MUST-READS

• In Israel, Blinken set to push Netanyahu for sustained aid into Gaza
  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, pushing to get more aid into Gaza, while urging Hamas to accept a deal that would halt fighting in the enclave and bring Israeli hostages home.
  Following visits to Riyadh and Amman earlier this week, the top U.S. diplomat is now in Israel for a series of meetings on the final stop of his Middle East tour.

• As famine looms in Sudan, the hungry eat soil and leaves

  Nearly five million people are close to famine as the country’s civil war passes the one-year mark. Aid officials say the warring parties – the army and the Rapid Support Forces – are looting aid or blocking it from reaching areas where starvation is taking hold. But ‘the world’s largest hunger crisis’ is drawing little global attention.

• Biden is facing political pressure to make gas more expensive

  Cheap gas is becoming politically expensive for President Joe Biden during a challenging election year. Pressure is building on Biden to ramp up sanctions enforcement against Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, Bloomberg reports — three major oil producers whose supplies have tamped down rising crude prices despite OPEC production cuts and a U.S. production glut.

• SecDef: I haven’t seen a full Israeli plan to protect civilians in Rafah

  U.S. officials have “not seen a number of things that we believe that will have to happen” for the operation to proceed, Secretary Lloyd Austin told a House Armed Services Committee hearing. There are “some signs" of such preparations, Austin said, but he wants more assurances and planning, such as “making provisions for the civilians [so that] wherever you direct them to, you have sustainment in that area…so, you know, that the housing, the medical care, all that stuff that, that needs to be in place.”

• Arctech to build 3 GW factory in Saudi Arabia

  Arctech Solar has launched a new partnership with the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones (MODON) to set up a production facility in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The factory will cover an area of approximately 97,000 square meters and will have a production capacity of 3 GW, with the potential to reach up to 10 GW through localized production. It will focus on PV-supporting tracker products for local customers.

• US, Britain urge Hamas to accept Israeli truce proposal
  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday urged Hamas to swiftly accept an Israeli proposal for a truce in the Gaza war and the release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant group.
  Hamas negotiators were expected to meet Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo on Monday to deliver a response to the phased truce proposal which Israel presented at the weekend.
  "Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel," Blinken said at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

• ‘Let’s help Yemen regain ability to chart its own future,’ US envoy Tim Lenderking tells Arab News

  “The onus (is) on the Houthis to stop the Red Sea attacks,” he said. “That can prompt us all to begin to dial back, to de-escalate, to return the situation in Yemen to where it was on Oct. 6, which had considerably more promise and possibility than what exists now, and that’s where we want to return the focus.”

• Saudi Arabia may raise prices for most oil grades to Asia for June
  Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia may raise prices for most of the crude grades it sells to Asia in June to their highest levels in five months after Middle East benchmarks strengthened this month, trade sources said on Monday.
  The June official selling price (OSP) of flagship Arab Light crude may rise by 70 to 90 cents to close to a $3 per barrel premium to the average of Dubai and Oman quotes, seven refining sources said in a Reuters survey, which would be the highest level since January.

• Insights into establishing RHQs in Saudi Arabia

  It has been three years since Saudi Arabia first introduced the Regional Headquarters Programme (RHQ), aiming to position itself as a leading global hub for multinational corporate operations. With the Ministry of Investment of Saudi Arabia releasing application guidelines in early 2022, and commencing the acceptance of applications, numerous multinational enterprises have since obtained RHQ licences. These include prominent Chinese companies such as China Harbour Engineering, China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation, China Railway Construction Corporation, China Geo-Engineering Corporation, China Communications Services Corporation, Huawei, Nuctech, and DiDi.

• MAWANI launches first railway transport between major Saudi ports

  The Saudi Ports Authority (MAWANI) has announced the first container shipment via railway from Jubail Commercial Port to Riyadh Dry Port. This shipment, consisting of 78 containers, utilised the railway link between the Jubail Commercial Port and the East Railway network. The railway has a maximum load capacity of 140 TEU per trip. MAWANI collaborated with the Zakat, Tax, and Customs Authority (GAZT), Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR), and Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC). This collaboration aims to promote seamless transportation of containers, bulk materials, and general goods by establishing rail connections between ports.

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