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Saudi Arabia

January 12, 2026

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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.

SALEH AL-OBEIDI/AFP via Getty Images

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

Zubaidi’s Southern Transitional Council has experienced massive losses at the hands of the Yemeni government as Saudi Arabia ups its military campaign against the UAE-backed group.

Latest News

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

Analysis

From Red Sea to Horn of Africa: How Yemen exposed the Saudi-UAE divide

HRH Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received HH Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, president of the United Arab Emirates, in Riyadh, on Sept. 3, 2025.

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

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

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UAE reopens land, sea, air ports to Qatar following Gulf deal

The announcement comes after Gulf leaders this week agreed to end their years-long embargo of Qatar.

Gulf countries end feud, but Saudi cleric who urged detente still in jail

Salman Aloudah's son says it's ironic that Saudi Arabia is hailing the end of the Gulf rift but silencing a prominent voice who called on the neighbors to mend ties.

Oil prices at highest since February 2020 following Saudi output cut

Oil producers are concerned that the continued COVID-19 pandemic could hurt demand.

Journalists watch the arrival of the Qatar envoy ahead of the 41st Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in the city of al-Ula in northwestern Saudi Arabia on January 5, 2021. - Saudi Arabia will reopen its borders and airspace to Qatar, US and Kuwaiti officials said, a major step towards ending a diplomatic rift that has seen Riyadh lead an alliance isolating Doha. The bombshell announcement came on the eve of GCC annual summit in the northwestern Saudi Arabian city of Al-Ula, where the dispute was already

Gulf unity deal further isolates Iran

Healing the Gulf Cooperation Council rift is a parting gift for Trump and a welcome gift for Biden in dealing with the Islamic Republic.

Saudi-led airstrikes in Yemen killed 99 civilians in 2020, monitor says

According to Mwatana, a majority of the civilians who died in coalition airstrikes last year were women and children.

Journalists watch, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman addressing the attendees of the summit, on a screen in the media centre ahead of the 41st Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit in the city of al-Ula in northwestern Saudi Arabia on January 5, 2021. - Saudi Arabia will reopen its borders and airspace to Qatar, US and Kuwaiti officials said, a major step towards ending a diplomatic rift that has seen Riyadh lead an alliance isolating Doha. The bombshell announcement came on the eve of GCC annual summi

Qatar, Gulf states ink 'solidarity and stability' deal in Saudi Arabia

The agreement was struck a day after Saudi Arabia agreed to reopen its air, land and sea borders to rival Qatar.

Houthis, Hamas merge diplomacy around prisoner releases

Hamas welcomes a Houthi initiative to release two Saudi airmen the Houthis captured in Yemen in exchange for Saudi Arabia freeing 60 Palestinian prisoners, including a Hamas leader and his son.

US President Donald Trump (3L), US First lady Melania Trump (2L), Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (C), and Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi (3R) pose for a group photo with other leaders of the Muslim world during the inauguration of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh on May 21, 2017. / AFP PHOTO / MANDEL NGAN (Photo credit should read MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Four must-read books on Trump’s Middle East policies

What we learned from Michael Wolff, John Bolton and Bob Woodward about the Trump administration and the Middle East.

WASHINGTON, DC - MARCH 20: President Donald Trump (R) holds up a chart of military hardware sales as he meets with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Oval Office at the White House on March 20, 2018 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch-Pool/Getty Images)

Trump administration pushes last-minute arms deals to Middle East

The move to go forward with a proposed $290 million sale of precision-guided bombs for Saudi Arabia comes just weeks before the Biden administration arrives.

This picture taken early on November 19, 2020, shows a projection on the Louvre Museum in Paris by Amnesty International members depicting jailed Saudi human rights activists including Loujain Al-Athloul (C) and reading "Mr Macron, demand their release", ahead of the upcoming virtual G20 summit. (Photo by THOMAS COEX / AFP) (Photo by THOMAS COEX/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden’s national security adviser criticizes Saudi Arabia for jailing women’s rights activist

Jake Sullivan called the sentencing of activist Loujain al-Hathloul "troubling."

Lebanese men watch the head of the country's Shiite Muslim movement Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah during a televised speech, at a coffee shop in the southern suburbs of the capital Beirut, on August 30, 2020, on the tenth day of the month of Muharram which marks the peak of Ashura. - Ashura is a 10-day period of mourning in remembrance of the seventh-century martyrdom Imam Hussein, who was killed in the battle of Karbala in modern-day Iraq, in 680 AD. (Photo by ANWAR AMRO / AFP) (Photo by ANWAR AMRO/AFP via Ge

Nasrallah says Hezbollah would not be part of Iran nuclear talks

The Shiite party's leader also said Hezbollah has doubled its missile supplies.

Forces loyal to Yemen's Southern Transitional Council (STC) deploy at the entrance of Aden International Airport of the southern Yemeni city on August 27, 2020. - Yemen's southern separatists said on August 26 they had withdrawn from talks over a Saudi-sponsored power-sharing deal with the internationally recognised government, in the latest setback for the troubled process. The plan called for the Yemeni prime minister to form a new government within 30 days, as well as the appointment of a new governor an

Yemen’s president orders unity government to Aden after swearing-in in Saudi Arabia

The power-sharing agreement comes as Yemen's Houthi rebels have already largely seized control of the country's north