Saudi Prince's 100 mln pounds London home up for sale

London, Jul 30: Want to rub shoulders with billionaires and live life king-size?

A Saudi Prince is reportedly selling his palatial house which is located close to where Prince William and wife Kate Middleton, Indian steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and the Sultan of Brunei stay.

The house is priced at 100 million pounds and if the deal goes ahead it will be one of the most expensive houses ever sold in the UK, but would-be buyers have been sworn to secrecy.

Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fahd, the favourite son of the late King Fahd who led Saudi Arabia for 23 years, is understood to be trying to sell 5 Palace Green in Kensington, The Times reported.

Knight Frank, the estate agent to the rich, is believed to have approached a number of potential buyers who have signed confidentiality agreements.

The house is located at the southern end of Kensington Palace Gardens, which is Britain's most expensive street and often referred to as "Billionaires' Row".

The guarded street is home to embassies and some of the world's richest tycoons including the Sultan of Brunei, the Ukrainian-born American businessman Len Blavatnik, the steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal and his family, and Jon Hunt, the founder of Foxtons estate agent.

Houses in Kensington Palace Gardens, prized for its exclusivity and security and its large mansions and gardens, can be more than 6,000 pounds a sq ft in value.

The owners of the 29 homes along Billionaires' Row also live yards from Kensington Palace. Such has been the demand in recent years for homes on this small stretch of southwest London that the total value of the homes there has soared to more than 3.5 billion pounds— higher in value than all the 2,600 homes in Chipping Norton, David Cameron's constituency home in Oxfordshire.

Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fadh's 5 Palace Green is a detached, listed building designed in 1905 by the architect Edward Prioleau Warren.

The three-storey red brick building has Portland stone dressings and a central entrance beneath a gabled façade, large gate piers and iron railings. The interior is understood to have marble staircases with wrought-iron balustrades.

Prince Abdul Aziz bin Fadh also owns 12 Kensington Palace Gardens, which has belonged to the Saudi royal family since the late 1970s. It is understood that buyers have made speculative approaches to buy this house, which is valued at about 150 million pounds.

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Spain blocks arms ship from India to Israel amid ongoing Gaza genocide

News Network

May 18,2024

In a humanitarian move, Spain has refused entry to a ship carrying arms from India’s Chennai to Israel to dock at one of its ports, its Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares has said.

The Denmark-flagged cargo ship Marianne Danica sailed from Chennai on April 8 when people in Gaza were observing Ramadan fasting, and was headed to the port of Haifa in Israel, according to maritime tracking portals and Spanish media.

Spain has been extremely critical of the rising civilian casualties due to the Israeli offensive in Gaza and, along with Belgium, has suspended arms exports licenses to Tel Aviv.

Spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs Randhir Jaiswal, at the weekly press conference, only said that they have seen the report of the ship and will revert with more information.

Meanwhile, a source said, “Investigation will reveal if the items on board were cleared for export and if the end user is the same as reported by The Guardian because there are items that are not banned for exports.”

Speaking to reporters in Brussels on Thursday on the issue, Mr. Albares had said, “This is the first time we have done this because it is the first time we have detected a ship carrying a shipment of arms to Israel that wants to call at a Spanish port.”

“This will be a consistent policy with any ship carrying arms to Israel that wants to call at Spanish ports. The Foreign Ministry will systematically reject such stopovers for one obvious reason: the Middle East does not need more weapons, it needs more peace,” he stated.

The ship was carrying 27 tonnes of explosives according to local reports. It was to make a port call at Cartegena in Spain.
In February, Mr. Albares said that they had suspended arms export licences to Israel since October 7, which he said made them “realise” the importance of a “fair and lasting solution” to the Palestinian cause.

The incident comes amid an ongoing row between Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s party and his coalition partners over another ship, Borkum, that was due to dock at Cartegena port on Friday over allegations that it was carrying arms meant for Israel. However, the Spanish government has said that the arms it is ferrying are meant for the Czech Republic.

Belgium had suspended two arms export licences to Israel.

“We welcome the decision of the Spanish government to deny the transit authorisation of the vessel Marianne Danica, in accordance with Tratado (treaty) on Arms Trade and Spanish law,” Amnesty International Spain said on social media platform ‘X’.

The timing also coincides with the Israeli ground offensive inside Rafah. According to the UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) at least 6,30,000 Palestinians have been forced out of Rafah since the launch of the incursion on May 7.

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