Saudi Aramco completes $2.65bn purchase of Valvoline Inc.’s global products business
Updated 02 March 2023
SPA
Dhahran: Saudi Aramco has completed through a wholly owned subsidiary the acquisition of US company Valvoline Inc.’s global products business for $2.65 billion.
Under the deal, which came after the two companies signed a share purchase agreement announced on Aug. 1, last year, Aramco aims to become one of the most prominent integrated brands in the world in the field of lubricants.
Aramco will own the Valvoline brand in connection with its product business, while Valvoline will own the brand in connection with its retail services business, and the two firms plan to work together to further spread ownership of the Valvoline brand globally.
Headquartered in Lexington, Kentucky, Valvoline Global Operations will continue to be a world leader in automotive and industrial solutions, creating future-ready products and best-in-class services for partners around the globe.
The acquisition is expected to enhance Aramco’s growing presence in the premium brand lubricants market, while opening global horizons to promote the established name and provide a foundation for future growth and integration of its refining, chemicals, and marketing business portfolio.
RIYADH: Iran is set to present images of captured Israeli F-35 pilots “soon,” according to the Tehran Times.
The Iranians on Friday said they had captured two Israeli fighter jet pilots, one of them a woman.
The Israelis have not confirm they had lost any of its pilots after carrying out a surprise attack on Iran on Friday morning.
The two countries militaries have been engaged in missile and drone attacks since then, prompting fears the confrontation could spiral out of control and lead to a major regional conflict.
UN two-state conference co-chairs urge renewed push for Palestinian state amid regional escalation
The statement said the latest escalation had “necessitated the suspension” of the high-level conference in New York
Updated 9 min 54 sec ago
Arab News
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and France, co-chairs of the United Nations Conference on the Peaceful Settlement of the Palestinian Question, joined with the chairs of the conference’s working groups in issuing a joint statement on Tuesday expressing “deep concern” over recent developments in the region, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The statement said the latest escalation had “necessitated the suspension” of the high-level conference, underscoring “the validity of warnings about the fragility of the situation” and the urgent need to “restore calm, respect international law, and strengthen diplomatic action.”
Despite the setback, the group reaffirmed their “full commitment to the conference’s objectives” and pledged to “ensure the continuity of its work and the achievement of its goals,” SPA added.
They added that “the co-chairs of the working groups will announce the date of the conference's roundtables soon,” with the aim of generating “clear and coordinated international commitments” to advance the implementation of a two-state solution.
“In these critical circumstances,” the statement continued, “we must redouble our efforts calling for respect for international law and the sovereignty of states, and to promote peace, freedom, and dignity for all peoples of the region.”
The group also reiterated its “unwavering support for all efforts aimed at ending the war in Gaza” and called for a “just and sustainable settlement of the Palestinian issue,” affirming that regional stability and security hinge on a lasting peace.
What We Are Reading Today: Forest Euphoria by Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian
Updated 18 min 34 sec ago
Arab News
In “Forest Euphoria,” Patricia Ononiwu Kaishian introduces readers to the queerness of all the life around us.
In snakes, snails, and, above all, fungi, she saw her own developing identities as a queer, neurodivergent person reflected back at her — and in them, too, she found a personal path to a life of science.
Nature, Kaishian shows us, is filled with the unusual, the overlooked, and the marginalized — and they have lessons for us all.
China’s Xi in Kazakhstan to cement ‘eternal’ Central Asia ties
Astana summit brings Xi together with Central Asian leaders
Updated 20 min 10 sec ago
AFP
ASTANA, Kazakhstan: Xi Jinping celebrated China’s “eternal friendship” with Central Asia at a summit in Kazakhstan on Tuesday, as the Chinese leader blasted tariffs and sought to assert Beijing’s influence in a region historically dominated by Russia.
The summit in Astana brought together Xi with the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
Under Russia’s orbit until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the five Central Asian states have courted interest from major powers including China, the European Union and the United States since becoming independent.
At the summit, the group signed a pact of “eternal” friendship as Xi called for closer ties with the resource-rich region.
“We should... strengthen cooperation with a more enterprising attitude and more practical measures,” said Xi in comments carried by state news agency Xinhua.
Central Asia is also seen as a key logistics hub, given its strategic location between China, Russia, the Middle East and Europe.
Speaking as Western leaders gathered on the other side of the world for the G7 in Canada, Xi refreshed his criticism of US President Donald Trump’s trade policies.
“Tariff wars and trade wars have no winners,” Xinhua quoted him as saying.
While Central Asian leaders continue to view Russia as a strategic partner, ties with Moscow have loosened since the war in Ukraine.
China has also shown willingness to invest in massive infrastructure projects in the region, part of its Belt and Road initiative that uses such financing as a political and diplomatic lever.
In a meeting with Kyrgyzstan’s president, Xi called for moves to “advance high-quality construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway and foster new drivers of growth in clean energy, green minerals and artificial intelligence.”
The five Central Asian nations are trying to take advantage of the growing interest in their region and are coordinating their foreign policies accordingly.
They regularly hold summits with China and Russia to present the region as a unified bloc and attract investment.
High-level “5+1” format talks have also been organized with the European Union, the United States, Turkiye and other Western countries.
“The countries of the region are balancing between different centers of power, wanting to protect themselves from excessive dependence on one partner,” Kyrgyz political scientist Nargiza Muratalieva told AFP.
Russia says China’s growing influence in the region does not pose a threat.
“There is no reason for such fears. China is our privileged strategic partner, and the countries of Central Asia, naturally, are our natural historical partners,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday.
But China has now established itself as Central Asia’s leading trading partner, far outstripping the EU and Russia.
Construction of the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan-China railway and the China-Tajikistan highway, which runs through the Pamir Mountains to Afghanistan, are among its planned investments.
New border crossings and “dry ports” have already been built to process trade, such as Khorgos in Kazakhstan, one of the largest logistics hubs in the world.
“Neither Russia nor Western institutions are capable of allocating financial resources for infrastructure so quickly and on such a large scale, sometimes bypassing transparent procedures,” said Muratalieva.
Kazakhstan said last week that Russia would lead the construction of its first nuclear power plant but that it wanted China to build the second.
“Central Asia is rich in natural resources such as oil, gas, uranium, gold and other minerals that the rapidly developing Chinese economy needs,” Muratalieva said.
“Ensuring uninterrupted supplies of these resources, bypassing unstable sea routes, is an important goal of Beijing,” the analyst added.
China also positions itself as a supporter of the predominantly authoritarian Central Asian leaderships.
At the last Central Asia-China summit, Xi called for “resisting external interference” that might provoke “color revolutions” that could overthrow the current leaders in the region.
“Beijing sees the stability of the Central Asian states as a guarantee of the security of its western borders,” Muratalieva said.
Central Asia border’s China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, where Beijing is accused of having detained more than a million Uyghurs and other Muslims, part of a campaign the UN has said could constitute crimes against humanity.
What Israel’s bombing of Iran’s state broadcaster says about its targeting of journalists
Israeli forces struck Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB on Monday, killing two staff and injuring others during a live broadcast
Press freedom advocates say the Tehran strike echoes Israel’s pattern of targeting media in Gaza and the West Bank
Updated 20 min 21 sec ago
GABRIELE MALVISI
LONDON: In what press freedom groups say is only the latest in a string of attacks on media workers, the Israeli military on Monday struck the headquarters of the state-owned Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting network in Tehran.
The attack, which interrupted a live broadcast, killed at least two members of staff — news editor Nima Rajabpour and secretariat worker Masoumeh Azimi — and injured several others, according to state-affiliated media.
In footage widely shared online, Sahar Emami, an anchor for the Islamic Republic of Iran News Network, was seen fleeing the studio as the screen behind her filled with smoke. Moments earlier, she had told viewers: “You hear the sound of the aggressor attacking the truth.”
The strike destroyed the building — known as the Glass Building — which burned through the night. Israel immediately claimed responsibility.
Defense Minister Israel Katz had issued a warning less than an hour earlier, calling IRIB a “propaganda and incitement megaphone,” urging up to 330,000 nearby residents to evacuate.
The attack drew swift condemnation from Iranian officials. Esmaeil Baqaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, called it “a wicked act of war crime,” urging the international community to demand justice from Israel for its attack on the media.
NUMBER
70%
Israel is responsible for the majority of journalist killings globally in 2024, the highest number by a single country in one year since the Committee to Protect Journalists began documenting this data in 1992.
Source: CPJ
“The world is watching,” Baqaei wrote on X. “Israeli regime is the biggest enemy of truth and is the No#1 killer of journalists and media people.”
Over the past week, the long-running shadow war between Israel and Iran has escalated dramatically. On Friday, Israel launched a series of airstrikes on Iranian nuclear and military facilities, including the Natanz enrichment site.
With the stated aim of preventing Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, the strikes caused significant damage to the country’s nuclear infrastructure and military command structure, with multiple high-ranking commanders killed.
Mourners attend the funeral of members of the press who were killed in an Israeli strike, at the Al-Awda Hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, on December 26, 2024. (AFP)
Iran has retaliated with missile barrages targeting Israeli cities and military bases. Civilian casualties have mounted on both sides, and major cities like Tehran and Tel Aviv have experienced widespread panic and disruption.
The Israeli attack on IRIB shows media workers are not exempt from the violence.
Sara Qudah, regional director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, said she was “appalled by Israel’s attack on Iran’s state television channel,” noting that the lack of international censure “has emboldened it to target media elsewhere in the region.”
There is absolutely no logical reason for Israel to target a media outlet in Iran that poses no threat to anyone, says Peyman Jebelli, Head of IRIB
Loreley Hahn Herrera, lecturer in global media and digital cultures at SOAS University of London, echoed this view.
“The exceptional status through which Western powers have historically shielded Israel has allowed it to systematically commit international law and human rights violations without ever being held accountable or suffer any legal, financial, military or diplomatic repercussions,” she told Arab News.
“This has indeed emboldened Israel to attack not only Palestine and Iran. In the last months, Israel has broken the ceasefire in Lebanon, bombed Yemen, and Syria as well.”
Palestinian journalist Mohammed Al-Zaanin waits at Nasser hospital for treatment after sustaining injuries during Israeli bombardment of the Bani Suheila district in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on July 22, 2024. (AFP)
Israel’s treatment of media workers in combat zones has long been documented by press freedom organizations. Despite repeated calls for accountability, Israel has consistently evaded consequences.
“Israel has a sophisticated political communication strategy which rests on its hasbara (propaganda) that has worked hand in hand with its material strategies to control the public spaces in the West through repeating narratives about victimhood and its right to defend itself,” Dina Matar, professor of political communication and Arab media at SOAS, told Arab News.
Monday’s strike in Tehran closely mirrors Israel’s record in Gaza and the West Bank since Oct. 7, 2023. Under the banner of “eliminating terrorists,” Israel has killed at least 183 journalists in Palestine and Lebanon, according to CPJ. Others put the figure closer to 220.
This frame grab from a video released by Iran state TV shows the network building on fire after an Israeli drone attack, June 16, 2025, in Tehran, Iran. (Iran state TV, IRINN via AP)
A separate report published in April by the Costs of War project at Brown University described the Gaza conflict as “the worst ever for journalists.”
Titled “News Graveyards: How Dangers to War Reporters Endanger the World,” the study concluded that more journalists have been killed in Gaza than in all major US wars combined.
The report was swiftly attacked by Israeli nationalists, who dismissed it as “garbage” and factually flawed for not linking the journalists killed to militant activity.
A tribute for slain Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh is shown during an observation of the 75th anniversary of the Nakba in the General Assembly Hall at the United Nations on May 15, 2023 in New York City. (AFP)
“There is no policy of targeting journalists,” a senior Israeli officer said last year, attributing the deaths to the scale and intensity of the bombardment.
But Herrera disagrees.
“Israel is not only targeting journalists, it is targeting the families of the journalists as a strategy to deter their coverage and punish them for reporting the war crimes Israel commits on a daily basis in occupied Palestine,” she said.
Palestinian journalists lift placards during a rally in protest of the killing of fellow reporters Hussam Shabat and Muhammad Mansour in Israeli strikes a day earlier, at the al-Ahli Arab hospital, also known as the Baptist hospital, in Gaza City on March 25, 2025. (AFP)
Herrera cited several examples where Israel appeared to punish journalists by targeting their families. One case was that of Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael Dahdouh, who was broadcasting live when he learned that his wife, daughter, son, and grandchild had been killed in an Israeli airstrike in October 2023.
A more recent case involved photojournalist Fatima Hassouna, who was killed alongside several family members. Both attacks, Israel claimed, were aimed at Hamas operatives, but critics say they reflect a broader strategy of silencing coverage through collective punishment.
Yet accusations of Israel’s targeting of journalists precede the last 20 months.
Mourners and colleagues holding 'press' signs surround the body of Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul, killed along with his cameraman Rami al-Refee in an Israeli strike during their coverage of Gaza's Al-Shati refugee camp, on July 31, 2024. (AFP)
“Israel has a long and documented history of targeting Palestinian journalists,” said Matar, pointing to the 1972 assassination of writer Ghassan Kanafani in Beirut.
A prominent Palestinian author and militant, Kanafani was considered to be a leading novelist of his generation and one of the Arab world’s leading Palestinian writers.
He was killed along with his 17-year-old niece, Lamees, by an explosive device planted in his car by Mossad, in one of the first known extrajudicial killings for which the Israeli spy agency ever claimed responsibility.
Relatives over the body of journalist Ahmed Mansur at Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on April 8, 2025. (AFP)
More recently, in May 2022, Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead by an Israeli soldier during a raid in Jenin, despite wearing a press vest. Initial Israeli claims blaming Palestinian fire were quickly disproven by independent investigations and the UN.
A 2025 documentary identified the suspected shooter, but no one has been held accountable.
Foreign media workers have also been killed. In 2014, Italian journalist Simone Camilli and his Palestinian colleague Ali Shehda Abu Afash died when an unexploded Israeli bomb detonated while they were reporting in Gaza.
This frame grab from a video released by Iran state TV shows anchor Sahar Emami amid an explosion from an Israeli attack during a live TV broadcast, June 16, 2025, in Tehran, Iran. (Iran state TV, IRINN via AP)
In 2003, Welsh documentarian James Miller was fatally shot by Israeli forces while filming in Rafah.
A year earlier, Italian photojournalist Raffaele Ciriello — on assignment for Corriere della Sera — was shot dead by Israeli gunfire in Ramallah during the Second Intifada, becoming the first foreign journalist killed in that conflict.
No one has been held accountable in any of these cases.
“The reason behind Israel’s targeting and killing of journalists is to send a clear message and instill fear of reporting Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and the West Bank, as it can carry the consequence of death and/or injury,” said Herrera, who noted Israel’s refusal to allow international media into Gaza as part of a wider strategy to monopolize the narrative.
“This is an attempt to minimize or flat out stop any negative coverage of Israeli actions in Gaza and the rest of the occupied territories,” she said. “Israel does not want international media, and particularly Western media, to cover their genocide campaign and their ongoing and systematic war crimes … and push further the delegitimization of Israel.”
While Israel has so far refused to grant broader media access to the enclave, Western news organizations and human rights groups have attempted to push back against the Israeli narrative, arguing that affiliation with outlets like Al-Aqsa TV or Iran’s state broadcaster IRIB does not justify extrajudicial killings.
“News outlets, even propagandist ones, are not legitimate military targets,” the Freedom of the Press Foundation said in a statement on Monday. “Bombing a studio during a live broadcast will not impede Iran’s nuclear program.”
As the conflict with Iran escalates, incidents like Monday’s bombing are likely to face growing scrutiny. For many observers, Israel’s actions are becoming increasingly indefensible, and international tolerance for such attacks may be nearing its limit.
“The international community has played an important role in allowing Israel to act in this manner,” said Herrera.
“Since its establishment in 1948, and even before that though the Balfour Declaration in 1917, the West has protected Israel in the international relations arena.
“The best example of this is the use of the US veto in the UN Security Council or the ever-present declarations that Israel ‘has a right to defend itself’ by European and American political leadership.
“Until the international community effectively implements sanctions, stops funding and arming Israel, we will only continue to witness Israel’s brazen violations of international and human rights law.
“We cannot expect Israel to self-regulate because Israel is not a democracy. Its political and legal systems are subservient to the Zionist ideology of colonization and racial supremacy, and will act to satisfy these aims.”