I’d just like to point out that this picture is particularly impressive.

You are not supposed to touch the Crown Prince in any circumstances.

Seeing him embrace Zelensky speaks volumes.

  • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    176·
    1 day ago

    Saudi Arabia is an important nation not only because of oil but also because of Mecca and Medina’s importance to Islam.

    I have no idea why you would think a nation shouldn’t attempt to have congenial relations with another nation especially if that nation needs support from others.

    • fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      383·
      1 day ago

      MBS is a butcher, he should be shunned. This is a necessary evil, but is still disappointing.

      • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        1 day ago

        The region is full of butchers. MBS just happens to be a close ally to the neoconservative CIA/State Department old guard. Of course he’s going to be a touchpoint for a proxy war with their age old geopolitical enemy. Its the same reason Putin has reached out to Iran and North Korea.

      • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        189·
        1 day ago

        Idealism has little place in foreign relations once you have to deal with the real world. We have to ally ourselves with people we find distasteful because our nations need to be tied for various reasons. It is childish to think your personal feelings about a national leader should impact your nation’s diplomatic relations.

        • fxomt@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
          182·
          1 day ago

          As i said, this is a necessary evil. That does not change reality. MBS is a brutal dictator with an iron fist over the whole middle east, and he is a murderer. I think all countries should be moving away from saudi arabia, not closer to it.

          • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            415·
            1 day ago

            “That does not change reality. MBS is a brutal dictator with an iron fist over the whole middle east.”

            That is not true. He is the Prime Minister of KSA. He is the presumptive leader but is not on paper the reigning monarch. KSA does not have an iron fist over other Middle Eastern nations as some have little to do with KSA and others are too powerful themselves to kowtow to KSA such as Egypt or Israel.

            “I think all countries should be moving away from saudi arabia, not closer to it.”

            And I have already mentioned why this is unrealistic and childish. When you have to face these situations IRL you don’t have the option to avoid dealing with people you find distasteful.

    • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
      10·
      1 day ago

      Saudi Arabia is not exactly popular among Muslim people around the world. In particular with them embracing US influence, funding Daesh and other murderous groups and of course supporting Israel in its oppression and mass murder of Palestinians, MBS has a very bad reputation.

      • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        37·
        1 day ago

        Source on the Saudi government funding DAESH? That claim makes little sense as like Al Qaeda DAESH wishes to overthrow the Saudi state.

        • Saleh@feddit.orgEnglish
          51·
          1 day ago

          https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Finances_of_the_Islamic_State

          Website The Daily Beast in June 2014 accused wealthy donors in Saudi Arabia and Qatar of having funded IS in the past.[45][46] Iran and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have accused the governments of Saudi Arabia and Qatar of funding the group.[47][45][48] Ahead of the pro-Iraq, anti-IS conference held in Paris on 15 September 2014, France’s foreign minister acknowledged that a number of countries at the table had “very probably” financed IS’s advances.[49] According to The Atlantic, IS may have been a major part of Saudi Arabian Bandar bin Sultan’s covert-ops strategy in Syria.[50]

          See https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/06/isis-saudi-arabia-iraq-syria-bandar/373181/ for the Citation 50

          Also see https://www.channel4.com/news/factcheck/factcheck-qa-is-saudi-arabia-funding-isis for an overview of various US internal documents where the US government itself accused Saudi Arabia of funding Daesh at least in the beginning.

          Perhaps the most powerful indication of Saudi’s financial links with ISIS can be seen in the cache of emails leaked from the office of Hillary Clinton, who was US Secretary of State from 2009 to 2013.

          The messages, published by Wikileaks, contain an unambiguous statement by her campaign chairman, John Podesta:

          “We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region.”

          This wasn’t the first time US officials had made this claim. In 2009, Wikileaks published diplomatic cables from the US State Department which spelt out the same concerns.

          “Donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide,” the documents said. “While the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) takes seriously the threat of terrorism within Saudi Arabia, it has been an ongoing challenge to persuade Saudi officials to treat terrorist financing emanating from Saudi Arabia as a strategic priority …

          “More needs to be done since Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qaeda, the Taliban, LeT, and other terrorist groups, including Hamas, which probably raise millions of dollars annually from Saudi sources.”

          • RowRowRowYourBot@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
            22·
            23 hours ago

            Your primary source which you draw other sources from is 7 years old and wikipedia thinks it needs to be edited/fixed.

            Only one of your sources talk about the government financing ISIS. The rest talk about Saudi people not the government. There is a huge difference from what the guy who is 6098th in line for the throne supports (the House of Saud is 12-15000 people so this isn’t a flippant comment), what a non-royal business guy supports and what the guy in charge supports. Only the guy in charge’s support is relevant to my request.

            So your best source is an email link that Im not sure we still believe is true.