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Saudi Arabia

September 6, 2026

Riyadh 5:09 am

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Guests stand at the booth of Saudi artificial intelligence company Humain during the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh, on Oct. 29, 2025.

Saudi Arabia taps China’s MiniMax for Arabic AI model

The development signals that the kingdom continues deepening AI ties with China while simultaneously pursuing major US technology partnerships, keeping the Gulf state at the center of an intensifying technology race between the superpowers.

A commercial vessel passes through an international shipping lane off Yemen's Hanish Island in the Red Sea on July 27, 2026.

Saudi oil exports hit nine-year low as tanker attacks threaten recovery

The country’s oil exports were around 3 million barrels per day in August.

Latest News

Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan set Mecca Alliance into motion

Mecca Alliance

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

Iraqi army troops patrol the Iraq-Saudi Arabia border

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

A Saudi policeman checks the ID card of a driver at a checkpoint in the mostly Shiite Qatif region of Eastern Province on November 25, 2011. Four people have been killed and nine others wounded in an exchange of gunfire between security forces and what the Saudi interior ministry called criminals serving a foreign power in the country's oil-producing Eastern Province. AFP PHOTO/FAYEZ NURELDINE (Photo credit should read FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP/Getty Images)

Saudis work together to head off sectarian violence

The November attack against Saudi Shiites in al-Ahsa governorate drew unanimous condemnation from conservative Sunnis and Shiites alike, who are determined to prevent sectarian strife.

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah (R) meets with Iranian Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani in this handout picture released by the Hezbollah Media office and received by Reuters on December 23, 2014. REUTERS/Hezbollah Media Office/Handout via Reuters (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS) ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS IMAGE. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING O

Hezbollah, Future Movement eye presidency

Hezbollah and the Future Movement have begun a dialogue on filling Lebanon's presidency, offering some reason for hope.

Iran's Ebrahim Sadeghisenjani (L) fights for the ball with Palestine's Rafat Ayyad (C) and Abdallatif Albahdari during their West Asian Championship soccer match in Tehran August 7, 2008. REUTERS/Fadi Al-Assaad (IRAN) - RTR20Q54

Outrage as Palestinian soccer team cancels friendly with Iran

The Palestinian soccer team canceled a friendly match with Iran, sparking online outrage that it was at the instigation of Iran's competitors.

Clerics speak on the campus of the Seminary in Qom, 120 km (75 miles) south of Tehran February 3, 2009. REUTERS/Caren Firouz (IRAN) - RTXB72L

Qom, Najaf call for improved relations with Saudi Arabia

Prominent religious authorities in both Qom and Najaf have called on political leaders in their countries to improve their relations with Saudi Arabia after the latter took a strict stance against Salafist jihadism.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (R) arrives with the Islamic republic's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif at the opening session of a two-day conference on combatting extremism on December 9, 2014 in Tehran. Delegations from 40 countries, including Syria and Iraq, are attending the meetings. AFP PHOTO/ATTA KENARE (Photo credit should read ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)

Shiites, Sunnis unite to denounce and condemn extremists

The recent surge of Islamist extremists movements has had a positive effect in uniting Shiite and Sunni clerics, from Tehran to Cairo, to denounce the waves of intolerance and radicalism.

A Shi'ite Houthi rebel walks at a checkpoint in Sanaa December 11, 2014. The Houthis are an armed Shi'ite faction whose fighters had swept down from the north and stunningly captured Sanaa from the army about a month earlier. Their arrival following anti-government protests threatens to further destabilise Yemen, already wracked by political turmoil since the Arab Spring revolutions of 2011. To match Insight YEMEN-HOUTHIS/ REUTERS/Mohamed al-Sayaghi (YEMEN - Tags: CIVIL UNREST TRANSPORT) - RTR4HNFD

Iran's role in Yemen draws Israel, Saudi Arabia closer

The Houthi takeover of the Yemen port city, the tribe's strong ties to Iran and its latest contacts with Palestine Islamic Jihad have both Israel and Saudi Arabia worried.

"The Wall" sculpture by Iranian Parviz Tanavoli is exhibited in Dubai, on April 27, 2008, prior to being auctioned at Christies Middle East next week. The estimated price of the sculpture painting is between $400,000-$600,000 (1,500,000-2,200,000UAE Dirhams). Christie's organisers said that the spring sales is set to offer more than $30,000,000 worth of art, jewellery and watches to Middle East market. AFP PHOTO/MARWAN NAAMANI (Photo credit should read MARWAN NAAMANI/AFP/Getty Images)

Inside the world of high-end Middle Eastern art sales

Sales of Middle Eastern art at Christie's Dubai are setting records for artists, highlighting the vibrant scene for modern and contemporary Arab, Iranian and Turkish art.

From L-R: The Gulf Cooperation Council's (GCC) Assistant Secretary General Abdullah bin Juma al-Shibli, United Arab Emirates' Oil Minister Suhail Mohamed Al Mazrouei, Qatar's Minister of Energy and Industry Mohammed Saleh al-Sada, Saudi Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi, Bahrain's Minister of Finance Sheikh Ahmed Bin Mohammed al-Khalifa, Kuwait's Minister of Finance Mustafa al-Shamali and Oman's Oil Minister Mohamed bin Hamad Al Rumhi pose for a group photo during a meeting of Gulf Arab oil ministers in Riyadh Sept

Egypt cautiously accepts reconciliation with Qatar

Egypt has accepted a Gulf initiative launched by Saudi Arabia to achieve reconciliation between Cairo and Doha, with the former stressing that Qatar stop supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

An employee fills a container with diesel at a gas station in Riyadh December 19, 2012. Saudi Arabia could as early as next year do something it has resisted for decades: raise what is currently the world's lowest price for natural gas, in order to reduce expensive subsidies and curb energy waste. A price hike would be an important economic shift for the country but a difficult one, as it would risk hurting the competitiveness of industries such as petrochemicals. To match Analysis SAUDI-GAS/PRICE REUTERS/F

How will Saudis adapt to low oil prices?

Saudi Arabia will have to rely on its reserves and cut its projects and other aid to cope with falling oil prices, a tall task for a rentier state.

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden (L) meets with Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan at Beylerbeyi Palace in Istanbul November 22, 2014. REUTERS/Murad Sezer (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR4F5NS

Erdogan slams US on Syria again, days after Biden visit

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan calls US "impertinent" on Syria, says West likes seeing Muslim children die; Israel considers extension of Iran nuclear talks as better than a bad deal.

A member of the Saudi border guards force stands guard next to a fence on Saudi Arabia's northern borderline with Iraq July 14, 2014. Three mortar bombs landed inside Saudi Arabia last week close to its northern border with Iraq, where Islamist militants have grabbed land in a lightning advance, officials said. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser (SAUDI ARABIA - Tags: POLITICS MILITARY CIVIL UNREST TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY) - RTR3YMVB

Islamic State cell strikes Shiites in Saudi Arabia

A deadly attack by an Islamic State cell on Saudi Shiites has upped the ante in the jihadists' threat to the Saudi royal family as the guardians of Islam's most holy sites.

Saudi soldiers stand guard in Jizan on the border with Yemen November 3, 2014. Gains by the Shi'ite Houthi rebel movement in Yemen are ringing alarm bells in Saudi Arabia, concerned for what it means for its vulnerable southern border, already the conduit for a constant flow of illicit activity. Picture taken November 3, 2014. REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser (SAUDI ARABIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR4DNW9

Iran, Saudi Arabia find common ground in Yemen

Despite fears of increasing Riyadh-Tehran rivalry, Yemen's unity government serves the interests of both Iran and Saudi Arabia.