s the crown prince of saudi arabia. today only foreign observers are able to freely discuss these personal quarrels which often evolve into state affairs and upsets the geopolitical balance. of the gulf is far away from most for most europeans geographically but since the arab spring with the old powerhouses of egypt syria libya and also iraq obviously earlier collapsing and disintegrating and disappearing the new powerhouses of the arab world are on the gulf. scott pelley from you heard the ruling families of the gulf are in fact tribes who gradually rose to power in the 18th 19th and 20th centuries to the end of intersect these families were living as bedouins and essentially nomadic existence with little other than small scale farming and fishing that it. really shows us the wealth and prosperity of any businessman was measured by the number of camels he had a place that he did that called the song. look with. the whole something that all the gulf countries have in common is the fact that up until the 1st oil crisis

within saudi arabia. and the basic sort of recognition or basic argument that historians make is that from the beginning this relationship in the 1930s, 1940s, the u.s. government and american oil companies were involved in domestic saudi politics. strikes among aramco workers in 1945, 1953 and 1956 led to demands for reform and the nationalization of aramco by the saudi government. the government suppressed the strike and arrested or exiled the leaders. the groups such as the national reform front later called the national liberation front, formed out of these ups arising. later leaders and dissidents regarded the u.s. air base and aramco itself as constituting a colonial presence in saudi arabia. this was the era of anti-colonial nationalism, decolonization in the arab world. a movement for a constitutional monarchy supported by workers, by some government employee and technocrats, and even some members of the ruling family was defeated in the early 1960s. the u.s. government closed ranks behind the kin

arabia has tried to lure investors from asia to europe and from russia to the united states saudi arabia is reportedly still holding government to government meetings to attract investment from softened funds. industry experts believe much of the investment from the riyadh listing will come from the saudi families not foreign investors it's curious timing for such an i.p.o. with the reek outlook for oil prices a sluggish global economy and increased environmental awareness against the use of fossil fuels osama bin job it is there. so crown prince mohammed bin salomon announced the arabia's 2030 economic vision more than 3 years ago that plan aims to expand the private sector and diversify the kingdom's economy away from oil this would include investments in renewable energy and large scale real estate projects like the planned futuristic city neon which would cost around $500000000000.00 it also seeks to increase tourism from 3 percent of gross domestic product to 10 percent and boost culture and entertainment as well as decrease unemployment for more than 11 percent to 7 as well as get

arabia and foreign officials working on behalf of the kingdom of saudi arabia without prior notification as required by law they had access to proprietary and confidential twitter information including information about twitter users including the user provided e-mail addresses birthdates phone numbers and internet protocol addresses now the complaint also said that these 2 former employees didn't have jobs that required them to have access to people's private information now as for their payout they were given a designer watch that was priced at $20000.00 and another at least $300000.00 transferred into secret bank accounts that they had twitter security its users privet see clearly dealt a blow here but to what extent well just recently the american involved he was arrested in seattle for tampering with 3 twitter accounts but the real damage was done back in 2015 when over 6000 twitter users had their information stolen by the saudi coconspirator who now is all the way back in saudi he's believed to be back in saudi arabia safe and sound i mean this is twitter we're talking about it's

companies to saudi arabia, and saudi arabia's bonds,e of treasury helping to fund the debt of the saudi states, as well as support for anti-communist causes in the cold war, especially the support with the islamist insurgency identity soviet union in afghanistan after 1979. ally ine u.s. lost its the gulf, the shah of iran, to a revolution. the iranian revolution placed emphasis on site every as a u.s. ally.hasis on a u.s. the announcement of 1980, the doctrine in u.s. increased its dilatory presence in the gulf. this encompassed in the creation of the joint task force and later the u.s. central command, as well as debasing -- the in theof u.s. forces area. hundreds of thousands of u.s. troops were deployed to the region, including saudi arabia, war.g the floor -- gulf the u.s.ght expect, troop presence provoked opposition and resistance and opened a new chapter in the opposition against the ruling family and u.s.-saudi relations. al qaeda included saudi dissidents such as osama bin laden and veterans of the anti-soviet campaign in afghanistan. saudi leaders saw the u.s. as an ally agai

welcome back to larry saudi arabia concludes this year's u.n. general assembly in new york this after donald trump said he wants to send hundreds of his soldiers to protect the kingdom that beheads and crucifies another country not only hosting u.s. troops but the u.s. is largest overseas bases germany which agrees with britain and the usa that iran was behind asymmetric attacks on saudi arabia that cause record breaking spikes in oil prices well we went to the use of about just me to a member of the bundestag dealing deputy chair of foreign policy in arms exports 7 doug dillon on the site of where the berlin wall once stood i have just start with iran and in your capacity as the left group deputy chair foreign policy and arms exports and disarmament do you agree with people in the angular merkel c.d.u. who say there's a moral duty to be there in the straits of hormuz to protect shipping from iran and i think we're there as a moral duty to deescalate in the region at the present persian gulf because at the moment a station as very explosive and

and saudi arabia have been very good at any comic level. up to a few months ago or last year saudi arabia as the largest purchaser of arms they were overtaken then by the u.a.e. so the u.a.e. and saudi arabia 1st and 2nd largest purchase of arms last year each of them promised or pledged to our president $10000000000.00 in vestment into the country so changing that relationship is is a serious matter for south africa and has a lot to lose including in the arms industry so clearly the pressure even though it's not big loud and as i say not on the streets but the pressure in terms of the lobbying etc bringing into question south africa's practice via via our constitution has pushed people in that direction including the president in his there's only. the the government itself is under scrutiny because agreements like this as we mentioned in our introduction for the city part of an issue where the manufacturing country has the right to go and observe and see how these arms are being used or stored in this particular case both the saudis and th

are charged with acting as agents for a foreign power saudi arabia while inside the u.s. the accused were well positioned to get access to twitter's internal systems allowing them to see the e-mail addresses phone numbers and ip addresses of twitter users critical of the saudi government by allegedly furnishing the saudi authorities with that information they exposed to those account holders ending their anonymity and according to the charges putting foundations including saudis and americans at serious risk we know the case of turkey has just said who is a local journalist who used to run an influential twitter account with the name of question cool his identity was revealed by these spies and twitter and he's been arrested in the news that he has he has been killed under torture we cannot confirm or deny that depending on the internet infrastructure of a country often the case in the gulf is that if you know someone's ip address you can find a physical location so if you find an anonymous account for example that's criticizing the saudi government and you have a mole wh

on the kingdom stock exchange next month saudi arabia hopes a long delayed initial public offering will raise billions of dollars lebanon's president michel aoun has addressed his supporters and promised to restore the country's trust in its leaders his supporters have been rallying outside the palace in bonn north of the capital be able to now in attempt to counter weeks of anti-government protests and asian leaders at the assy and summit in thailand have delayed making what would have become the world's largest trade deal india has raised concerns over a greater access to china's market would affect its economy. now as judge has temporarily blocked a trump administration order that would have overhauled entry rules for immigrants the proclamation would have stopped newcomers from entering the country without proof they can purchase health insurance or pay their medical bills the federal judge ruled that the practice would shut down almost legal immigration the order would have come into effect on sunday but has been put off for $28.00 days. now in brazil illegal loggers have shot dead

the situation is about the attack in saudi arabia iran denies it. well they have no to that moment there is no proof that iran did attack the drone attack on the all fields in saudi arabia ok but there is proof that german weapons have been used on yemen as part of the saudi coalition. as someone who is the left disarmament deputy chair what is going on because britain has now been banned at least until an appeal goes through from exporting weapons to saudi arabia we do have a german stop arms exports to save the arabia but unfortunately not. the arms exports stop to saudi arabia with the common arms with a great britain and france for example they unified has all the tornadoes we have to stop them as well of course because the saudis they are still bombing and making massacre us on the civil society are on yemen and i think it's a contradiction to the to the foreign policy the german government always always is calling they say we have a foreign policy on the. on moral. values but i think it's it's not of value to say weapons to saudi arabia and th

saudi arabia allows twitter to operate on its territory partly because twitter is a surveillance tool it's a hunting ground that the authorities use to find suppress and prosecute voices they disapprove of but this story isn't just about saudi arabia it raises some serious issues about twitter working with questionable political actors sacrificing its stated principles for the sake of its bottom line our starting point this week israel. any story about twitter saudi arabia and the way the authorities there deal with the platform begs the simple question why did the saudis even bother they rank near the bottom of the reporters without borders and you will freedom of expression index along with the likes of china and iran countries that simply ban twitter and it's not as though the saudis under crown prince mohamed bin sound man have been shy about using censorship the saudis could have banned twitter they could have done what china has done what iran has done instead they've chosen a different strategy why he wants to use twitter as a propaganda and knows that saudi arabia has the high

spying for saudi arabia 2 former twitter employees are charged in the u.s. for snooping into accounts of the kingdom's critics. iran resumes uranium enrichment sat one of its nuclear facilities and the latest move to step back from the 2015 nuclear deal and campaigning begins in the u.k. as parliament is dissolved ahead of snap elections the current determine the exits feature. the impeachment inquiry into donald trump is stepping up a gear televised public hearings are set to starts next week one of the 1st to appear is set to be bill taylor america's top diplomat in ukraine a newly released a closed door testimony taylor says it was a his clear understanding that the president had withheld military aid to ukraine as because he wanted to investigate his political rival joe biden and his son who was working there the testimony matches other witnesses including the united states ambassador to the e.u. . i think you will see throughout the course of the testimony not only their testimony but many others the. most important facts are largely not contested we ar

involvement in saudi arabia in yemen impact israel? theory in the trump administration that, because the israelis and the gulf share the same concerns about iran, that there was therefore an opportunity to actually push forward this idea of what is called outside in, that in other words, if you get the wealth states to take steps to normalize the relationship with israel, and to open regardlessrelations, of where the israelis were in negotiations with the palestinians. i think that what we have seen over these past couple years is that that expectation, that idea , was badly exaggerated. -- quietly,o sides under the table, israel and the arabs are working closer together, the gulf states are more willing to be open about the nature of some of their relationships, particularly on the security side, than they were in the past. nevertheless, there is a cap on how far they are going to be willing to go in the absence of some movement toward resolution of the palestinian issue, and particularly, what is called the fullinitiative, which is n

the 1st time forty's are accusing saudi arabia of the spying spec is that process through it. like. this or is it how they act that we're at this. critical of the saudi government. alone richard just britain you're at the listening post here are some of the media stories we're covering this week enemy agents within a court case in the us threatens to expose the relationship between twitter and saudi arabia in taiwan they call them the red media news outlets with allegiances to beijing reporters in nigeria are being jailed for what prosecutors call cyber crimes and others call journalism and doraine judgment syndrome she's made of the world like it's the end of the wow world the helpline for grownups who cannot handle a 16 year old talking about climate change saudi arabia's penchant for stifling political dissent and freedom of expression is not exactly breaking news nor are riyadh's armies of online trolls and bots patrolling twitter however there is a court case unfolding in california that reveals just how far the saudi government is willing to go to watch its critics and to sile

who've been detained by saudi arabia have arrived. the group of around $130.00 prisoners landed in the airport which has been closed since $26.00 they were released as part of an exchange to. a curfew has been imposed in the iraqi city. government protests security forces opened fire on a demonstration the army is sending its commanders to several provinces to quote restore order. china has accused. the president signed a hong kong human rights bill that could help protect. beijing. french presidency when my call has rejected a moratorium offered by russia on short term and medium range missiles he made the comment during a meeting with the nato chief bergen paris russia proposed the suspension after a ban on the move was lifted in august. the meeting to address criticism of nato suffering brain death. while questions are being asked about the strength of the transatlantic bomb north america and europe are doing more together than we have done for decades and i can hardly think about them is strong a demonstration of the commitment to

saudi arabia's giant state oil company around come kick starts its initial public offering announcing plans to float on the brand stock exchange it could be the world's biggest ever stock listing as the kingdom seeks to diversify its recovery. i'm still gail welcome to the program. protesters have returned to lebanon's streets as they keep up that demands for wholesale political reform the country has been swept by more than 2 weeks of demonstrations against the political class accused of corruption the prime minister stepped down earlier this week with protesters are demanding a complete overhaul of the political system of government supporters have also been making their voices heard. rallying around their leader thousands of protesters are pushing back against cries for president michel aoun to step down his backers say the country needs him to root out corruption and to bring economic stability. they have money in the president isn't to blame for lebanon he's not responsible for everything wrong in the country today he shouldn't step down protesters think if the president needs po

coconspirator who now is all the way back in saudi he's believed to be back in saudi arabia safe and sound i mean this is twitter we're talking about it's it's a major social media platform that's in countries all over the world and it's a serious concern when just 2 people who weren't even supposed to have the rights to people's private information can get so much of that when twitter says this is supposed to be confined to a small team of trained professionals we recognize the length but this will go into a on to my no service our company limits access to sensitive account information to a limited group of trains and that employee. twitter has agreed to cooperate with the investigation and we don't know how long saudi arabia may or may not have been conducting espionage in the united states but what's significant about this case is that it's the 1st time prosecutors have ever accused saudi arabia of running agents with a. in the united states and another interesting thing about this is that back when these moves were made against the monarchy's critics the current king of saudi ara

your child deserves the whole round in doha these are all top news stories saudi arabia state owned oil company around has been approved for listing on the country's stock exchange the sale of shares in the world's most profitable firm is designed to finance crown prince mohammed bin some economic reform agenda confirmation of the listing comes about 7 weeks after attacks on or around coast oil facilities the us judge has blocked a controversial move by president trying to restrict visas to migrants with health insurance or with the ability to pay for medical bills the legislation was meant to come into effect on sunday but an oregon judge ordered a 28 day suspension on the grounds that it could do irreparable harm turkey's defense ministry has accused kurdish armed forces of a car bomb that attacked and killed 13 civilians including children in northern syria about 30 others were injured in the attack near a market in tel at the end. meanwhile turkey is threatening to send all ice or fighters that it's captured back to their home countries interior ministers silliman says europe must d

has the same sort of dark at saudi arabia, that the saudis have been chipping away u.a.e. border for generations. i think a large portion of that is part of the jockeying for power between the gulf states. >> you asked particularly about the military balance and how the buildup of gulf states changes that. the short answer is very little. these are fundamentally weak states. who are very aware of their got ass, although saudis little carried away. the uae has made a real effort to expand the quality of its military and to some extent has succeeded and shown a certain ability for power of projection effectively. the saudi military has shown very poorly. it went into yemen and has really done badly. it reminded me of when they went in of something my father said ago when the soviets went into afghanistan, said every country is entitled to the choice.of its [laughter] i think the saudis found theirs. first of all, they are economically powerful and militarily weak. we often tend to exaggerate -- a lot of the buildup of supply is so they don't have to use it. i remember readin

law and have them seek it this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up spying for saudi arabia to form a twitter employees are charged in the u.s. for snooping into accounts of the kingdom's critics. like those people destroyed on lives victims in the democratic republic of congo speak out ahead of the sentencing of a rebel leader convicted of war crimes. and facing further turbulence as boeing is ordered to ground more jets. the impeachment inquiry into donald trump is stepping up again televised hearings are starting next week america's top diplomat in ukraine william taylor will be one of the 1st to appear he had said in an earlier closed door testimony it was his clear understanding that the president had withheld military aid to ukraine in return for kiev investigating his political rival joe biden and his son that testimony matches other witnesses including the u.s. ambassador to the european union i think you will see throughout the course of the test when not only their testimony but many others the. most important facts are largely not contested we are getting an increasi

we do not need to not have a relationship with saudi arabia i don't call for that but i do call for a bunch of very basic things that are solutions for the problem talking about here to make sure they are unable to promote the monolithic version of islam of the world, take back the textbook to say all jews are pigs that i can take off the library shelves. they need to get real their training where they bring people from around the world with imam they have to stop that cultural heritage elimination and rebuild i could go on. i have a lot of things to say about things we need and can do that are not so hard. but i don't think it is realistic nor do i advocate not to have a relationship with saudi arabia but america has an opportunity i don't see it happening in this administration but perhaps there will be a time we have the courage to be honest with americans about what saudi arabia has done and i hope the day as soon. >> you talk about the so-called islamic state what do you mean by that quex. >> that is extremely important in one of the things that i noticed the job i had even befor

arabia there are also they also do hold funds outside of saudi arabia and they campaign the statements by their governments and others in the last few weeks has been that saudis should show their patriotism and bring in funds from outside that invest in the saudi aramco national company and their weight has been historically so far controlled and it's a strategy managed influenced by the government its revenue has been going going to the government coffers and more importantly is the independence of saw that i'm sorry that i'm call is that efficient very good with oil company you know all aspects exploration production refining and marketing 10 you do not have a historical record them even better spent it so it is there it is how much commitment and influence they have to government and influence by them for example in their cutting their production they have to keep $2000000.00 barrels per day production spirit capacity as part of their global strategy of the government of saudi arabia this is very expensive for shareholders are concerned that is not a warning for them and like the sa

saudi arabia is giant state oil company around cairo kickstarts its initial public offering announcing plans to float on the riyadh stock exchange it could be the world's biggest stock listing ask the kingdom 6 to diversify its. foreign film welcome to the program protesters have returned to the open on streets to say keep up that demands for wholesale political reform this is the scene tonight in beirut the country's been swept by more than 2 weeks of demonstrations against a political class accused of corruption the prime minister stepped down early this week but protesters are demanding a complete overhaul of the political system. supporters of the political establishment have also been making their voices heard earlier thousands gathered outside barrett to show solidarity with president bush i would who's under pressure to go. date of your reporter abraham said before today extensively from the middle east and guide us through what's happening. so approach and establishment protesters on the streets at the moment what sorts of choices is lebanon facing well lebanon right now is at

have a partial alignment with saudi arabia? sometimes the president and jared kushner talks like we are friends, and that will take care of it. no was it that said there is such thing as permanent friends but only permanent interests? martin: we still have an interest in saudi arabia, but it's important to understand the change. it used to be a vital strategic interest for the united states. we went to war twice in iraq, you could say, because of the threat to saudi arabia, the free flow of oil at reasonable price. now that we are an exporter of oil, now that we have fracking, production of natural gas in the --ted dates, dependence states, dependence on saudi arabia is much less. that does not mean that the ,orld is less dependent and our major trading partners, so we still have a strategic interest in saudi arabia, but it is not vital. that means trump is essentially right when he says we don't need to go to war for that oil. that is a fundamental difference. plus, you have the war weariness of the american people after a dec

saudi arabia is restricting a broncos' i.p.o. to the stock exchange the decision is a huge step back from original plans to go public in other locations like new york the company has been valued at 1.7 trillion dollars less than what the kingdom had been hoping for but still the world's biggest ever i.p.o. . subscription starts soon for weeks these billboards have lined riyad streets now the subscription period has begun for real investors can sign up to buy shares in saudi aramco. it's their patriotic duty says the government some banks are even offering loans of $10000000.00 euros so rich saudis can buy a piece of the oil colossus in the saudi capital there is no public criticism of the planned i.p.o. . company is the crown jewel of investment in saudi arabia and a safe company to invest in the biggest company in the world thank god it is a good opportunity that crown prince mohammed bin gave us the chance to subscribe to be partners in this success. but the investment is not without risk there are concerns that the saudi power

walking away from the reality that saudi arabia time and again has proven to be the opposite. they are undermining our national security interests, they are -- as you said -- the number one exporter of this wahhabi extremist ideology, it's a fertile recruiting ground for terrorists, they are directly providing arms and assistance to al qaeda in places like yemen and in syria and as we are seeing here, it is our government, our own government that is hiding the truth from chris and brett and the many other families of those who were killed on 9/11. for what? where to the loyalty is really? >> tucker: i was thinking in the commercial break of the number people i know personally who are taking money from the saudi kingdom or their allies, the gulf states, i wonder if that plays a role, a lot of people on their payroll here. >> we talk a lot about the foreign policy establishment, the political elite, the military-industrial complex, we hear things -- we sell a lot of weapons to saudi arabia so you know if we burn bridges with them, then who are we going to sell our weapons? where

in recent years saudi arabia's monarchy has been gradually loosening some of the country's strict religious laws festival is seen as part of those liberalizing reforms other changes include allowing greater freedom for saudi women and encouraging tourists from abroad with tourist visas recently introduced. despite those reforms a recent video highlighted the stark difference between saudi and western values it was made by the security services and warned citizens to avoid the dangers of so-called extremism including feminism homosexuality and atheism the video has since been polled with the authorities saying it contained mistakes political and social commentator give us his take on the situation in saudi arabia. i think saudi arabia are going to have to be very realistic and more realistic about this so-called liberalization agenda if you going to be softening the borders letting people in apparently foreigners can now get a visa within 7 minutes you need to know who you're letting into the country and how they'll be acting how they'll be behaving i'm not sure they quite ready and it looks

it's not about iraq, it's specifically about saudi arabia. our fbi has thousands of documents that they are keeping a secret from chris, from me, and the american public that they are not releasing. n this is not a woe is me, i'm sorry i lost my dad, i'm sorry for this, no, this is 18 years on and this is about truth and justice and every american should be concerned -- >> tucker: so the report exist and you just want to see it? >> our lawyers have it but the fbi and the doj and the state department submitted the information under seal, so how disgusting is that? chris and i don't even know the name that are in these reports -- >> one name. >> there's one name. >> one name of a high-ranking saudi official. >> there's a hierarchy off command from senior level saudi official to write on to the hijackers. >> tucker: you guys lost her dad's on 9/11. >> we should know each other. we are here together united -- >> tucker: and our government is taking the side of the saudi kingdom over you. >> i wish we were lying. >> tucker: i don't think you are l

it is, again, one of our main assets to saudi arabia. we believe that once you are here in saudi arabia, dealing with its people and you will feel the hospitality of the locals and saudis. we have in petra a comparable site, a footfall of 400,000 visits a year and it's going through a big problem terms of pollution, in terms of over—tourism, really. you want 2 million here — visits a year here. aren't you worried about the effects on this beautiful landscape? i mean, two million might seem a big number. however, given the size of al ula being 22,000 square kilometres, which is almost the size of belgium, and again, developing the region in a responsible and sustainable manner is one of our key objectives. we're avoiding mass tourists, so that's — won't be an issue. i reckon that changing public perception will be the government's biggest challenge, because of its human rights record, equality issues for women, and the country's involvement in the ongoing war in yemen. you could argue that the shift in tourism and the need to attrac

saudi arabia has not responded to the charges rob reynolds has more from los angeles. the u.s. attorney in this case david anderson referred to saudi arabia in his comments saying quote we will not allow u.s. companies or u.s. technology to become tools of foreign repression and while as you mentioned the saudis have not commented twitter as a spokesman saying in a statement we recognize the lengths that bad actors will go to undermine to try and undermine our service and twitter says it is committed to protecting the identities of its users who discuss things like human rights repression and democracy and free speech yemen's government says who the rebels have fired missiles at the red sea port of america at least 8 people are reported to have been killed as the biggest attacks since september. french police have started dismantling a refugee camp in paris part of a new crackdown there the government says people are being moved to what it calls a safe place evacuation there comes a day off to the government announced a new immigration plan that seeks to restrict asylu