Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived in Saudi Arabia on Saturday for talks with King Salman amid a spike in tensions between the US and Iran.
Japan has sought to remain politically neutral as regional relations have become stretched following US President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers. It has a deep alliance with the US, as well as ties with Iran, which until 2017 supplied Japan with about 5 per cent of its crude oil imports.
Security in the Arabian Gulf’s waters and for Middle East oil supplies is a national security priority for Japan, which imports nearly 90 per cent of its oil from the Middle East. Much of it is shipped from Arab Gulf states through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, which Iran partly controls.
Japan plans to deploy naval forces, a destroyer and two patrol planes off the coasts of Yemen and Oman to help protect its energy supplies, while keeping away from directly patrolling the Strait as the US does.
After arriving late on Saturday evening in Riyadh, Mr Abe was given a ceremonial welcome and hosted for lunch by King Salman on Sunday afternoon. He also met Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman. This marks Mr Abe’s third visit to Saudi Arabia as prime minister.
Saudi Arabia is Japan’s top supplier of crude oil, accounting for about 39 per cent of Japan’s overall crude imports. Iran is unable to sell its oil internationally as it once did because of US sanctions.
Over the summer, Japanese energy supplies became a target of rising tension when two cargo ships were mysteriously hit off the Gulf of Oman. No one claimed responsibility for the attack, although others that summer were blamed on Iran, which has denied involvement.
The attacks on Japanese-related cargo in June took place while Mr Abe was in Iran meeting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani. He’d travelled to Tehran as an interlocutor for Mr Trump to ease tensions.
Concerns of a wider conflict have grown in recent days following a US air strike in Baghdad that killed Iran’s powerful military commander, Gen Qassem Suleimani. Iran retaliated, striking two military bases in Iraq where US troops are stationed, though no casualties were reported. Amid the chaos and heightened threats, Iran acknowledged on Saturday it had mistakenly shot down a Ukrainian passenger jet, killing all 176 people aboard.
Mr Abe is scheduled to visit the UAE on Tuesday and Oman on Wednesday, before departing for Tokyo. In the UAE, he will meet Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, and other leading Emirati figures. In Oman, he will hold talks with the country’s new ruler, Sultan Haitham bin Tariq, who was named on Saturday following the death of longtime ruler Sultan Qaboos.
Mr Abe is travelling with a delegation that includes ministers responsible for boosting trade and business ties.
While in Saudi Arabia, he is scheduled to visit the desert region of Al Ula, which the kingdom is touting as a tourism destination, and will reportedly meet the Mohammed bin Salman there.
BEACH SOCCER WORLD CUP
Group A
Paraguay
Japan
Switzerland
USA
Group B
Uruguay
Mexico
Italy
Tahiti
Group C
Belarus
UAE
Senegal
Russia
Group D
Brazil
Oman
Portugal
Nigeria
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Greatest Royal Rumble results
John Cena pinned Triple H in a singles match
Cedric Alexander retained the WWE Cruiserweight title against Kalisto
Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt win the Raw Tag Team titles against Cesaro and Sheamus
Jeff Hardy retained the United States title against Jinder Mahal
Bludgeon Brothers retain the SmackDown Tag Team titles against the Usos
Seth Rollins retains the Intercontinental title against The Miz, Finn Balor and Samoa Joe
AJ Styles remains WWE World Heavyweight champion after he and Shinsuke Nakamura are both counted out
The Undertaker beats Rusev in a casket match
Brock Lesnar retains the WWE Universal title against Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
Braun Strowman won the 50-man Royal Rumble by eliminating Big Cass last
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
match info
Athletic Bilbao 1 (Muniain 37')
Atletico Madrid 1 (Costa 39')
Man of the match Iker Muniain (Athletic Bilbao)
