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Saudi Arabia

September 2, 2026

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Mecca Alliance

Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan set Mecca Alliance into motion

The three countries are moving to formalize military coordination under the newly named Mecca Alliance amid renewed hostilities between Iran and the US.

Iraqi army troops patrol the Iraq-Saudi Arabia border

Iraq reinforces Saudi border security amid militia tensions: What to know

Iraq is sending the reinforcements in response to Iran-backed militia attacks and as it looks to build security ties with Riyadh.

Latest News

France, Saudi Arabia announce more than $10B in deals on MBS visit

France's President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shake hands

Houthis claim strike on Saudi oil tanker off Yanbu: What to know

Supporters of Yemen's Houthi rebel movement carry a mock rocket as they demonstrate in the capital, Sanaa, to denounce a reported air strike by the Saudi-led coalition on a prison in the country's rebel-held north, on Jan. 21, 2022.

Samuel Wendel

Senior Analyst, Middle East Business & Tech

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Jack Dutton

Chief Business Correspondent

In Bristol, reporting on regional business, climate change, AI, tech

Francesco Schiavi

In Bologna, reporting on security, defense, economy, governance

Sabena Siddiqui

In Karachi, reporting on South Asia, Middle East, Iran

Vanessa Ghanem

In Dubai, reporting on business, energy and politics

Protesters with Yemeni flags protest in Parliament Square in London on July 5, 2020, against the continued conflict in Yemen at the same time that supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement listen to speeches in a further action in the aftermath of the death of unarmed black man George Floyd in police custody in the US. - Yemen has been locked in conflict since the Huthis took control of Sanaa in 2014 and went on to seize much of the north. The crisis escalated when the Saudi-led coalition intervened the

G20 should press Saudi Arabia on jailed activists, rights group says

Pressure is building on Riyadh ahead of the annual G20 summit later this month.

Construction workers stand on scaffolding in Al-Balad, a historical area in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah, on January 11, 2020. (Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE / AFP) (Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia to ease restrictions on foreign workers

The labor overhaul will allow foreign workers to leave the country without their employers' approval.

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - OCTOBER 22: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden checks his watch during the final presidential debate against U.S. President Donald Trump (shown in reflection) at Belmont University on October 22, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. This is the last debate between the two candidates before the election on November 3. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Elections weigh on US-Gulf economic relations

Investments worth billions of dollars in the US market and currencies pegged to the greenback leave Gulf states heavily exposed to the American economy.

A picture taken from a distance shows the French consulate in the Saudi Red Sea port of Jeddah on October 29, 2020. - A Saudi citizen wounded a guard in a knife attack at the French consulate in Jeddah today, officials said, as France faces growing anger over satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The assault follows another knife attack at a church in the French city of Nice that left three people dead and several others wounded, in what authorities are treating as the latest jihadist attack to rock t

Man stabs guard at French Consulate in Saudi Arabia

The nonfatal attack came the same day as the murder of three people in Nice, France, as tensions soar between France and much of the Muslim world.

Saudi Arabia to pay families of health care workers who died from COVID-19

The government will disperse $133,000 per family.

A picture of French President Emmanuel Macron is burned by Palestinians during a demonstration against him at the Palestine Technical University in al-Aroub, north of the West Bank city of Hebron, on October 27, 2020. - Calls to boycott French goods are growing in the Arab world and beyond, after President Emmanuel Macron criticised Islamists and vowed not to "give up cartoons" depicting the Prophet Mohammed. Macron's comments came in response to the beheading of a teacher, Samuel Paty, outside his school i

Saudi Arabia condemns 'offensive cartoons' as calls grow for French boycott

The kingdom "rejects any attempt to link Islam with terrorism," a Foreign Ministry source said.

Saudi students pass their final exams at a workshop in the Higher Institute for Plastics Fabrication on June 13, 2016 in Riyadh.
The students at the Higher Institute for Plastics Fabrication (HIPF) learn to manufacture plastic bags, pipes, bottles and other products, skills they immediately put to work in what the government says is a unique model. Reducing the kingdom's high unemployment rate is a foundation -- and major challenge -- of the government's wide-ranging Vision 2030 reform plan unveiled in Apr

Can Gulf states adopt universal basic income?

Existing social welfare systems have insulated Gulf nationals from changing economic realities and the likelihood of a major global energy transition in the coming decades.

Russian fighter jets drop bombs over the Ashuluk military base in Southern Russia on September 22, 2020 during the "Caucasus-2020" military drills gathering China, Iran, Pakistan and Myanmar troops, along with ex-Soviet Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus. - Up to 250 tanks and around 450 infantry combat vehicles and armoured personnel carriers will take part in the September 21 to 26 land and naval exercises that will involve 80,000 people including support staff. (Photo by Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP) (Photo by DIM

Can Russia return to Iranian arms market following end of weapons embargo?

With the end of the UN arms embargo, Iran could be looking to purchase new additions to its defense system — could Russia become a main supplier again?

OSAKA, JAPAN - JUNE 28: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman during a family photo session at G20 summit on June 28, 2019 in Osaka, Japan. U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Osaka on Thursday for the annual Group of 20 gathering together with other world leaders who will use the two-day summit to discuss pressing economic, climate change, as well as geopolitical issues. The US-China trade war is expected to dominate the meetings in Osaka as President Tr

Citing rights abuses, House Democrats push administration to snub Saudi-hosted G-20 summit

Lawmakers said the US government has an obligation to ensure such gatherings are not used to distract from ongoing human rights violations.

ISTANBUL, TURKEY - JULY 03: Hatice Cengiz, the fiancee of murdered Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi, speaks to the media after the first session of the murder trial outside the Caglayan Court House on July 03, 2020 in Istanbul, Turkey. Twenty Saudi nationals went on trial in absentia over the murder of Jamal Khashoggi who was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in 2018. (Photo by Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Jamal Khashoggi’s fiancee sues Mohammed bin Salman in US court

More than two dozen Saudis are named in the lawsuit seeking accountability for Jamal Khashoggi's "ruthless torture and murder."

Saudi FM wants focus on Israeli-Palestinian talks over 'eventual normalization'

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said the focus of Palestinian-Israeli peace efforts should be on bringing the two sides back to the negotiating table.

Head of the Houthi prisoner exchange committee Abdulkader al-Murtada (C - L) shakes hands with Head of the Yemeni government delegation Hadi Haig (C - L) between ICRC Director for the Near and Middle East Fabrizio Carboni (L) and UN Special Envoy for Yemen Martin Griffiths at the end of a week-long meeting on a Yemen prisoner exchange agreement on September 27, 2020 in Glion, western Switzerland. - Both sides in Yemen's war have agreed to exchange more than 1,000 prisoners, the UN mediator during a week of

Yemen's Houthi rebels release two US citizens in prisoner swap

Officials from Saudi Arabia and Oman helped negotiate the release