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4 Arab countries sever diplomatic ties with Qatar

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4 Arab countries sever diplomatic ties with QatarBahrain, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates on Monday decided to sever diplomatic ties with Qatar.

Bahrain was the first state to make a respective announcement, reported RIA Novosti news agency of Russia. According to the official statement published by the Bahrain News Agency, Manama’s move has been motivated by Doha’s persisting attempts to destabilize situation in Bahrain.

Bahrain gave Qatari diplomats 48 hours to leave the territory of the kingdom. Also, Manama suspended air and sea communication with Doha and banned Qatari citizens from visiting Bahrain, and prohibited its citizens from living and visiting Qatar.

Minutes later, Riyadh, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi made similar statements while Saudi Arabia and Egypt also suspended air and sea communication with Qatar.

The conflict between Qatar and its neighbors occurred one week after the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, when the Qatari news agency posted a speech on behalf of the country’s emir in support of building relations with Iran.

Later, the official representative of the Qatari Foreign Ministry said that the agency’s site was hacked, and the speech on behalf of the emir was published by hackers and has nothing to do with the Qatari leader.

Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain, however, considered this refutation to be unconvincing.

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Websites of Al-Jazeera, Qatari dailies inaccessible in Saudi Arabia, UAE

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al-jazeera blockedSaudi and Emirati authorities have blocked access to the website of Doha-based and state-funded al-Jazeera Arabic news channel after statements attributed to Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on sensitive regional topics sparked a dispute among Persian Gulf kingdoms.

On Wednesday, the website of the pan-Arab satellite broadcaster was not accessible in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The website and Twitter accounts of official Qatar News Agency, al-Jazeera Documentary channel, al-Jazeera English news channel, Arabic-language and political newspaper al-Watan, semi-official al-Raya newspaper, al-Arab daily as well as Arabic and pro-government al-Sharq daily were also inaccessible in both countries during the day.

At the same time, Al-Jazeera television network was unavailable for some time in the UAE, though it was unclear if it was blocked on purpose.

The developments came a day after Qatar’s state-run news agency ran a story, saying the small and gas-rich kingdom had ordered its ambassadors from Bahrain, Egypt, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates withdrawn over “tension” with the administration of US President Donald Trump.

The article, quoting the Qatari monarch, also called Iran an “Islamic power” and praised the Hamas resistance movement as “the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people.”

Qatar’s Foreign Ministry later claimed that its state agency had been hacked and the emir’s statements had been forged.

Sheikh Saif Bin Ahmed Al Thani, the director of the Qatari government’s communications office, also issued a statement, saying authorities had launched an investigation.

Earlier, Doha had claimed it had been the victim of an orchestrated smear campaign by anti-Qatar organizations.

Qatar has long faced criticism from its Arab neighbors over its support for the Muslim Brotherhood and Egypt’s first democratically-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted in a military coup led by former army chief and current President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in July 2013.

In March 2014, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain recalled their ambassadors from Doha over the rift.

Eight months later, they returned their ambassadors as Qatar asked some Brotherhood members to leave the country and quieted others.

Qatar is also home to the former Hamas political bureau chief, Khaled Meshaal, who has lived there in exile for several years.

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Opinion: Trump’s speech encouraging, but lacking

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DW’s Kersten Knipp

US President Donald Trump has given his long-anticipated speech on Islam and terrorism in Riyadh. His words were appropriate and relevant, says Kersten Knipp – but he also swept crucial issues under the rug.

On his better days, Donald Trump is a master of the moment.

During his rallies in the 2016 election campaign, for example, when he called on people to MAGA (“Make America Great Again”), and a few weeks after inauguration when he gave a somewhat conciliatory speech, he found a tone that, although bombastic, was also dignified, and made a good impression on his audience – at least for the duration of those speeches.

The effect, however, was of limited duration, because his earlier speeches had shown us a different Trump. One who had drawn attention with far less generous sentiments – sentiments at odds with the magnanimity he subsequently professed.

We have now seen a something similar with his highly anticipated keynote speech on Islam. The setting was impressive: the political lords of the Arab world, the men who tell their respective Middle Eastern peoples what’s what, were all assembled in Riyadh. But unlike former President Barack Obama’s speech in 2009 in front of students at the University of Cairo, the people themselves were not represented.

The art of politeness

Addressing the gathering in Riyadh, Trump said much that was correct, although once again his conciliatory tone was strangely at odds with his earlier actions, such as his attempt to ban all citizens from six Islamic countries from entering the United States. During the debate about the travel ban earlier this year, Trump used a very different tone to the one he switched to in Riyadh.

There, he showed generosity. The current violence in the Middle East was “not a battle between different faiths, different sects, or different civilizations.” Rather, it was “a battle between barbaric criminals who seek to obliterate human life, and decent people of all religions who seek to protect it.”

Trump’s assurance that the US was “not here to tell other people how to live, what to do […] or how to worship” was also constructive. And the call on those in authority in the Arab world to take their own action against Islamic extremists was expressed in a polite, and therefore suitable, tone.

Contradictions

Nonetheless, the speech left a sense of unease because it didn’t fit with other comments Trump had made just a day earlier, on the same trip.

When he announced the arms deal with Saudi Arabia – worth $110 billion (around 98 billion euros) – he spoke of the “beautiful military equipment” and the “great security” these weapons would guarantee.

For the people of Yemen, on whom Saudi Arabia is currently inflicting an aerial war as brutal as it is cowardly, this must sound like mockery.

And what must Egyptians think, whose government is increasingly jettisoning human rights standards – and whose security Trump praised on his trip as “very strong”? As if the political, economic and constitutional deficiencies on which jihadism in Egypt thrives simply did not exist.

Unease about the unsaid

The speech also revealed the dark flip side of the way Trump enthusiastically abandons himself to the moment. The president is so fixated on the here and now that he all too seldom thinks of other aspects.

The difficult human rights situation in Saudi Arabia, the kingdom’s sometimes exaggerated panic about Iran – these are all issues that, to put it politely, do little to contribute to “great security.”

Most of what Trump said in his speech about Islam was appropriate and understandable. It is therefore all the more difficult to understand why he simply swept decisive issues under the carpet. The speech was encouraging, but it’s unlikely to achieve the expected results.

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Saudis paid US veterans in attempt to kill 9/11 law: Report

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Saudi Arabia has paid tens of thousands of dollars to US army veterans in an attempt to kill a recently-passed law allowing  9/11 families to sue Saudi nationals for their alleged role in facilitating the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed thousands of Americans, a report says.

The US Congress overwhelmingly voted in September of last year to override then President Barack Obama’s veto of the “Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which allows relatives of the victims of the 9/11 attacks to sue Saudi Arabia.

The Saudi campaign includes paying American military veterans to visit Capitol Hill and warn lawmakers about what they said could be unintended consequences, The Associated Press reported on Thursday.

Some of the recruited veterans said Saudi Arabia’s government was largely paying for the effort, worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The veterans’ lobbying effort began within a month after the September vote. Apparently, after failing to fight off the bill in Congress and Obama’s White House, Saudis have hired 75 foreign agents across the US to fund lavish trips to Washington for veterans, which included lodging them at new Trump Hotel near the White House.

The veterans however told the New York Post in March that they were misled and openly lied to by trip organizers Qorvis MSLGROUP.

According to the vets, an organizer denied any “Saudi involvement” in sponsoring the trip, despite the fact that federal filings show the organizer had struck a $100,000 contract with the Saudis and is registered as a foreign agent for the regime.

The Saudi lobbyists, who posed as veteran advocates, had told the vets that JASTA exposes them, as well as “150,000 [US] military personnel stationed in over 150 countries,” to “retaliatory lawsuits” in foreign courts.

JASTA, however, deals only with the immunity of foreign states and poses little risk against individuals.

The September 11, 2001 attacks, also known as the 9/11 attacks, were a series of strikes in the US which killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about $10 billion in property and infrastructure damage.

Of the 19 hijackers that allegedly carried out the attacks, 15 were Saudi nationals and available evidence suggests some of them were linked to high-ranking Saudi officials.

Source: http://presstv.com/Detail/2017/05/11/521466/Saudis-paid-billions-to-US-veterans-to-kill-911-law-Report

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Riyadh extradites 16 Turkish nationals over alleged Gulen links

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Saudi Arabia, on Ankara’s request, has extradited 16 Turkish nationals, who allegedly had links to an outlawed organization run by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen.

According to Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency, the nationals were detained by the Ankara police department’s counter-terrorism units upon arrival in the Turkish capital on Saturday, a few hours after Saudi authorities deported them to the Anatolian country on an aircraft.

Anadolu, citing unnamed Turkish sources, said the detainees had allegedly been organizing Hajj pilgrimage events in Saudi Arabia and had been transferring the income to Gulen’s movement, branded by the Turkish government as the “Fethullah Terrorist Organization (FETO).”

Ankara accuses Gulen, an opposition figure, of orchestrating and masterminding the mid-July 2016 failed coup. He is also accused of being behind a long-running campaign to topple the government via infiltrating the country’s institutions, particularly the army, police and the judiciary. Gulen, however, has denied the accusations that he had a role in the abortive coup.

Since the attempted putsch Ankara has arrested some 40,000 people and sacked or suspended 120,000 others from a wide range of professions, including soldiers, police, teachers, and public servants, over alleged links with Gulen and his large movement.

On April 17, Turkey’s cabinet extended a post-coup state of emergency in the country for another three months, the third such measure since the failed putsch.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s highest judicial regulatory body issued warrants for the arrest of 17 judges and six prosecutors over “membership in an armed terror organization,” apparently FETO. The suspects were among 107 judges and prosecutors, who were dismissed from public service on Friday as part of an ongoing probe into Gulen’s banned movement.

Anadolu also reported that Turkey’s Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag would on Monday meet US Attorney General Jeff Sessions to discuss Ankara’s request for the extradition and provisional arrest of Gulen. It added that Bozdag, in his visit to Washington, would share new evidence with his American counterpart on Gulen’s case. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also due to visit the United States on May 15-17.

Turkey has on several occasions threatened that it would reconsider its ties with the United States if Washington fails to hand over Gulen. The White House has so far refused to extradite him, citing a lack of substantial evidence by Turkish authorities against him.

The international community and human rights groups have been highly critical of the Turkish president over the massive dismissals and the post-coup crackdown.

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911 relatives sue Saudi Arabia

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In a stunning lawsuit seeking to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for 9/11, the families of 800 victims have filed a lawsuit accusing the Saudis of complicity in the worst terror attacks on American soil, Pix11.com reports.
The legal action, filed in federal court in Manhattan, details a scenario of involvement by Saudi officials who are said to have aided some of the hijackers before the attacks.
Fifteen of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals and three of them had previously worked for the kingdom.
The document details how officials from Saudi embassies supported hijackers Salem al-Hazmi and Khalid Al-Mihdhar 18 months before 9/11.
The officials allegedly helped them find apartments, learn English and obtain credit cards and cash. The documents state that the officials helped them learn how to blend into the American landscape.
The suit also produces evidence that officials in the Saudi embassy in Germany supported lead hijacker Mohamed Atta. It claims that a Saudi official was in the same hotel in Virginia with several hijackers the night before the attacks.

Many of the revelations in the lawsuit are culled from findings of an FBI investigation into the terrorist attacks. The suit filed by aviation law firm Kreindler & Kreindler claims some of the hijackers had special markers in their passports, identifying them as al-Qaida sympathizers.

The lawsuit asserts that the Saudi royals, who for years had been trying to curry favor with fundamentalists to avoid losing power, were aware that funds from Saudi charities were being funneled to al-Qaida.
Aviation attorney Jim Kreindler told PIX11 News: “The charities were alter egos of the Saudi government.”
The lawsuit spells out how money was transferred from charities in Saudi Arabia to the terror group.
Charities the lawsuit claims fronted for al-Qaida include the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation, an organization that was designated by the U.S. as a sponsor of terrorism.
Kreindler maintains that there was a direct link between all the charities and Osama bin Laden and that they operated with the full knowledge of Saudi officials.
The legal document claims that the Saudis used a variety of means to conceal the money trail to al-Qaida.

“The Saudis were so duplicitous,” Kreindler said. “They claim to be allies fighting with U.S. against Iran, while at the same time working with the terrorists. There’s no question they had a hand in the 9/11 attacks.”

Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama had resisted efforts to hold Saudi Arabia accountable. The kingdom is a key ally against Iran, and its oil interests are important to the United States.

Last September, Congress overrode an Obama veto to pass JASTA — Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act — that would allow Americans to take legal action against countries that support terrorism.

Kreindler wouldn’t put a dollar figure on the amount of damages being sought by the 800 families of those who died and 1,500 first responders and others who suffered because of the attacks.

“This lawsuit is a demonstration of the unwavering commitment of the 9/11 families to hold Saudi Arabia accountable for its critical role in the 9/11 attacks,” Kreindler said.

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Iraq Foreign Minister to Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir: End silence on Turkey incursion of Iraq

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Iraqi tribesmen hold national flags and posters bearing a portrait of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan crossed out during a protest against the continued presence of Turkish troops in northern Iraq, in the southern city of Basra on October 16, 2016. (Photo by AFP)

Iraq has asked Saudi Arabia to break its silence on the presence of Turkish troops on its soil as the kingdom’s hawkish foreign minister visits Baghdad to bring rocky relations out of a long freeze. 

Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Ja’afari on Saturday received his Saudi counterpart Adel al-Jubeir. This is the first such visit by a chief diplomat from the kingdom since 2003.

Turkey sent around 2,000 troops into northern Iraq in December 2015, triggering a diplomatic crisis and prompting Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi to warn that Ankara risked triggering a regional war.

According to a statement issued by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, Ja’afari told Jubeir that Saudi Arabia must break its silence on the presence of Turkish troops in Iraq, the IRNA news agency reported from Baghdad.

“Ja’afari stressed the need for Riyadh’s efforts to encourage the Turks into leaving the Iraqi land, stating that despite Arab and international consensus on opposition to Turkish troops, they still remain in the Iraqi territory,” the report added.

Iraq and Saudi Arabia have tried to improve strained ties after relations were cut following ex-dictator Saddam Hussein’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait but the road to normalization has been rocky.

Thamer al-Sabhan became the first Saudi ambassador to Iraq in a quarter century in January 2016 but had to leave the same year after Baghdad demanded he be removed following his remarks about Hashed al-Sha’abi.

Hashed al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization) forces have played a key role in the fight against Daesh. Ja’afari was one of the most vocal critics of Saudi Arabia at the time and issued several strongly-worded statements against the kingdom and Jubeir himself.

He conveyed to Jubeir both directly on the sidelines of a global conference on the anti-Daesh war last year and in a statement Iraq’s “annoyance” over what he called “unacceptable interference.”

On Saturday, Ja’afari told Jubeir that “Iraq’s policy is based on expanding relations with all countries of the world but it will not allow any meddling in its domestic affairs,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.

The foreign minister also said Iraq “does not meddle in the internal affairs of other countries and has no interest in getting involved” in the lines drawn between some regional countries, possibly referring to Saudi Arabia’s rivalry with Iran.

An Iraqi government official said on Saturday that there was an opportunity for Baghdad to bring Tehran and Riyadh together.

“The whole region is heading towards compromise and Saudi Arabia sees Iraq as an important player to have on its side,” he said. “Iraq’s neutrality could make it a ground for Iranian-Saudi rapprochement.”

The official stressed that despite intense pressure from the street to take a strong stand against Saudi Arabia, Abadi  had “never indulged in aggressive rhetoric against Saudi Arabia.”

Saudi Arabia is very unpopular among most Iraqis and often accused of providing direct support to Daesh terrorists who took over a third of the country in 2014.

Saudi Arabia nominally supports the fight against Daesh but Iraq and other partners have argued it needs to do more to help durably defeat Daesh and its ideology which has roots in the kingdom where Wahhabism is freely preached and promoted.

The kingdom has been accused of having both financially and ideologically contributed to the extremism and sectarianism, which has been taking its toll on its northern neighbor.

“Iraq’s power lies in unity and integrity among its nation and the Iraqi people have proven that they stand united against terrorism and for preserving their territorial integrity,” Ja’afari said on Saturday.

Bilateral ties

In August 2016, Riyadh withdrew Ambassador Sabhan, but instead of naming a new one, seconded Abdulaziz al-Shammari as chargé d’affaires at its diplomatic mission in the Iraqi capital.

Prime Minister Abadi also received Jubeir and his accompanying delegation, a statement from his office said. Both sides “discussed cooperation in various fields, including the fight against the Daesh gangs,” it said.

Abadi’s office also said, “Jubeir congratulated Iraq on the victories achieved against Daesh and pledged Saudi Arabia’s support to Iraq in fighting terrorism.”

Ja’afari and Jubeir, meanwhile, expressed interest in reparation and enhancement of the bilateral ties.

Ja’afari said his country sought “best” Saudi ties geared towards confrontation with common threats, normalization of trade relations, facilitation of Saudi trips by Iraqi nationals, and establishment of direct flights between the two capitals.

Jubeir insisted on the need for bilateral visits, and said there were many elements, promoting the betterment of bilateral ties.

He also claimed that Riyadh treated all Iraqi sects alike and was in favor of unity and calm in the violence-stricken country.

Source: presstv.com

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Croatia Sells Record Number of Arms to Saudi Arabia in 2016

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Zagreb sold a record amount of aging weapons and ammunition to Saudi Arabia in 2016, ignoring evidence the arms are regularly being diverted to Syria.

Croatia has drastically increased its sales of decades-old arms and ammunition to Saudi Arabia despite mounting evidence that the deliveries are being diverted to Syria in breach of European Union (EU) and international law.

Though it has one of the best and most expensively equipped armies in the Middle East, the Gulf Kingdom imported US$ 81.7 million in aging ammunition, including bullets, mortars, rockets, and rocket and grenade launchers worth $5.8 million from Croatia during the first nine months of 2016. This total is already double Croatia’s sales to Saudi Arabia over the previous four years, and the final value will likely be higher, as figures for the last quarter have not yet been published.

Igor Tabak, a Croatian defense analyst, said that the country does not currently produce ammunition. “It is quite likely that the exports come from old ammunition,” he said, “possibly from the inventory of the former Yugoslavia and Eastern [Bloc] production.”

While Croatia has consistently refused to acknowledge that it is profiting from liquidating its old stocks on the Syrian battlefields, defense ministry documents reviewed by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) and the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) show a major surge in sales from its stockpile coinciding with the start of the civil war in 2012.

According to those reports, the Ministry of Defense, which has a stockpile of around 18,000 tons, sold at least 5,000 tons of surplus ammunition in 2013 and 2014—as much as it had sold in the preceding decade.

The Ministry of Defense did not respond to a request for additional information on who bought the armaments and whether additional sales were made in 2015 and 2016.

Arms Exports: A State Secret

Croatia was among the first countries to supply weapons to Syrian rebels in the winter of 2012. The shipment was routed via Jordan with logistical support from the CIA and paid for by Saudi Arabia, according to a 2013 investigation by the New York Times.

Following a flurry of embarrassing news coverage, Croatia abruptly started removing key information, such as the final destination of its exports, from official reports in an attempt to keep the details of this trade out of the headlines.

The Ministry of Economy, which is responsible for issuing import/export licenses for weapons and ammunition, told BIRN and OCCRP that a 2012 law on personal data protection prohibits it from giving out this information. This is disputed by the Croatian Data Protection Agency, which said the legislation applies only to individuals, not to companies or governments.

Five non-governmental organizations described the removal of information as a “troubling decline in transparency” in their submission to a United Nations (UN) Human Rights Panel on Croatia in March 2015.

Reporters, however, obtained the data via a little-known UN database, Comtrade, which contains annual international trade statistics from more than 170 countries.

The UN database revealed that Croatia exported $36 million worth of ammunition to Jordan in the two years since the Syrian conflict began in 2012. After Croatia’s role became public, Saudi Arabia took over importing more than $124 million worth of ammunition since 2014 – two thirds in the first nine months of 2016 alone.

The two countries also imported more than $21 million in weapons, including rocket and grenade launchers, since 2012.

Prior to 2012, the arms trade between Croatia, Jordan and Saudi Arabia was virtually nonexistent. Since 2012, all but a few hundred thousand dollars of Croatia’s ammunition sales have gone to Jordan or Saudi Arabia.

A spokesperson of the Croatian Ministry of Economy said that the latest exports took place in accordance with licenses approved in 2015. He also added that some export licenses to Saudi Arabia were rejected in 2015, and none were issued in 2016 but refused to provide any further detail.

An earlier investigation by BIRN and OCCRP revealed that Croatia approved $302 million worth of arms export licenses over this period. Unless these licenses are revoked, millions of dollars in future exports are approved to go forward.

Falling Into the Wrong Hands

While experts have previously highlighted video and photographic evidence of Croatian-made RBG-6 grenade launchers and RAK-12 multiple-launch rocket systems in Syria, Croatian officials have disputed their origin, pointing out that similar weapons are produced elsewhere.

However, new analysis by BIRN and OCCRP of the social media profiles used by brigades fighting in Syria, as well from online enthusiasts who monitor the spread of weapons, provide clear evidence that these weapons are Croatian-made.

Source: http://hetq.am/eng/news/76018/croatia-sells-record-number-of-arms-to-saudi-arabia-in-2016.html

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Global arms trade ‘at highest level in decades’ Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE top buyers

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This photo, taken on July 12, 2016, shows a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fighter jet taking part in a flying display at the Farnborough Airshow, southwest of London. (By AFP)

Global arms sales have reached their highest level in decades, with Middle Eastern Arab countries being among the top buyers, a new report says.

The US’s main three customers were Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey. Saudi Arabia was also particularly a lucrative market for the UK, which sold almost half of its total manufactured weapons to Riyadh.

More weapons were sold across the globe between 2012 and 2016 than any other five-year period since 1990, according to an annual report on arms sales released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) on Monday.

Among the arms purchasers, Saudi Arabia, which is involved in military aggression against its impoverished neighbor Yemen, is ranked the world’s second-largest importer after India.

India bought most of its arms from Russia, while the Saudis purchased their major weapons systems from the US and the UK.

‘No arms control regime in place’

“Over the past five years, most states in the Middle East have turned primarily to the USA and Europe in their accelerated pursuit of advanced military capabilities,” said Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher at Sipri.

The US’s main three customers were Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Turkey. Saudi Arabia was also particularly a lucrative market for the UK, which sold almost half of its total manufactured weapons to Riyadh.

“With no regional arms control instruments in place, states in Asia continue to expand their arsenals,” said Siemon Wezeman, a senior researcher at Sipri’s arms and military expenditure program.

“The USA supplies major arms to at least 100 countries around the world — significantly more than any other supplier state,” said Aude Fleurant, director of the Sipri’s arms and military expenditure program.

“Both advanced strike aircraft with cruise missiles and other precision-guided munitions and the latest generation air and missile defense systems account for a significant share of US arms exports,” Fleurant said.

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Julian Assange: Isis and Clinton Foundation are both funded by Saudi Arabia and Qatar

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assange-clinton-foundation‘This is the most significant email in the whole collection’

By Gabriel Samuels,

Wealthy officials from Qatar and Saudi Arabia who donated money to Hillary Clinton’s charitable foundation also provided financial support to Isis, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has claimed.

In an extended interview at the Ecuadorian embassy in London with documentary maker John Pilger for RT, Mr Assange said the same Saudi and Qatari officials could be seen to be supporting both the Clinton Foundation – founded by Mrs Clinton’s husband Bill – and funding the activities of Isis.

Mr Pilger asked if Mr Assange believed that “this notorious jihadist group, called Isil or Isis, is created largely with money from people who are giving money to the Clinton Foundation?”

“Yes”, Mr Assange replied.

The WikiLeaks founder pointed to an email exchange between presidential hopeful Ms Clinton and her campaign manager John Podesta, leaked by his organisation last month, which he believes “is the most significant email in the whole collection”.

In the email sent on August 17 2014, Ms Clinton asked Mr Podesta, who at that time worked under president Barack Obama, to help put “pressure” on Qatar and Saudi Arabia regarding the countries’ alleged support for the terrorist group Isis.

“We need to use our diplomatic and more traditional intelligence assets to bring pressure on the governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia, which are providing clandestine financial and logistic support to ISIL and other radical Sunni groups in the region,” Ms Clinton wrote.

Mr Assange noted the US government had never acknowledged governments of Middle East nations had financially supported Isis, instead arguing such support was isolated to “some rogue princes using their cut of the oil money to do whatever they like, although the government disapproves”, according to the WikiLeaks founder.

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The portion of an email from August 17, which Mr Assange believes is “most significant” (WikiLeaks)

According to the Clinton Foundation, the Saudi Arabian government has donated between $10 million and $25million since the foundation was set up in 1997. Last month it was reported the government of Qatar offered to donate $1 million to the foundation in celebration of Bill Clinton’s birthday.

Representatives from the Clinton Foundation have repeatedly denied accusations Ms Clinton has solicited funds and used donations to boost her campaign. There were no donations from Saudi Arabia while she was acting as secretary of state between 2009 and 2013.

Mr Assange also used the interview to dismiss the prospect of a Donald Trump victory in next week’s election, which the polls show will be close.

“My analysis is that Trump will not be permitted to win. Why do I say that? Because he has had every establishment against him. Trump does not have one establishment, maybe with the exception of the Evangelicals, if you can call them an establishment.

“Banks, intelligence, arms companies, foreign money, etc. are all united behind Hillary Clinton. And the media as well. Media owners, and the journalists themselves.”

In October, Ecuador’s government confirmed it had “temporarily restricted” Mr Assange’s internet access at its London embassy, to prevent him “meddling in the election process” in the US.

Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/julian-assange-clinton-foundation-isis-same-money-saudi-arabia-qatar-funding-a7397211.html

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