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Saudi Arabia

January 12, 2026

Riyadh 1:32 pm

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The skyline of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Oct. 31, 2023.

MidEast VC funding hits record $3.8B in 2025, driven by strong Gulf showing

Many emerging venture markets contracted in 2025, but the Middle East and North Africa bucked the trend.

A pump jack stands near an oil spill at a facility in Venezuela.

Analysis

How Trump’s Venezuela oil grab could test OPEC’s power, Mideast energy models

Over the longer term, Washington’s bid to bring the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves firmly into its orbit raises questions for OPEC's strategy and the outlook for big-spending Gulf producers.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) gestures as he welcomes Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman (R) during an official ceremony at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, on June 22, 2022.

Analysis

Amid Saudi-UAE rivalry, Turkey courts Riyadh without crossing Abu Dhabi

Turkey is moving closer to Saudi Arabia on key regional security files from Yemen to Gaza, while carefully avoiding a rupture with the United Arab Emirates.

Ezgi Akin

In Ankara, reporting on diplomacy, EU-Turkey ties, NATO

US Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos (L) meets with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi, Jan. 8, 2026.

US envoy pushes for Sudan truce in meeting with UAE’s MBZ after talks in Saudi Arabia

Boulos’ meeting in Abu Dhabi follows discussions earlier this week in Riyadh, as the two Gulf countries navigate both Sudan diplomacy and a dispute over Yemen.

Latest News

Meet Aidarus Zubaidi: Separatist leader at heart of Yemen’s power struggle

SALEH AL-OBEIDI/AFP via Getty Images

Saudi SABIC sells $950M in overseas assets amid global chemicals slump

FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images

Yemen separatists accuse Saudi Arabia of 'betrayal' as pro-Riyadh forces advance

Fighters loyal to Yemen's Southern Transitional Council separatists stand in the back of a pickup struck, bearing the portrait of STC Chief Aidarus al-Zubaidi

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

Sebastian Castelier

In Dubai, reporting on regional business

Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Nayef (L) arrives with his uncle King Salman (R) to greet U.S. President Barack Obama at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh, January 27, 2015. King Salman's appointment of his nephew Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, 55, as Deputy Crown Prince makes him 2nd in the line of succession and he becomes the first grandson of the kingdom's founding monarch to take an established place in the line of succession. Picture taken January 27, 2015. REUTERS/Jim Bourg (SAU

Saudi King Salman quickly makes his mark

King Salman has shuffled key Cabinet positions to consolidate power in the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal (L) meets with Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara March 17, 2011. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY - Tags: POLITICS ROYALS) - RTR2K0M9

Erdogan's Saudi dilemma

Experts say Ankara will maintain cordial, if not warm, ties with Riyadh, disregarding deep differences over Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood.

A man walks past Lebanese Army soldiers patrolling a street in the Sunni Muslim Bab al-Tebbaneh neighbourhood, in Tripoli, northern Lebanon October 23, 2012. Four people were killed and 15 wounded in overnight gun battles in the Lebanese city of Tripoli in a second night of fighting between Sunni and Alawite gunmen loyal to different sides in the war in neighbouring Syria, a military source said on Tuesday. The poster in the background depicts Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah. REUTERS/Omar Ibrahim (LEBANON -

Death of Saudi king brings Lebanese leaders together

Several Lebanese officials and delegations, including rivals of the kingdom, have visited Saudi Arabia to pay their condolences for the death of the Saudi king, possibly heralding new breakthroughs in the Lebanese crises.

Oman's Sultan Qaboos bin Said (R) walks with Iran's President Hassan Rouhani upon Rouhani's arrival in Muscat March 12, 2014. REUTERS/Sultan Al Hasani (OMAN - Tags: POLITICS ROYALS) - RTR3GQAH

After Qaboos, who will be Oman's next sultan?

Now that Saudi Arabia has seen its succession through, attention has moved to who will succeed Oman's Sultan Qaboos, who has been in Munich since the summer for unspecified health reasons.

Could Israel’s strike on Hezbollah in Syria spark Iran nuclear talks?

The latest Israel-Hezbollah confrontation might be a catalyst for a nuclear deal between the P5+1 and Iran; Iran can ease Saudi Arabia’s security predicament; Netanyahu sees electoral gain in snubbing Obama.

A Houthi fighter mans a checkpoint on a road leading to the U.S embassy in Sanaa January 21, 2015. Yemen's minority Shi'ite Houthi fighters took up guard at President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's home on Wednesday but said they had not toppled him, after two days of fighting which left little doubt that the enfeebled leader was now at their mercy. REUTERS/Mohamed al-Sayaghi (YEMEN - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS) - RTR4MBMY

Yemen falls apart

The death of Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and the resignation of Yemen's President makes Yemen the first priority for Saudi's new King Salman.

Houthi fighters secure an entrance to the presidential palace in Sanaa January 22, 2015. A senior official of Yemen's Houthi movement said on Thursday that a statement by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi aimed at defusing a political crisis was acceptable because it confirmed the terms of a power-sharing agreement signed in September. Witnesses said Houthi fighters remained in position outside the presidential palace and Hadi's private residence, where the head of state actually lives. Hadi in his statement

US maintains intelligence relationship with Houthis

Despite alarmist news reports, the Barack Obama administration appears to have adjusted to the rise of the Houthis in Yemen and is continuing attacks on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

Women walk past members of Saudi security forces as they keep guard in Manfouha, southern Riyadh, November 14, 2013. A Sudanese man was killed in a second flare of clashes since Saturday between Saudi riot police, citizens and foreign workers in Riyadh amid a clampdown on visas, state media said late on Wednesday. The report on the official Saudi Press Agency, which cited a Riyadh police spokesman, gave no further details about the dead man, but said the clashes had started as a dispute between Saudis and f

Saudi Arabia beheadings in stark contrast with fight against IS

Saudi Arabia's human rights record of public punishments and criminalization of dissent finds its roots in the Al-Saud ruling family's "contract" with Wahhabism.

The kiss that sent Saudi’s Iran ambassador home

Iran’s deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs has discussed in two recent interviews the major points of contention remaining between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud sits before a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at the Royal Palace in Jeddah September 11, 2014. The United States signed up Arab allies on Thursday to a "coordinated military campaign" against Islamic State fighters, a major step in building regional support for President Barack Obama's plan to strike both sides of the Syrian-Iraqi frontier. After talks in Saudi Arabia's summer capital Jeddah, Kerry won backing from 10 Arab countries - Egypt, Iraq,

Some Shiites link Saudi king's health to end-times

Some Shiite scholars believe that the Saudi king's death will signal the resurrection of the Mahdi and the beginning of the end-times.

A boy holds up flags of the Shi'ite Houthi movement during a ceremony commemorating the birth of Prophet Mohammed in Sanaa January 3, 2015. REUTERS/Mohamed al-Sayaghi (YEMEN - Tags: RELIGION ANNIVERSARY) - RTR4JYNI

Iran’s shallow influence in Yemen

Iran believes its influence is spreading to a new country with the rise of the Houthis in Yemen in September 2014; however, Yemen is different from other Iranian-influenced countries (Syria, Lebanon and Iraq), where sectarian compositions differ.

Militant Islamist fighters take part in a military parade along the streets of northern Raqqa province June 30, 2014. Militant Islamist fighters held a parade in Syria's northern Raqqa province to celebrate their declaration of an Islamic "caliphate" after the group captured territory in neighbouring Iraq, a monitoring service said. The Islamic State, an al Qaeda offshoot previously known as Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), posted pictures online on Sunday of people waving black flags from cars

Who are the Kharijites and what do they have to do with IS?

Many Islamic authorities, including Saudi Mufti Sheikh Abdul Aziz Al ash-Sheikh, consider the Islamic State to be an extension of the Kharijites, a group of the first Muslims who rebelled against authority during the early Islamic centuries.