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China calls for oil to be traded with yuan at Gulf summit in Saudi Arabia
Former Secretary of State Pompeo senior advisor Mary Kissel reacts to Xi Jinping meeting with the Saudi crown prince, telling ‘Mornings with Maria’ this is a ‘significant strategic move by China.’
Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday called on leaders from the top oil producing nations to conduct oil sales by using the Chinese yuan as he looks to bolster his country’s currency.
The move echoes steps Beijing took earlier this year with Russia and is an attempt to not only help push the yuan as a top international currency but aims to weaken the U.S. dollar – currently valued at $.14 per 1 Chinese yuan.
Xi addressed Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted two events with Beijing to demonstrate Riyadh’s burgeoning relationship with China amid strained relations with the U.S. over human rights issues, energy and its relationship with Russia.
In this photo made available by Saudi Press Agency, SPA, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, right, greets Chinese President Xi Jinping, during the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Summit, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Friday, Dec. 9, (Saudi Press Agency via AP / AP Newsroom)
RUSSIA’S GAZPROM SIGNS GAS DEAL WITH CHINA TO CONVERT PAYMENTS TO RUBLE, YUAN
Reports first surfaced in March 2022 that suggested Saudi Arabia was advancing years-long negotiations with China that could see a shift in the oil trade off of the U.S. dollar.
The move would likely be a significant hit to the dollar and Western markets.
Prince Mohammed reportedly championed a “historic new phase of relations with China” at the start of the summit Friday with leaders from other the Gulf, Levant and Africa.
Saudi Arabia is already China’s top crude oil supplier with Russia coming in second, though Xi pledged to purchase more oil and gas from Gulf nations Friday.
“China will continue to import a large amount of crude oil from the GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] countries, expand imports of liquefied natural gas, strengthen the engineering services in oil and gas upstream development and the cooperation in storage, transportation and refining,” Xi said.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, center right, poses for photos with Chinese President Xi Jinping, center left, and other Arab Gulf leaders including Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin (Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via AP / AP Newsroom)
CHINA’S XI JINPING MEETS WITH SAUDI RULERS IN ECONOMIC POWER PLAY: ‘NO LONGER A COMPETITOR’
The Chinese president also said that China would expand its ties with Saudi Arabia and other regional states without interfering in their domestic policies – a position Beijing has long criticized Washington over.
Xi’s proposition could prove appealing for nation leaders like the Crown Prince who has shared a rocky relationship with the U.S. for years, though particularly under the Biden administration.
The Chinese president also addressed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and said China is committed to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state based on the UN’s 1967 boundaries of Israel.
In this photo released by Xinhua News Agency, Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Thursday Dec. 8, 2022. Gulf Arab leaders and others in the Mideast are meeting in Saudi Arabia as part (Yao Dawei/Xinhua via AP / AP Newsroom)
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“The Palestine issue is vital to the peace and stability in the Middle East,” Xi said. “The historical injustice suffered by the Palestinian people cannot continue indefinitely.
“The demand for an independent state cannot be vetoed,” he added, though notably without reference to human rights abuses against communities the Uyghurs on his own turf.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Eva Kaili: European Parliament VP expelled by party amid corruption probe involving Gulf nation
CNN
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Eva Kaili, one of the European Parliament’s vice presidents, has been expelled by her political party in Greece amid a corruption probe.
The Panhellenic Socialist Movement (PASOK), one of Greece’s main opposition parties, said in a statement Friday: “Following the latest developments and the investigation by Belgian authorities into corruption of European officials, MEP Eva Kaili is expelled from PASOK-Movement of change by decision of President Nikos Androulakis.”
Kaili’s political group within the European Parliament, the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats, also announced on Friday they were suspending Kaili from the group with immediate effect “in response to the ongoing investigations.”
This comes as Belgium’s federal prosecutor confirmed to Belgian public service broadcaster RTBF on Friday that one of the parliament’s 14 vice presidents had been taken in for questioning as part of a probe into corruption involving the European Parliament and a country from the Persian Gulf.
In a statement, the prosecutor said that for two years, Belgian federal police inspectors “suspected a country from the Persian Gulf of influencing economic and political decisions of the European parliament,” according to RTBF.
The Belgian police suspect that the country transferred “consequential sums of money” or “important gifts” to significant actors within the European Parliament, according to RTBF.
The federal prosecutor did not identify the vice president but said they were one of four individuals taken in for questioning.
“Among the arrested persons (is) an elderly European parliamentarian,” the prosecutor said.
Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates all surround the Persian Gulf.
Searches carried out as part of the inquiry resulted in the seizure of roughly 600,000 Euros ($632,000) in cash, according to RTBF. Computer materials and phones were also seized as part of the sixteen searches which took place in the Belgian areas of Ixelles, Schaerbeek, Crainhem, Forest and Brussels.
China’s Xi calls for oil trade in yuan at Gulf summit in Riyadh
RIYADH, Dec 9 (Reuters) – President Xi Jinping told Gulf Arab leaders on Friday that China would work to buy oil and gas in yuan, a move that would support Beijing’s goal to establish its currency internationally and weaken the U.S. dollar’s grip on world trade.
Xi was speaking in Saudi Arabia where Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted two “milestone” Arab summits with the Chinese leader which showcased the powerful prince’s regional heft as he courts partnerships beyond close historic ties with the West.
Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia and economic giant China both sent strong messages during Xi’s visit on “non-interference” at a time when Riyadh’s relationship with Washington has been tested over human rights, energy policy and Russia.
Any move by Saudi Arabia to ditch the dollar in its oil trade would be a seismic political move, which Riyadh had previously threatened in the face of possible U.S. legislation exposing OPEC members to antitrust lawsuits.
China’s growing influence in the Gulf has unnerved the United States. Deepening economic ties were touted during Xi’s visit, where he was greeted with pomp and ceremony and on Friday met with Gulf states and attended a wider summit with leaders of Arab League countries spanning the Gulf, Levant and Africa.
At the start of Friday’s talks, Prince Mohammed heralded a “historic new phase of relations with China”, a sharp contrast with the awkward U.S.-Saudi meetings five months ago when President Joe Biden attended a smaller Arab summit in Riyadh.
Asked about his country’s relations with Washington in light of the warmth shown to Xi, Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said Saudi Arabia would continue to work with all its partners. “We don’t see this as a zero sum game,” he said.
“We do not believe in polarisation or in choosing between sides,” the prince told a news conference after the talks.
Though Saudi Arabia and China signed several strategic and economic partnership deals, analysts said relations would remain anchored mostly by energy interests, though Chinese firms have made forays into technology and infrastructure sectors.
“Energy concerns will remain front and centre of relations,” Robert Mogielnicki, senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told Reuters.
[1/4] Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman stands with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia December 8, 2022. Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS
“The Chinese and Saudi governments will also be looking to support their national champions and other private sector actors to move forward with trade and investment deals. There will be more cooperation on the tech side of things too, prompting familiar concerns from Washington.”
Saudi Arabia agreed a memorandum of understanding with Huawei this week on cloud computing and building high-tech complexes in Saudi cities. The Chinese tech giant has participated in building 5G networks in Gulf states despite U.S. concerns over a possible security risk in using its technology.
NATURAL PARTNERS
Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies have defied U.S. pressure to limit dealings with China and break with fellow OPEC+ oil producer Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, as they try to navigate a polarised world order with an eye on national economic and security interests.
Riyadh is a top oil supplier to China and the two countries reaffirmed in a joint statement the importance of global market stability and energy collaboration, while striving to boost non-oil trade and enhance cooperation in peaceful nuclear power
Xi said Beijing would continue to import large quantities of oil from Gulf Arab countries and expand imports of liquefied natural gas, adding that their countries were natural partners who would cooperate further in upstream oil and gas development.
China would also “make full use of the Shanghai Petroleum and National Gas Exchange as a platform to carry out yuan settlement of oil and gas trade,” he said.
Beijing has been lobbying for use of its yuan currency in trade instead of the U.S. dollar.
A Saudi source, speaking before Xi’s visit, told Reuters that a decision to sell small amounts of oil in yuan to China could make sense in order to pay Chinese imports directly, but “it is not yet the right time”.
Most of Saudi Arabia’s assets and reserves are in dollars including more than $120 billion of U.S. Treasuries that Riyadh holds, and the Saudi riyal, like other Gulf currencies, is pegged to the dollar.
Earlier, the Chinese leader said his visit heralded a new era in relations, voicing hope the Arab summits would become “milestone events in the history of China-Arab relations”.
Additional reporting by Eduardo Baptista in Beijing, Riham Alkousaa, Ahmad Ghaddar and Lina Najm in Dubai
Writing by Ghaida Ghantous and Dominic Evans
Editing by Mark Heinrich, William Maclean and Mark Potter
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Mexican authorities search for 2 missing Americans, including an NAU professor, in the Gulf of California
CNN
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Mexican authorities are searching for two Americans who went missing after a kayaking trip off the coast of Puerto Peñasco in the Gulf of California, local authorities said late Saturday.
It’s unknown exactly when the couple went missing.
Yeon-Su Kim is a forestry professor at Northern Arizona University, according to her university bio.
Kim’s husband is Corey Allen, according to a verified GoFundMe page established to raise funds to aid the search for the missing couple.
“The search will be reinforced with reconnaissance flights from the Navy and by land from the Secretary of Public Security and municipal authorities of Puerto Peñasco,” the state coordinator for the civil protection agency of the Mexican state Sonora said on Twitter.
Puerto Peñasco, also known as Rocky Point, is a fishing and resort city on the Gulf of California, south of Arizona.
A Northern Arizona University spokesperson issued a statement after the couple’s disappearance.
“The NAU and Flagstaff communities are hoping and praying that Yeon-Su and her husband Corey are found soon and brought home safely,” the statement said.
“Yeon-Su is a respected member of our NAU faculty and is well known for the warmth she shares with everyone she works with and her passion for our forestry mission,” the statement continued.
“We are so thankful to everyone helping with the search as well as those providing resources to support these efforts.”
US Coast Guard rescues Carnival Cruise ship passenger reported missing in Gulf of Mexico
(CNN) — In the first hours after the Carnival Valor set sail from New Orleans on Thanksgiving eve, a brother and sister set off for a place apropos of a holiday mood: They headed to an onboard bar.
Predictably, the man at one point stepped away to use the restroom.
But he didn’t come back.
Hours passed.
He wasn’t in his stateroom.
The 28-year-old had, quite simply, vanished.
What happened next has astonished at least one seasoned mariner who, with hours of hindsight, declared the stunning outcome unlike anything he’s ever witnessed — and nothing short of “one of those Thanksgiving miracles.”
A search is launched by air and sea
It was around 11 p.m. when her brother walked off, the sister recalled, Carnival spokesperson Matt Lupoli told CNN on Thursday in a statement.
At noon the next day — Thanksgiving Day — she reported him missing, the statement said. Officials haven’t identified either one.
Announcements echoed through the ship for the missing passenger to check in with guest services, passenger Mike Anderson CNN on Thursday, and people “noticed security starting to search the boat with a photo of the missing (passenger) in their phones.”
At around 2 p.m., a final check-in request was issued, he said.
Passengers were told the arrival time to their port of call in Cozumel, Mexico, would be delayed, Anderson said, but no official announcement went out about what had happened.
The ship, he said, then turned around.
“Carnival Valor retraced its route to support the search and rescue,” Lupoli explained.
Then around 2:30 p.m., the Coast Guard got a call from the ship, Coast Guard Lt. Phillip VanderWeit said in a statement.
A cruise passenger was missing.
Soon, a multi-crew search for the man — by air and by sea — was underway, he said.
A 200-mile zone and a critical mission
An alert went out to all mariners in the gulf, and the Coast Guard “launched all available resources,” Lt. Seth Gross, a search and rescue coordinator for the USCG told CNN on Friday morning.
That included a small boat from Venice, Florida, a helicopter based in New Orleans and airplanes from Clearwater, Florida, and Mobile, Alabama, he said.
The search extended more than 200 miles in the gulf, Gross said, adding the water temperature there Thursday night was just above 70 degrees — and somewhat colder in the Mississippi River.
Given the time difference between when the man was last seen and when the Coast Guard was alerted, “we knew that communication with the mariners in the Gulf of Mexico was going to be critical,” Gross said.
The mission intensified.
About 20 miles south of Southwest Pass, Louisiana, the crew of bulk carrier CRINIS was scanning the water, the Coast Guard said Friday in a news release.
Then, around 8:25 p.m., they spotted something.
‘Unlike anything I’ve been part of’
It was the man.
A Coast Guard MH-60 Jayhawk helicopter aircrew out of New Orleans headed to the spot — and “hoisted the man onto the helicopter,” VanderWeit said.
And he was responsive, USCG Petty Officer Ryan Graves said.
“He was able to identify his name, confirmed that he was the individual that fell overboard,” Gross told CNN’s Boris Sanchez on Friday afternoon. “He was showing signs of hypothermia, shock, dehydration” but could walk and communicate.
He “gave no really no clear indication of why he fell overboard or what time specifically,” he added.
“The fact that he was able to keep himself afloat and above the surface of the water for such an extended period of time, it’s just something you can’t take for granted and certainly something that’ll stick with me forever,” Gross said.
Rescuers haven’t been able to determine exactly how long he was in the water, Gross told “CNN This Morning” — but it could have been more than 15 hours.
If it was that long, it’s “the absolute longest that I’ve heard about — and just one of those Thanksgiving miracles,” he said.
In his 17-year career, “this case is unlike anything I’ve been a part of,” Gross said. “I think it kind of blows the norm, the normalcy, out of the water here, and really just shows the will to live is something that you need to account for in every search-and-rescue case.”
“If not for the alert crew aboard the motor vessel CRINIS, this case could have had a much more difficult ending,” he said in the news release. “It took a total team effort from Coast Guard watchstanders, response crews, and our professional maritime partners operating in the Gulf of Mexico to locate the missing individual and get him to safety.”
The rescued man was transferred to awaiting emergency medical personnel at New Orleans Lakefront Airport, Graves said.
He’s being evaluated at a hospital, Gross said, and was reported in stable condition late Friday morning by the Coast Guard.
Back aboard the Carnival Valor, an announcement Thursday evening over the PA system informed guests there had been a man-overboard incident, Anderson said.
The ship, though, had been released from the search, Anderson recalled hearing, and again was sailing toward Cozumel.
CNN’s Melissa Alonso, Dave Alsup, Amanda Jackson, Jose Lesh and Theresa Waldrop contributed to this report.
Israel blames Iran for drone attack on oil tanker in Gulf of Oman
CNN
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Israel on Wednesday accused Iran of launching a drone attack on an oil tanker off the coast of Oman, with one official describing it as “an Iranian provocation in the Gulf” linked to the World Cup in Qatar.
A self-destructing drone attacked the Pacific Zircon, a Liberian-flagged, Israeli-affiliated tanker carrying gas oil, at about 10 p.m. Monday but it did not cause major damage, a US military official told CNN. The drone did not disable the ship or interrupt its journey, the US official said.
“We are in communication with the vessel and there is no reports of injuries or pollution. All crew are safe and accounted for,” Eastern Pacific Shipping, the vessel’s operating company, said Wednesday. “There is some minor damage to the vessel’s hull but no spillage of cargo or water ingress.”
Marine Traffic showed the last known position for the tanker off the coast of Oman near Liwa on Monday.
The Israeli official said the weapon was an Iranian “HESA Shahed 136 self-destructing drone, the same ones being used in Ukraine.” Iran has sent its self-destructing drones to Russia for use in the war in Ukraine, underscoring the extent to which Iran has developed its attack drone technology.
“We see this as an Iranian provocation in the Gulf – it’s not an attack against Israel – it’s the same thing they usually do in the Gulf, trying to disrupt stability and mainly influence World Cup events,” said the Israeli official, who asked not to be named due to the sensitivity of the situation.
CNN has reached out to the Iranian government for comment.
The weapon and the target fit the pattern of attacks linked to Iran in the past. On July 30, 2021, an armed drone attacked a cargo ship named Mercer Street off the coast of Oman, killing two. That ship was associated with an Israeli billionaire.
Soccer teams and supporters from 32 nations, including Iran, are gathering in Qatar ahead of the World Cup, which kicks off on Sunday.
Storm forming in Caribbean could become Hermine, enter Gulf of Mexico
Next week, it could enter the Gulf of Mexico, although its exact track is still uncertain. Assuming it grows into at least a tropical storm, it will be named Hermine. The National Hurricane Center gives it a 90 percent chance to do so.
For now, anyone residing along the Gulf Coast and Florida ought to pay close attention to this as the forecast evolves in the coming days.
At present, it’s poorly organized. The reason it isn’t doing much yet is because of disruptive shear, or a change of wind speed and/or direction with height, that it’s combating. Too much shear can knock a fledgling storm off-kilter, as if subjected to a game of atmospheric tug-of-war. That shear is stemming from the high-altitude outflow, or exhaust, of Fiona far to the northeast.
Invest 98L will meander west over the coming days, remaining hindered by shear through Sunday. Things will escalate very quickly Sunday evening into Monday.
That’s when shear will relax at the same time 98L moves over some of the warmest waters in the Atlantic. The northwest Caribbean is replete with ocean heat content, or thermal energy contained in bathlike sea waters, which will support expedited consolidation and strengthening of the nascent storm.
Simultaneously, 98L — by then probably a named storm — will move beneath an upper-level high pressure system. That will work in favor of 98L in two ways:
- Divergence. High pressure means air spreading apart. That divergence in the upper atmosphere will have a vacuum-like effect, creating a void and making it easier for surface air to rise. This enhancement of thunderstorm updrafts will hasten how quickly warm, moist “inflow” can rush into the storm.
- Outflow. Highs spin clockwise. That’s the direction of tropical cyclone outflow in the northern hemisphere. That high pressure will work with 98L to evacuate “spent” air at high altitudes away from the storm, allowing it to ingest more juiced-up air from below. Imagine placing a suction fan at the top of a chimney. Air would be pulled up and out, which means more air would rush in from the bottom and the fire at the base would grow. This storm will do the same.
The potential exists for a very strong storm to be located somewhere in the northwestern Caribbean come Monday. It may be rapidly intensifying at that point.
However, it could track toward anywhere from Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula to central Cuba. But the storm could also slip in between those regions, entering the Gulf of Mexico sometime late Monday or Tuesday.
There are only two escape routes that might allow the storm to avoid the gulf. There is an outside chance that, if it remains weak, it could continue westward in the Caribbean toward Central America. If it strengthens quickly, it could turn north over central Cuba and curl out toward the Atlantic. But just a minority of model simulations present these outlier scenarios.
Most model simulations project that the system will end up in the gulf — while subtleties in atmospheric steering currents will determine where the storm eventually comes ashore.
A small piece of good news is that, if the storm does make a landfall in the northern or western Gulf of Mexico, dry air from the north may weaken it slightly. That’s not much comfort, however, when virtually the entire gulf region is running warmer than average at the most active time of year for hurricanes.
If the storm tracks further east, it could evade such dry air. That would be a concern if any potential track takes it closer to Florida.
Gulf states demand Netflix pull content deemed offensive
Signage at the Netflix booth is seen on the convention floor at Comic-Con International in San Diego, California, U.S., July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Bing Guan/File Photo
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DUBAI, Sept 6 (Reuters) – Gulf Arab states have demanded that U.S. streaming giant Netflix (NFLX.O) remove content deemed offensive to “Islamic and societal values” in the region, Saudi Arabia’s media regulator said on Tuesday.
It did not specify the content, but mentioned that it included content aimed at children. Saudi state-run Al Ekhbariya TV, in a programme discussing the issue, showed blurred out animation clips that appeared to show two girls embracing.
The Riyadh-based General Commission for Audiovisual Media statement said the content violated media regulations in the Gulf Cooperation Council, which groups Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.
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If Netflix continued to broadcast the content then “necessary legal measures will be taken”, it said, without elaborating.
Netflix did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
The UAE issued a similarly worded statement regarding Netflix content on Tuesday, saying it would follow up on what the platform broadcasts in coming days and “assess its commitment to broadcasting controls” in the country.
Same-sex relationships are criminalised in many Muslim-majority nations and films featuring such relationships have in the past been banned by regulators in those countries, while others with profanity or illicit drug use are sometimes censored.
The UAE and other Muslim states earlier this year banned Walt Disney-Pixar’s animated feature film “Lightyear” from screening in cinemas because it features characters in a same-sex relationship. read more
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Reporting by Aziz El Yaakoubi in Riyadh and Alexander Cornwell in Dubai; Writing by Ghaida Ghantous; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
US Navy prevents Iranian attempt to capture American maritime drone in Arabian Gulf
While US forces in the region were transiting international waters around 11 p.m. Monday, they saw an Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy support ship, Shahid Baziar, towing a US-operated maritime drone, also known as a Saildrone Explorer unmanned surface vessel, US Naval Forces Central Command said in a news release.
A US Navy patrol coastal ship, USS Thunderbolt, was “operating nearby and immediately responded,” the Navy said. After the Iranians attached a line to the maritime drone, US forces in the area communicated directly with the Iranians to say they wanted the drone back, a US defense official said.
The US Navy patrol boat then moved closer to the maritime drone, and US 5th Fleet launched an MH-60S Sea Hawk Helicopter from Bahrain and positioned moved it above the drone, the release and a US defense official said.
After the US responded with both the coastal ship and Sea Hawk helicopter, the Iranian vessel disconnected the towing line from the US drone and departed the area four hours later, the release said.
The US Navy then resumed operations “without incident,” the release added.
The incident comes at a critical time in relations between Iran and the US. Negotiations to revive the Iran nuclear deal are at a sensitive stage and US officials had voiced some optimism around the latest efforts. However, they have stressed that gaps remain between the two sides.
Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of US Naval Forces Central Command, US 5th Fleet and Combined Maritime Forces, called the IRGCN’s actions “flagrant, unwarranted and inconsistent with the behavior of a professional maritime force,” in a statement about the incident.
“U.S. naval forces remain vigilant and will continue to fly, sail and operate anywhere international law allows while promoting rules-based international order throughout the region,” Cooper said in the statement.
Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla, Commander of US Central Command which oversees the US military presence in the Middle East, reacted strongly, saying Iran’s actions were illegal.
“The professionalism and competence of the crew of the USS Thunderbolt prevented Iran from this illegal action,” Kurilla said in a statement. “This incident once again demonstrates Iran’s continued destabilizing, illegal, and unprofessional activity in the Middle East.”
The maritime drone that the IRGCN attempted to take is “US government property and equipped with sensors, radars and cameras for navigation and data collection,” the release said. The drone “does not store sensitive or classified information,” the release added.