Saudi Arabia funds digital news platform in US for lobbying: Report
Saudi Arabia is funding a digital news platform where the regime will hire some US-based media professionals to exert political pressure on the White House and the US Congress.
The new lobbying project, which has not been officially announced, is backed by a subsidiary of the Saudi Technology Development and Investment Co., or Taqnia, CNBC News reported quoting new foreign lobbying disclosures filed with the Department of Justice.
The Saudi kingdom is hiring journalists and presenters who have past experience at Fox News, Al Jazeera, NBC and SiriusXM satellite radio.
The development comes as the Saudi kingdom seek to reach and influence the administration of President Joe Biden and the new Congress following the exit of the Donald Trump administration which had close ties with Riyadh. But the ties between Riyadh and Washington have strained after Biden was sworn in as the new US president earlier this year.
The development also comes almost three years after the brutal murder of Washington Post journalist and Saudi royal family critic Jamal Khashoggi.
A recent American intelligence report has said that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the operation to assassinate Khashoggi.
CNBC reported that a lobby group under the name Prime Time Media is helping lead this new venture, with documents showing that the company has been paid at least $1.6 million to assist in directing the project.
Saudi authorities have also reportedly hired more than a dozen lobbying firms to help boost relations with the United States and improve the Riyadh regime’s image.
According to foreign agent registration filings with the US Justice Department, Riyadh has used at least 16 firms “to largely restore its influence machine in the capital [Washington] and in other parts of the country, and help boost US-Saudi trade relations.”
The lobbying effort will be even more crucial during the term of Biden, whose administration has spoken against human rights violations in the kingdom.
Saudi authorities are in hot water over issues including Riyadh’s devastating war on Yemen, its treatment of women and the murder of Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018.
Foreign agents have reportedly hired to lobby on behalf of Saudi interests have apparently contributed almost $2 million in political donations to federal candidates.
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