Saudi crown prince says war with Iran would gut world economy

Saudi Arabia's crown prince said in an interview aired on Sunday that war with Iran would devastate the global economy and he prefers a non-military solution to tensions with his regional rival.

"If the world does not take a strong and firm action to deter Iran, we will see further escalations that will threaten world interests," Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ─ known as MBS for short ─ told the CBS program "60 Minutes".

"Oil supplies will be disrupted and oil prices will jump to unimaginably high numbers that we haven't seen in our lifetimes," the crown prince said.

MBS said a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran would be catastrophic for the world economy.

"The region represents about 30 per cent of the world's energy supplies, about 20 per cent of global trade passages, about four per cent of the world GDP. Imagine all of these three things stop," he said.

"This means a total collapse of the global economy, and not just Saudi Arabia or the Middle East countries."

MBS said a September 14 attack on Saudi oil facilities, which his country and the US blamed on Iran, had been senseless.

"There is no strategic goal. Only a fool would attack five per cent of global supplies. The only strategic goal is to prove that they are stupid and that is what they did," said the crown prince.

He was asked point-blank if he ordered the killing and dismemberment of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in October last year.

"Absolutely not. This was a heinous crime. But I take full responsibility as a leader in Saudi Arabia, especially since it was committed by individuals working for the Saudi government," he said.

Read: I get all the responsibility because it happened under my watch: MBS on Khashoggi murder

"When a crime is committed against a Saudi citizen by officials, working for the Saudi government, as a leader I must take responsibility. This was a mistake."

Body never found

MBS, the kingdom's de facto ruler, has come under huge international pressure after the US-based writer was killed and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

Khashoggi's body was never found.

The crown prince has said the killing was carried out without his knowledge.

Riyadh has repeatedly denied that the crown prince was behind the murder of Khashoggi — a royal family insider turned critic and a US resident — who was killed in what Saudi authorities have described as a rogue operation.

A report by a UN human rights expert, who conducted an independent probe, said there was "credible evidence" linking the crown prince to the murder and an attempted cover up.

The CIA has also reportedly said the killing was likely ordered by MBS.

But Saudi prosecutors have absolved the crown prince and said around two dozen people implicated in the murder are in custody, with death penalties sought against five men.

from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/2omwjir
via IFTTT

IT ministry forms panel to review social media rules

ISLAMABAD: While uproar against the new rules to regulate social media continues from various segments of society, including parliamentarians, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and civil society, the information technology ministry on Friday formed a committee to review the rules. The federal cabinet approved the rules on Feb 11, but later after opposition from various quarters, including companies that manage different social media platforms, the prime minister announced that a fresh consultation process would be launched over the Citizens Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules 2020. The committee formed by the IT ministry is headed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Amir Azeem Bajwa while its members are Eazaz Aslam Dar, additional secretary of IT; Tania Aidrus, member of the Strategic Reforms Implementation Unit, Prime Minister Office; and Dr Arslan Khalid, focal person on digital media at the PM Office. Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Ma

Arif Alvi files request to be acquitted in the PTV attack case

He says he never asked for presidential immunity in the case from Samaa Digital https://ift.tt/2DHMdvh

Young girl’s tragic story makes her symbol of Yemen war

Buthaina Mansur al-Rimi’s life has changed drastically since last year — orphaned in Sanaa, the little girl controversially ended up in Saudi Arabia for medical care and has just returned to Yemen’s capital. Her entire immediate family was wiped out in an air strike by a Saudi-led coalition that backs Yemen’s government, using an explosive device Amnesty International says was made in the US. Images of Buthaina’s rescue and a picture of her swollen and bruised at a hospital trying to force open one of her eyes with her fingers were beamed worldwide. That international fame saw her become something of a propaganda pawn in the war between Yemen’s Iran-backed Huthi rebels and Saudi media. “I was in my mother’s room with my father, sisters, brother and uncle, the first missile hit, and my father went to get us sugar to get over the shock, but then the second missile hit, and then the third,” she says. “And then the house fell,” adds the little girl, who says she is eight. It was the

Latest News

Search This Blog