MUST-READS

• MBS confirms Saudi Arabia’s support for resolutions adopted by Arab League summit on Gaza

  Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman emphasized the Kingdom’s full support for the resolutions adopted by the extraordinary Arab League summit on Gaza. The meeting – held in Egypt’s Cairo – saw leaders from the Arab region come together to counter US President Donald Trump’s “Middle East Riveria” vision, which seeks to displace Palestinians in the territory from their homes. The Cabinet also stressed the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination and to attain their legitimate rights, including the establishment of an independent state along the 1967 borders, with east Jerusalem as its capital, according to SPA.

• Israel receives shipment of heavy bombs cleared by Trump
  Israel has received a shipment of heavy MK-84 bombs from the United States, after U.S. President Donald Trump lifted a block imposed on the export of the munitions by the administration of predecessor Joe Biden, the defence ministry said on Sunday. Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said he lifted a Biden-era block on the export of the bombs to Israel despite a ceasefire agreement being in place because he believed in "peace through strength." "They contracted for the weapons a long time ago with the Biden administration, and then Biden wouldn't deliver the weapons. But I look at it differently. I say, 'peace through strength,'" Trump told reporters after returning to West Palm Beach, Florida, after a short trip to Daytona Beach. "They were sitting there. Nobody knew what to do with them. They bought them."

• MBS Torn Between Trump and Saudi People on Potential Israel Deal

  The Saudi response was swift — reiterating Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s demands for an independent Palestinian state as part of any normalization agreement and rejecting the “infringement on the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people” or “attempts to displace” them from their land. But the president’s musing about moving 2 million Palestinians to a “good, fresh, beautiful piece of land” — which critics argue would amount to ethnic cleansing — and suggestion that US troops could be sent to the territory are putting the prince in a tough spot. Saudi Arabia’s young population has reawakened to the Palestinian cause amid Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and their reaction to such a move — along with that of millions of Muslims in the region and around the world — could lead to instability.

• MBS meets Bill Clinton, former US president, in Riyadh

  Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met on Wednesday with former US President Bill Clinton, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. MBS met with Clinton at his office in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, SPA said. The two officials held friendly talks, the report added. The meeting was attended by the Kingdom’s ambassador to the US, Princess Reema bint Bandar, Minister of State and National Security Adviser Musaed bin Mohammed al-Aiban along with Clinton’s accompanying delegation.

• Saudi Crown Prince MBS Moves to Exploit Vacuum Left By Iran

  The oil-rich kingdom and its 39-year-old leader — who backed Aoun to get the presidency — are emerging as one of the biggest winners in the fallout of the 15-month conflict in Gaza, which has tilted the balance of power in the Middle East against its longtime rival Iran. As a fragile ceasefire deal came into effect on Sunday, Tehran’s influence has been crippled, for now: its proxies in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories decimated, its Syrian ally Bashar al-Assad deposed and its enemy Israel emboldened. Saudi Arabia is wasting no time filling the void. "This is a clash between an ambitious young man who realizes the world is changing and an elderly cleric clinging to an outdated ideology that brought him to power," says Mustafa Fahs, a Beirut-based commentator who hails from a clerical family critical of the Islamic Republic, referring to the Saudi crown prince and Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, respectively.

• WHO chief says he was at Yemen airport as Israeli bombs fell nearby

  A wave of Israeli airstrikes hit Yemen's main airport Thursday just as the World Health Organization’s director-general said he was about to board a flight there. One of the U.N. plane’s crew was wounded, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a post on X. The Israeli military said it attacked infrastructure used by Yemen's Houthi rebels at the international airport in the capital Sanaa, as well as power stations and ports, alleging they were used to smuggle in Iranian weapons and for the entry of senior Iranian officials. Last week, Israeli jets bombed Sanaa and Hodeida, killing nine people. The U.S. military also has targeted the Houthis in Yemen in recent days. Israel's latest wave of strikes in Yemen follows several days of Houthi launches setting off air-raid sirens in Israel. The Houthis have also been targeting shipping in the Red Sea corridor, calling it solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

• Saudi Arabia, MBS adamant on Palestinian state before Israel normalization: Blinken

  Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is adamant about having a Palestinian state as part of any deal to establish diplomatic ties with Israel, the top US diplomat has said, adding that this was the key to long-term stability in the Middle East and one that would ensure Israel’s security. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that a Gaza ceasefire was necessary first. But after that, the focus would need to be on the long-term stability of the region, which would include Israel’s security. “And, of course, the key to that is the normalization of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” he said in an interview with Foreign Affairs published on Wednesday, expressing hope that the incoming Trump administration would get such a deal done. Despite several reports over the last year, including as recently as this week, that Saudi Arabia is willing to ease its demands in exchange for normalization, Riyadh has repeatedly been consistent in its stance demanding a Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

• Trump envoy discusses Israel normalisation with MbS in Saudi Arabia

  US President-elect Donald Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman earlier this week in what was the first meeting between the de-facto Saudi ruler and a member of the incoming Trump administration, Axios revealed on Saturday. Citing two anonymous sources, the US-based news outlet said that the pair discussed US-Saudi relations, Israel's war on Gaza and plans to forge a normalisation deal between Riyadh and Tel Aviv. Witkoff, a close confidant of Trump, has been tasked with the "clear aim" of securing a deal between the two US allies and making progress towards a Israel-Palestine peace agreement, according to Axios.

• Trump’s envoy meets Saudi Crown Prince MBS

  President-elect Trump's Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff visited Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and met Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS), two sources with knowledge of the meeting told Axios. Witkoff's trip to the region was part of a series of engagements Trump's advisers had with Middle East leaders in recent weeks. Trump's Middle East adviser and in-law Massad Boulos was also in the region this week and met in Doha with the prime minister of Qatar, a source with knowledge of the meeting said.

• Saudi Arabia Crown Prince MBS Cancels Trip to G-20 Summit in Rio

  The most likely reason is that flying more than 14 hours from the Saudi capital Riyadh to the Brazilian city may aggravate a chronic ear canal condition plaguing the 39-year-old widely known as MBS, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of the issue. The Saudi leader has in the past experienced ear blockage and inflammation that has lasted days after making long-distance air trips, the person said. He has previously scrapped foreign trips at the last minute, including a state visit to Japan this year when his ailing 88-year-old father, King Salman bin Abdulaziz, underwent treatment for a lung inflammation.

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