Topic: King Abdullah

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah promises $36 billion in benefits

King Abdullah returned home today to a Saudi Arabia seemingly moored in the eye of the storm howling from Libya to Bahrain. But reformers are intensifying calls for political change.

In Saudi Arabia, reformers intensify calls for change

King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz is due to return tomorrow after three months away to a country where reformers inspired by Egypt are calling for greater transparency and equality.

Israel fears loss of a crucial ally with Mubarak's fall

Israel is concerned that the ouster of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will give rise to the Muslim Brotherhood and create an 'encirclement' of hostile states.

Will US support a military-backed Mubarak exit?

The Obama administration may be cautiously pleased by reports that Egypt's President Mubarak will move up his departure from power amid intensified pressure from the nation's military.

Jordan's new cabinet looks oddly familiar

Using cabinet ministers as scapegoats, only to replace them with a nearly identical lineup, is a well-worn tactic in Jordan. Still, many people appear cautiously optimistic that political reforms are nearing.

An Arab popular revolution (well, sort of) in Tunisia

Hezbollah-led pullout brings down Lebanon's government

Fearing the international indictment of some of its leaders for the 2005 killing of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, Hezbollah ministers resigned Wednesday, causing the collapse of Lebanon's coalition government.

Opinion: Would a nuclear-armed Iran really be so dangerous?

Advocates of military strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities assume that a nuclear-armed Iran would be able to blackmail its neighbors. History suggests that's wrong.

WikiLeaks: Five more of the strangest stories to emerge

The WikiLeaks cable dump has uncovered a lot of downright serious allegations: that the State Department pressured Germany into not criminally investigating the CIA's kidnapping of one of its innocent citizens, that the British government secretly allowed the US to keep cluster bombs on its soil in defiance of a treaty, that the US manipulated the Spanish criminal justice system in its investigation of the CIA's torture of its citizens, and so on. And it also uncovered some very weird stories. Earlier this week, we wrote about how Qaddadfi loves flamenco dancing, how King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia likes the idea of surgically implanting people with tracking chips, and how a 75-year-old US citizen fled Iran on horseback. The leaks keep coming. Here are five more of the oddest stories to come out of the leaked State Department cables.

For Iran, WikiLeaks cables validate its skepticism of Obama's sincerity

Iranians and analysts alike say the leaked diplomatic cables show a half-hearted attempt at engagement, undermined by an assumption that engaging Iran was pointless.

WikiLeaks: The five strangest stories...so far

The release of US diplomatic cables by WikiLeaks contains some serious stuff: US diplomats have been trying to steal the credit card numbers of top UN officials, Saudi Arabia is putting pressure on the US to attack Iran, Iran has obtained advanced long-range missiles from North Korea. Other cables are not so earth-shaking, but they nonetheless reveal personalities and events that are comical, surprising, or just plain weird. Here's our top five.

WikiLeaks reveals 5 Arab countries concerned about Iran

It’s common knowledge that the Israeli government considers Iran an existential threat, and that it has been trying to persuade the US to act more forcefully. And while there have always been rumblings of discontent with Iran among Arab nations, the WikiLeaks release Sunday provides concrete evidence that Israel isn’t the only one in the region to feel worried. The now-disclosed but formerly secret diplomatic cables reveal that several Sunni-led Arab nations, particularly Saudi Arabia, also sought to curb Shiite-led Iran. Below are five Arab countries keeping a watchful eye.

How WikiLeaks trove will affect US-Arab cooperation on Iran, Yemen

The WikiLeaks release of diplomatic cables could put Arab leaders in a tight spot – and make America's diplomatic dance a bit more awkward in the region.

The Monitor's View: WikiLeaks helps Obama, Arabs jointly confront Iran nuclear program

The WikiLeaks release of secret American diplomatic dispatches has a silver lining. It revealed the real Arab stance on Iran and its nuclear program – and it lines up with Israel's. The truth can't hurt in that cause.

WikiLeaks documents: five world leaders disparaged by US diplomats

World leaders smile and back-slap like old friends at summit meeting photo-ops. But behind the bonhomie they may be judging each other’s strengths and weaknesses with the brutal candor of high school students sizing up rivals. The huge cache of diplomatic cables made public by WikiLeaks contain frank assessments of many top geopolitical players – and predictions as to how their personalities might affect US politics.

WikiLeaks: Top 5 revelations

The newest WikiLeaks release comprises 251,287 cables from more than 250 United States embassies around the world, including thousands classified "Secret." With historical cables dating back to the 1960s, the trove is seven times the size of "The Iraq War Logs," making it the world's largest classified information release. The New York Times, Der Spiegel, El País, the Guardian, and Le Monde had early access to the logs. According to their analysis of the myriad issues discussed in the cables, these five are among the most striking revelations.

Wikileaks report stokes anti-US hardliners in Pakistan

Wikileaks reports indicate that the US has mounted a secret effort to remove highly enriched uranium from a Pakistani reactor since 2007, reinforcing what until now had been a conspiracy theory.

Iran nuclear scientists targeted in Tehran blasts

The Iranian government has accused the US and Israel of plotting what they deemed "terrorist attacks," which killed one Iran nuclear scientist and wounded another.

Obama, drubbed at polls, now dropped from top spot in global power ranking

While Forbes magazine still terms President Obama the 'Leader of the Free World,’ the title of most powerful now goes to China's Hu Jintao.

The Monitor's View: In Yemen bomb case, Saudi Arabia proves itself an antiterror partner of the US

Saudi Arabia is associated with Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 hijackers. But it provided key intelligence to thwart cargo bombs from Yemen. It has come a long way in the fight against Al Qaeda.

The Daily Show is listening to King Abdullah. Is anyone else?

On the Daily Show tonight, Jon Stewart is hosting Jordan's King Abdullah. Abdullah gets full points for hipness, but restoring his country's influence is another matter.

Could Syria become a force for peace?

Recent policy changes in Syria offer hope. Damascus could be a wild card in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.

Israel-Palestinian talks end without settlement deal: What happens next?

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and US envoy George Mitchell hopped on planes to seek the support of regional leaders, with only two weeks before the Israeli settlement freeze expires.