Saudi Arabia

Hatice Cengiz, the fiancée of the late-journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN) have jointly filed a lawsuit against several Saudi Arabian government officials—including Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman—in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Plaintiffs filed the suit under the Torture Victim Protection Act (TVPA) and the Alien Tort Statue (ATS).

On Friday, September 11, 2020, at 12:00 p.m., The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence will hold a hearing on the U.S.-Saudi security and intelligence relationship. The committee will hear from Dr. Agnes Callamard, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions at the United Nations, as well as Mr. Bruce Riedel, senior fellow and director of the Intelligence Project at Brookings and Mr. Ali Soufan of the Soufan Center.

The UAE builds the first civilian nuclear reactor in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia moves down the path to building a nuclear weapon. Dana, Jamil, Jodi, and Les discuss the geopolitical ramifications of a nuclear powered Middle East. Are 123 agreements useful anymore? Will the United States be able to prevent nuclear proliferation? How does china play into all of this? All these questions and more answered in this week’s Fault Lines.

Mohammed bin Salman's impulsive policies are a poor match for dealing with the novel coronavirus.