MUST-READS

• Favorite Saudi regional dishes go under international spotlight

  Saudi Arabia’s culinary heritage is being placed under the international spotlight with the naming of the most popular dishes from each of the Kingdom’s 13 regions. The initiative is part of the Culinary Arts Commission’s National and Regional Dishes Narratives project launched at the beginning of last year. The commission started by naming jareesh as Saudi Arabia’s national dish and maqshoos as the national dessert.

• No truth to rumors about foreign forces at Taif airbase: Saudi defense ministry

  Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said that rumors about the  presence of foreign forces at King Fahd Air Base in Taif were false, Al Arabiya reported early on Friday, citing Brigadier General Turki Al-Maliki, the ministry’s spokesperson.

• Lebanon Ill-Equipped for Further Instability

  Gallup finished its surveys in Lebanon on Sept. 9 last year, less than a month before the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted. Since then, tensions and death tolls have risen along Lebanon’s border with Israel, where the militant group Hezbollah has a strong presence. On Monday, Israel killed a top Hezbollah commander in south Lebanon. If the war between Israel and Hamas spills into Lebanon, it could further destabilize a country that Gallup surveys showed was still struggling -- on multiple fronts -- to emerge from years of crippling economic and political crises.

• Blinken says path to Palestinian state can isolate Iran

  Offering a pathway to a Palestinian state is the best way to stabilize the wider region and isolate Iran and its proxies, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Thursday, as he ended a frenetic regional tour over the Gaza war in Cairo.

  Shuttling between Israel and Arab states, Blinken has been pushing for a way forward from the bloodshed in Gaza, even as the conflict threatens to spread further to Lebanon, Iraq and Red Sea shipping lanes.

• Iran seizes oil tanker in Gulf of Oman, raising Middle East tensions

  The Iranian navy seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, according to state-run media, raising tensions in the already-fraught Middle East. The seizure was executed under a court order as the tanker had confiscated Iranian oil that was then handed over to the United States, the Public Relations Department of the Iranian Navy said, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

• Blinken heads to Egypt on last leg of Middle East tour

  US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been touring the Middle East to try to prevent the war in Gaza from spreading to the wider region. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Red Crescent has said four paramedics were killed in an Israeli airstrike.

• Futuristic ‘upside-down skyscraper’ proposed in Saudi Arabia

  Developers in Saudi Arabia announced plans Wednesday for an “ultra-luxury upside-down skyscraper” wedged into the mountainside on the Gulf of Aqaba coastline that looks straight out of a science fiction movie. The project, Aquellum, is billed as an underground city and tourist destination that “will offer guests a taste of futuristic living through its array of pioneering experiences,” according to NEOM, the same developers who proposed building a city within a 75-mile building.

• Barcelona beats Osasuna and will play Real Madrid for 2nd straight year in Spanish Super Cup final

  The “clasico” will decide the Spanish Super Cup winner for the second straight season. Barcelona defeated Osasuna 2-0 on Thursday to set up a rematch of last year’s final against Real Madrid in Saudi Arabia. Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal scored a goal each for the Catalan club, which last season won the title for its first trophy with coach Xavi Hernández and without Lionel Messi.

• Saudi Arabia wants to be the Saudi Arabia of minerals

  In wa’ad al-shamal, 1,200km north of Riyadh, the Saudi capital, phosphate is extracted and bathed in chemicals to turn it into an acid. From there it is shipped 1,500km east by rail to the port of Ras Al-Khair. The stuff is then made into fertiliser or its precursor, ammonia, and sails west to Brazil, south to Africa and east to India and Bangladesh, where it ends up with farmers who, according to Ma’aden, the state mining firm which runs the project, grow 10% of the world’s food. The venture is vast. Its sales and domestic investment are equivalent to about 2% of the kingdom’s non-oil gdp. Another similar one will soon start shipping the equivalent of another 1%.

• BRICS UAE, Saudi expansion marks biggest challenge to the US dollar in the 21st century

  Dubai-based geopolitical risk analyst and Partner at Confluence Consultants, Nicolas Michelon, told Arabian Business the inclusion of Saudi Arabia “represents a significant change in regional and global geopolitics.” Saudi Arabia is arguably the most influential and oldest US ally in the Arab world, and its entry into BRICS comes a few months after the Gulf nation reinstated diplomatic ties with Iran under China’s patronage.

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