SECURITY

Watan 87: Saudi Special Forces Train in Medina

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Special Security Forces held a second joint tactical training exercise dubbed "Watan 87" at the Prince Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz City for Special Operations and...

Saudi Arabia

News, analysis, and more

OPEC Cuts

Saudi Arabia Still Bears Brunt of Oil Cuts as OPEC Output Drops

Riyadh lowered oil supply by 90,000 barrels a day from a month earlier to 9.78 million in February, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts,...

 

Vision 2030

Restructuring of Saudi Arabia’s Energy Industry Gathers Pace

Saudi Arabia is powering ahead with ambitious plans to reorganize its massive energy sector. The restructuring is part of its strategic plan to reduce domestic...

 

King Salman in Asia

Saudi King Salman embraces ‘selfie’ on tour across Asia

Saudi Arabia's King Salman has embraced the "selfie", taking part in a number of light-hearted self-shot pictures and videos during his tour of Asia that...

 

Moderate Islam

Saudi king calls for moderate Islam

Now that Wahhabism has been linked with radicalism and even terrorism, the Saudi government has stepped up its campaign to counter that perception and the...

 

Foreign Remittances

Foreign remittances from Saudi Arabia decline by almost 7% in January

In 2016, a total of SR151.9 billion were transferred by foreign workers to their home countries, compared to SR156.9 billion the previous year, which represented...

 

Global Oil Markets

US Oil Imports From Saudi & Iraq Poised To Decline: Here’s Why

Oil imports from Saudi increased for five straight weeks, from 1 M/bpd for the week ending January 6 to 1.3 M/bpd for the week ending...

 

Conservative Resistance to Change

Perspective: The conflicting discourse in Saudi Arabia

Ironically, the modernization concept suggested today in Saudi Arabia, would mean a step back to the past, namely the sixties and seventies era when the...

 

Saudi Oil Policy

Saudi cuts light oil prices to Asia as global oversupply persists

World's top crude exporter Saudi Arabia cut April prices of light crude it sells to Asia for the first time in three months in a bid to...

 

Hospitality

Saudi Arabia leads MENA hotel construction drive

Saudi Arabia has the most hotel rooms under construction in the Middle East and North Africa, according to STR’s January 2017 Pipeline Report....

 

MERS

Four new MERS cases recorded this week after a lull

The Ministry of Health reported four new cases of the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) this week....

 

King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdul Aziz Center for National Dialogue plans to turn training programs digital

The aim of the training programs is to disseminate the culture of dialogue and the concepts of moderation, tolerance and acceptance of others....

 

Public Investment Fund (PIF)

Saudi fund mulls stakes in German tech, finance firms

Saudi Arabia's main sovereign wealth fund Public Investment Fund (PIF) is looking at taking minority stakes in German technology and financial companies, although any deal...

 

Saudi +

Regional and related topics

AQAP

Series of US airstrikes target al-Qaida positions in Yemen

A series of U.S. airstrikes targeted alleged al-Qaida positions on Thursday in a mountainous area where three Yemeni provinces meet, leaving at least four militants...

 

Conflict Strategy

Want to Win Wars? Fund Soft Power, Trump’s Generals Say

But those leading America’s military effort have never been more vocal about the need for development dollars and the indispensability of diplomatic efforts working in...

 

Mosul

ISIS’ last stand in Iraq

ISIS fighters are making their last stand in Mosul, trying to hold back Iraqi forces moving into the western half of the city....

 

Syria

At peace talks, Syria rebels urge Trump to correct Obama’s catastrophic mistakes

The lead Syrian opposition negotiator at peace talks in Geneva said he hoped U.S. President Donald Trump would correct the "catastrophic" errors of his predecessor...

 

Somalia

US steps up in Somalia as al-Shabab proves a stubborn foe

With frequent suicide bombings and assaults on Somalia's hotels and military targets, the Islamic extremist group al-Shabab has proved more resilient than expected, leading President...

 

Top 100 Most Powerful Arabs

Saudi Prince Alwaleed was just named the most powerful Arab

Gulf Business just released its annual list of the Top 100 Most Powerful Arabs in 2017 - and Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz...

 

Iran Nuclear Agreement

Commentary: Sticking with the Complicated U.S.-Iran Relationship

The U.S. has many options at its disposal, including the use of military force. However, the current balance of power in the Middle East and...

 

Pakistan

Asia’s quiet superpower: Pakistan Army’s teetering balance between Saudi and Iran

After the fall of Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi army, and Iran’s rising influence across the Middle East, the Gulf states, led by Saudi Arabia,...

 

Horse Story

From royalty to reject, Saudi Poetry finds a new home

Purchased by Prince Ahmed bin Salman, member of the Royal House of Saud, she was about to become part of a racing stable that produced...

 

Interfaith Cooperation

The billionaire who is saving Bethlehem

Despite incredible odds, this businessman has been able to attract the support from heavyweight patrons of all faiths, including Theodore McCarrick, the archbishop emeritus of...

 

Hezbollah

The Trump Administration’s Hezbollah Problem

The Trump Administration will find that Hezbollah has already secured a powerful position within the Lebanese state, with some undesirable repercussions....

 

Radical Islamic Terrorism

Three words — radical Islamic terrorism — expose a Trump administration divide

With three words President Trump exposed one of the biggest rifts inside his administration: the divide between the national security pragmatists and the ideologues pressing...

 

State Department

Trump’s State Department Anxiously Awaits its Future

With the State Department demonstratively shut out of meetings with foreign leaders, key State posts left unfilled, and the White House not soliciting many department staffers for...

 

Mosul

ISIS using more armed drones, ‘Mad Max’ suicide vehicles in Mosul

Islamic State fighters were increasingly using Mad Max-style suicide vehicles and commercial drones armed with grenades in their defense of the Iraqi town of Mosul,...

 

Yemen Raid

A raid in remote Yemen and a SEAL’s death still reverberate for Trump

The 36-year-old SEAL, who would later die of his wounds, is now at the center of a debate over the first counterterrorism operation of the...

 

Iranian Animated Victory

Iranian Film Hails Demise of US Navy in Imagined Gulf Battle

In the film, a character who closely resembles Gen. Qassem Soleimani, head of Iran's elite Quds Force, leads a single vessel against more than a...

 

Trump Travel Ban

Revised Trump immigration order, delayed after speech, will not ban citizens from Iraq

President Trump’s new executive order on immigration will not include a blanket ban on citizens from Iraq, among a host of other revisions meant to...

 

Post 2011

Perspective: The roots of despair

Many of the rulers in the places of turmoil seemed in a time warp. Until 2011, they had a conditional lease on power. They were...

 

Moderate Islam

Perspective: Middle East regimes are using ‘moderate’ Islam to stay in power

However, since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and particularly since the rise of the Islamic State, moderation has more specifically corresponded to the rejection of...

 

Bab Al-Mandab

Bab al-Mandab Shipping Chokepoint Under Threat

Reports of Yemeni rebel mining activity are only the latest in a string of threats to international vessels transiting the narrow link between the Suez...

 

Renewable Energy

Shift to renewable energy to reap savings of US$ 87 bn for GCC

Shifting to clean and renewable energy presents a very strong potential for oil-producing GCC countries to maintain global leadership in the energy sector despite the...

 

Consultants

Making the Best Use of Consultants in the GCC

According to Global Research Saudi Arabia’s consulting market expanded by 14.8 percent to $1.25 billion in 2015, accounting for almost half of the robust GCC...

 

Turkey and GCC

Turkey and the GCC: Cooperation Amid Diverging Interests

Since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in November 2002, Turkey’s relations with the Gulf Arab countries have fluctuated between varying degrees...

 

ExxonMobil

Exxon Now Spends 50% Of Drilling Budget On Shale

One-third of the U.S. company’s drilling budget will be dedicated to purchasing access to shale fields that Exxon can begin profiting off of in three...

 

News Consumption

How young people consume news: Many don’t trust any single news report from places like CNN and Facebook on its own—and they think everything is biased

Young people in the US are generally skeptical of the news they consume, so they turn to multiple news sources to make their own judgements...

 

Trump Defense Budget

Trump’s defense budget goals slammed from all sides

President Trump has issued his budget guidance to his agencies, and it comes down to very simple math: Subtract $54 billion from non-defense discretionary domestic...

 

Yemen Raid

Trump blames generals for Navy SEAL’s death in Yemen raid

In a television interview, President Donald Trump appeared to blame his military leaders for a Navy SEAL's death last month during a troubled raid in Yemen,...

 

ISIS Finances

Islamic State on Brink of Financial Collapse, Report Finds

The business model of Islamic State is failing, and the terror group will soon likely collapse financially, according to a detailed analysis of IS finances...

 

Afghanistan

US Confirms Airstrike Killed Senior Taliban Leader

The United States military has confirmed the killing of a top Taliban leader in a recent airstrike in Afghanistan’s troubled northern province of Kunduz....

 

State of the Union

Trump Sticks to a Protectionist, Isolationist Script in First Big Speech

His speech repeated themes and promises he touted as a candidate, particularly the idea that America is being taken advantage by other countries and the...

 

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