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AFP

Mohammed, where are you?

Tuesday 27 June 2023

Ian Timberlake, AFP’s former Sudan bureau chief, would regularly call an old friend there for a chat. But not long after rival generals plunged the country into war in April, Mohammed suddenly went silent

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AFP / Fayez Nureldine

Meeting Saudi Arabia's 'Mr. Everything'

Tuesday 3 May 2016

"You are invited to the royal court," was all that AFP's Saudi Arabia bureau chief Ian Timberlake was told in a Saturday phone call from the Information Ministry.

This, he thought, might just be his chance to meet the country's 'Mr. Everything' -- the youthful Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, one of the kingdom's most dynamic and powerful figures.

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AFP PHOTO/ Fayez Nureldine

Of football and friendship in Saudi Arabia

Monday 1 December 2014

For a Western journalist new to socially-conservative Saudi Arabia, football is a precious chance to see local life up close. AFP's Ian Timberlake found himself sharing spiced coffee and jokes with police officers at the Gulf Cup final, and was left "marvelling at how a football match had again brought me face to face with Saudis." "In reality, that was the main reason I had come to this match," he writes. "For me, this wasn’t really about football."

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