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Saudi Arabia

April 29, 2026

Riyadh 11:40 am

26°C

GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images

Analysis

UAE’s OPEC exit rattles cartel as Gulf alliances shift

OPEC's fourth-largest producer will leave the cartel on May 1, marking the most significant departure in the group’s history as the war changes Abu Dhabi's relationship priorities.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

MUMEN KHATIB/AFP via Getty Images

Why UAE's decision to leave OPEC is major shift for cartel

The UAE accounts for 12% of OPEC's output, but tensions had been simmering over intragroup rivalries and the country wanting to export more oil.

United Arab Emirates

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan hosted the third meeting of the foreign ministers of Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on the margins of the 5th Antalya Diplomacy Forum, on April 17, 2026.

Analysis

Why Saudi Arabia, Egypt are wary of Turkey’s proposed 4-way defense pact with Pakistan

The proposed framework faces major hurdles and fault lines, ranging from NATO constraints to Israeli opposition and weak military integration.

Barin Kayaoglu

By Barin Kayaoglu

In Ankara, reporting on geopolitics and national security

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan (L) disembarks from an airplane upon his arrival at the Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut on Jan. 23, 2025.

In Lebanon, Saudi Arabia pursues quiet diplomacy as Trump pushes Israel normalization

Saudi Arabia has been engaged in intense diplomacy in Lebanon in recent days, leading up to the extension of a ceasefire with Israel.

Latest News

Why did the Met Opera lose its Saudi funding deal?

A person walks past the closed Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center on Jan. 7, 2021, in New York City.

Analysis

Gulf energy deals face Iran war stress test as global expansion meets oil shock

A picture shows the Ras Laffan Industrial City, Qatar's principal site for production of liquefied natural gas and gas-to-liquid, administrated by Qatar Petroleum, some 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital Doha, on Feb. 6, 2017.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Syria’s Sharaa makes fourth visit to Saudi Arabia, first since Iran war: What to know

Syria's President Ahmed al-Sharaa arrives ahead of a meeting with Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing Street in central London on March 31, 2026.

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst

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

Saudis say Biden’s threats are ‘election talk'

Although there are political tensions on human rights issues, the US-Saudi relationship could be vital for the United States to address Russian and Chinese influence in the Middle East region.

Saudi police close a street leading to a non-Muslim cemetery in the Saudi city of Jeddah where a bomb struck a World War I commemoration attended by European diplomats on November 11, 2020 leaving several people wounded amid Muslim anger over French cartoons. - The attack is the second assault in the kingdom in less than a month, as French President Emmanuel Macron has sought to assuage anger across Muslim nations over satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. (Photo by - / AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty

Bomb goes off at event attended by Western diplomats in Saudi Arabia

A Greek Consulate employee and a Saudi guard were injured in an attack at a cemetery in Jeddah.

An Iraqi woman farmer harvests tomatoes in Diwaniyah, around 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of the capital Baghdad, on April 2, 2018. - Iraqi farmers have traditionally lived off their land with no need for wells, but a creeping drought is now threatening agriculture and the livelihoods of nearly a quarter of the country's population in the southern agricultural provinces of Diwaniyah, Muthanna and Missan. (Photo by Haidar HAMDANI / AFP) (Photo credit should read HAIDAR HAMDANI/AFP via Getty Images

Iraq, Saudi Arabia agree to boost ties

A high-level Saudi delegation visited Baghdad to sign several economic and investment agreements in order to create a balance between Iraq's neighboring countries.

People visit Cairo's Museum of Islamic Art after it reopened to the public on January 19, 2017, in the egyptian capital.
The Egyptian president reopened the museum on January 18, three years after a car bombing partially destroyed the building. / AFP / MOHAMED EL-SHAHED (Photo credit should read MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP via Getty Images)

Egypt holds its first Islamic exhibition in Saudi Arabia

Egypt is trying to attract Saudi tourists by holding an exhibition of Egyptian Islamic antiquities in Saudi Arabia, which includes 84 artifacts from the collections of Islamic art in Cairo.

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?