MUST-READS

• Saudi Arabia leads Arab nations in condemning Israel’s Gaza electricity cut

  Saudi Arabia led other Arab nations Qatar and Jordan in condemning Israel’s decision to cut electricity supply to the war-battered Gaza Strip, calling in separate statements for the international community to take action. Israel announced on Sunday it was disconnecting the only power line to a water desalination plant in Gaza, in an effort to pressure Palestinian militant group Hamas into releasing hostages amid an apparent impasse in truce talks. Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry expressed “condemnation in the strongest terms of the Israeli occupation authorities’ use of collective punishment against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip by cutting off electricity to the area.”

• Saudi Arabia rebrands as mediator for global crises

  Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is increasingly busy hosting state leaders who fly in to discuss pressing global conflicts. This Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met the Saudi Crown Prince to speak about Russia's war in Ukraine. This is ahead of a Tuesday meeting between Ukrainian and a US teams set to negotiate a potential end to Russia's war of aggression, as well as a security deal that would include US access to Ukraine's valuable mineral and metal deposits. It will be the first time that Ukrainian and US delegates talk face-to-face after the public spat between US President Donald Trump and President Zelenskyy in the White House in late February. The fact that the two countries have agreed to meet in Saudi Arabia — and not, say, in Europe — highlights the emerging key position of the oil-rich kingdom in the Middle East. "Saudi Arabia has indeed established itself as a platform for dialog in the last two to three years," Sebastian Sons, a senior researcher for the German think tank CARPO, told DW. "In Saudi Arabia's foreign policy strategy, it currently plays a very important role to talk to everyone," he added.

• Saudi Arabia, Ukraine Issue Joint Statement Emphasizing Strong Economic Ties and Collaborative Efforts to Enhance Trade Volume

  The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Ukraine commended the strong economic ties between the two friendly countries and emphasized the importance of joint action to develop the volume of trade exchange. The two sides also welcomed the upcoming reestablishment of the Saudi-Ukrainian Business Council in 2025. This came in a joint statement issued following the visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the text of which reads as follows: "Within the framework of distinguished relations and close cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Ukraine, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy paid an official visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on March 10, 2025. His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, received President Zelenskyy at Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah. They held an official discussion session, during which they reviewed the aspects of the distinguished relations between the two friendly countries, and expressed their desire to enhance them in all fields.

• Zelenskyy arrives in Saudi Arabia to meet prince ahead of summit with U.S.

  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived Monday in Saudi Arabia for a visit with its powerful crown prince ahead of his team’s meeting with America’s top diplomat. While Zelenskyy won’t be there, his team will try to repair the damage done when his Feb. 28 visit to Washington descended into an Oval Office argument with President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance. At stake is the military aid and intelligence previously offered by the United States that had helped Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Zelenskyy landed a few hours apart in Jeddah, a port city on the Red Sea where the Ukraine-U.S. summit will take place Tuesday.

• Perspective: How Saudi Arabia and the US might reset the Middle East

  A new order is emerging in the Middle East. For decades, Iran wielded influence across the region by cultivating a network of proxies that created instability in several Arab countries, from Lebanon to Yemen. Today, however, Iran’s regional status is drastically diminished. In contrast, Saudi Arabia is establishing itself as the most influential power in the Arab world. With Donald Trump’s administration back in Washington, Saudi Arabia and the United States can strengthen their partnership to neutralize the threat of destabilization by Iran and alter the balance of regional power for a generation. Until 2023, Iran had prided itself on what it called the ‘axis of resistance’ – its network of proxies and allies in the Arab world. Today, that ‘axis’ is no more. Israel has defeated both Hamas and Hezbollah militarily. Most of Iraq’s PMFs have largely distanced themselves from the rest of Iran’s proxies’ war with Israel.

• Saudi Arabia tries to shed ‘pariah status,’ remaking itself as a key middleman in global conflicts

  MBS, as he is widely known, is trying to transform Saudi Arabia’s image from the deeply conservative, oil-rich theocracy whose officials murdered the American-based Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 into a regional giant built on diplomacy, business, tourism, entertainment and sports. “This is a new Saudi Arabia — better educated, well-traveled and more open to ideas than in the past,” added Lippman, author of the book “Saudi Arabia on the Edge.” As well as the Ukraine summit, Trump revealed last week that the first foreign visit of his second term would be to Saudi Arabia, just as it was during his first administration. As then, he said that, in return, the Saudis had agreed to invest a bonanza sum in American businesses, this time $1 trillion.

• Commentary: What Explains Saudi Arabia’s Sudden Wave Of Amnesty For Dissidents?

  In an unexpected turn, Saudi Arabia is witnessing a wave of prisoner releases for those who have completed their sentences, with some having spent years behind bars. Yet concerns persist over potential retrials or indefinite detentions without legal clarity. The reform was followed by an even bigger, long-awaited step: the unprecedented announcement allowing the "voluntary" return of exiled individuals. State Security Chief Abdulaziz al-Howairini announced the change, quoting Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during an appearance on a Ramadan program: "The homeland is for everyone, and the state rehabilitates and does not punish."

• Aramco’s Flagship Jafurah Gas Project is Not A Gamechanger for Saudi Arabia

  Operations at Saudi Arabia’s Jafurah shale gas field – the country’s largest unconventional non-oil associated gas site and arguably one of the biggest outside the U.S. – will begin this year, according to a comment last week from Saudi Aramco’s president and chief executive officer, Amin Nasser. The oil and gas giant added that Phase 1 is expected to produce 200 million standard cubic feet per day (Mscfd) of gas this year, with the figure set to rise to 2 billion standard cubic feet per day (Scfd) by 2030. The projected numbers would mark around a 60% increase in Aramco’s gas output capacity, enabling it to meet rising domestic power demand. It could also allow it to reduce the level of crude oil burned in power generation that might be monetised by exporting it, and lay the foundations for significant gas exports in the future as well. The key question for dedicated Saudi Arabia watchers arising from any such statement from the Kingdom over the years is simply how much of it is true?

• Rubio in Saudi Arabia for US-Ukraine talks, hopes to resolve Ukraine aid pause

  “The Ukrainians are already receiving all defensive intelligence information as we speak. I think all the notion of the pause in aid broadly is something I hope we can resolve. Obviously, I think what happens tomorrow will be key to that,” Rubio told reporters aboard a military plane before landing in Jeddah. “We're not going to be sitting in a room drawing lines on a map but just get a general sense of what concessions are in the realm of the possible for them [Ukrainians],” Rubio said, adding that there is no military solution to the war, and that both Russia and Ukraine need to “do difficult things.” On Tuesday, Rubio will join U.S. national security adviser Mike Waltz for the Jeddah talks with Ukrainian officials as President Donald Trump pushes to broker a swift end to the war.

• Analysis: Why Saudi Arabia Makes Sense For Ukraine Peace Talks

  The talks are slated to bring together a Ukrainian delegation that will include Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha, Zelenskyy's chief of staff Andriy Yermak, and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is also due in Jeddah; in addition to meetings with Ukrainian counterparts, the State Department said he is also expected to meet with the Saudi crown prince. Saudi Arabia’s role in potential peace talks came into focus in February, when US and Russian diplomatic officials held a first round of talks on ending the war in Ukraine. Those discussions yielded the promise of slightly less frigid relations between Washington and Moscow, with the two countries agreeing to begin restoring diplomatic ties. But the ruckus in the Oval Office showed, dealmaking with Trump is a highly personal affair. And the Saudi crown prince, widely known by his initials MBS, has a uniquely close relationship with the US president.

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