambitions as he has practically turned to a commander for militant groups fighting against Syria government.

Russia rejected a Saudi proposal to abandon Syria's president in return for a huge arms deal and a pledge to boost Russian influence in the Arab world.

German defense technology group Krauss-Maffei-Wegmann is about to lose a contract worth $6.5 billion from Saudi Arabia. The Saudis are losing patience over Berlin's foot-dragging on a deal.

A Saudi princess was arrested by US police on charge of human trafficking in the state of California.