Saudi Arabia, Spain sign $2.2bn defense deal

Arab News

April 13, 2018

Saudi Arabia and Spain signed a $2.2 billion framework agreement on defense co-operation at a ceremony on Wednesday in the Spanish capital.

The Kingdom will buy five small warships from the Spanish state-owned shipbuilder Navantia, Spain’s army will train Saudi military personnel and contractors will build a naval construction center in Saudi Arabia.

The deal was among a raft of agreements on business, trade and culture reached during the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s visit to Spain, which concluded on Wednesday.

Earlier, the crown prince was welcomed by Spain’s King Felipe VI at the Zarzuela Palace on the outskirts of Madrid. The king hosted a luncheon in his honor attended by senior Spanish officials and businessmen. The crown prince then held talks with Defense Minister Maria Dolores Cospedal and Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy.

Spain is a leader in sectors such as renewable energy and infrastructure, which are key to Saudi Vision 2030.

Spanish companies have already won two major infrastructure contracts in Saudi Arabia. A Spanish consortium, Al-Shoula, is building the high-speed railway linking Makkah and Madinah, and the Spanish construction group FCC leads one of three consortia building Riyadh’s rapid transit system.

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Israeli forces invade southwestern Syria, set up checkpoint in Quneitra

News Network

November 24,2025

Israeli forces have pushed over the Syrian frontier, erecting a checkpoint and stopping vehicles in the southwestern city of Quneitra, in yet another breach of the Arab country’s sovereignty.

The violation took place on Sunday, when the troops made their way across the border, setting up the outpost near the Ain al-Bayda junction in northern Quneitra, Syrian outlets reported.

According to the al-Ikhbariya paper, an Israeli detachment positioned itself at the junction, halting cars and conducting searches.

The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported that three Israeli military vehicles then moved further into the northern countryside, deploying between the town of Jubata al-Khashab and the villages of Ofaniya and Ain al-Bayda. The agency added that a separate Israeli unit mounted a new incursion in the central region, approaching the villages of Umm Batina and al-Ajraf.

Residents said such activities have surged in recent months, pointing to Israeli advances onto farmland, leveling of extensive forested areas, arrests, and spread of mobile checkpoints.

The Israeli regime began markedly increasing its military aggression against Syria last year.

The escalation coincided with increasingly ferocious onslaughts throughout the country by the so-called Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) Takfiri terrorist group, which the government of President Bashar al-Assad had confined to northwestern Syria. The HTS, however, managed to overthrow the government as the Israeli attacks would pummel the country’s civilian and defensive infrastructure.

Various reports have shown that, during the escalation, the regime conducted more than 1,000 airstrikes on the Syrian territory and over 400 ground raids into the south.

Following the collapse of the Assad government, Tel Aviv also widened its grip over the occupied Golan Heights by taking control of a demilitarized buffer zone, in defiance of a 1974 Disengagement Agreement. Earlier this month, senior Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visited the buffer zone, prompting expressions of alarm on the part of the United Nations.

The United States, the regime’s biggest ally, has, meanwhile, been fraternizing the HTS head Abu Mohammed al-Jolani amid the widely reported prospect of rapprochement with Tel Aviv.

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