Author: Steven Sahiounie

RIYADH: Saudi Aramco on Sunday cut the February official selling price for its flagship Arab Light crude to Asian customers to the lowest level in 27 months, according to an official statement. The oil giant reduced the price for February-loading Arab Light to Asia by $2 per barrel from January to $1.50 a barrel versus the Oman/Dubai average. The price cut is in line with market expectations, as refiners called for competitive prices from Saudi Arabia compared to crude oil supplied from other Middle Eastern producers and the arbitrage cargoes from the Atlantic Basin. The Asian physical oil market softened…

Iraq aims to rely on domestic production to meet local demand

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said US President Joe Biden should speak out against Israeli war crimes and the killing of journalists. “Yet all we hear from administration officials are denials of the obvious genocide taking place and actions in support of that genocide, forced starvation and ethnic cleansing,” CAIR Deputy Director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement. “The majority of Americans reject the Biden administration’s hypocritical and inhumane stance on the unfolding genocide in Gaza. It is time for President Biden to align his statements and actions with the will of the American people and call for…

Prolonged disruption in the Red Sea could eventually have a major impact on energy markets

The country’s state oil giant says negotiations with protesters to resume operations are ongoing

Screens normally displaying departure and arrival times instead displayed message attacking Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah , according to the Associated Press. “Hassan Nasrallah, you will no longer have supporters if you curse Lebanon with a war for which you will bear responsibility and consequences,” the message read. The messages were displayed alongside logos from a Christian group known as Soldiers of God and another group calling itself The One Who Spoke. However, the former denied its involvement. Source: AlJazeera

Jordan’s foreign minister Ayman Safadi on Sunday strongly criticized Israel’s ongoing military actions in Gaza, describing them as “barbaric aggression” and warning of a potentially dangerous escalation in the region.Speaking to Jordan News Agency, Ayman Safadi said Israel is killing innocent people, depriving over 2.3 million Palestinians of water, food and medicine, and attempting to displace them.“Jordan, with all its capabilities, will counter the Israeli government’s attempts to displace Palestinians inside and outside their homeland,” he said, adding that the kingdom considers attempts to displace people to be a war crime.A future security-based approach to Gaza, according to Safadi, would…

The top US diplomat called the killing of journalist Hamza Dahdouh an “unimaginable tragedy”. The son of Wael Dahdouh was killed along with fellow journalist Mustafa Thuraya in an Israeli attack southern Gaza. Previously, Israeli forces also killed several members of Dahdouh’s family in an air raid. “I can’t begin to imagine the horror that he’s experienced – not once, but now twice,” Blinken said. “This is why we are pressing the need – the imperative – not only of making sure that humanitarian assistance can get to people who need it, but that people are protected from harm from…

Mohammed Abdulsalam notes that more than 100 journalists have been killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza. He criticised what he insinuated was the double standards of Western nations in speaking about democracy, human rights and free expression, while continuing to support Israel, despite its actions in Gaza. “With the killing of each journalists of Gaza – Mustafa Thuraya and Hamza Dahdouh being the latest of them – Western propaganda falls and its falsity and lies are exposed,” Abdulsalam wrote in a social media post. Source: AlJazeera

Israel’s judge at the ICJ hearing on South Africa’s claim of genocide will be former Chief Justice Aharon Barak, Ynet reports. Barak, retired president of the Supreme Court, has long been accused by the Israeli prime minister of staging a “judicial coup” against his government and ostensibly, the reason for Benjamin Netanyahu’s “judicial reform” attempt. The “judge reform” led to months of anti-government protests when the prime minister attempted to push it through last year. Source: ALJazeera