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☆ Washington Post publisher slams Pompeo calling Jamal Khashoggi an 'activist' in new book, fires back that CIA 'concluded Jamal was brutally murdered'
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-24 | by ( Brent D. Griffiths | Kimberly Leonard | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A Washington Post official blasted Mike Pompeo for his portrayal of Jamal Khashoggi in his new book. Post publisher Fred Ryan said Pompeo "outrageously" misrepresents "the life and work" of Khashoggi. "As the CIA — which Pompeo once directed — concluded, Jamal was brutally murdered on the orders of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman." The report also described that later in his life Khashoggi's ties to the group were "ambiguous." Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, Khashoggi's widow, told NBC News that Khashoggi' was never part of the group.

U.S. Secretary of State Michael Pompeo speaks during a press conference with Iraq's Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein at the State Department in Washington on Aug. 19, 2020. A demonstrator holds a poster with a picture of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi outside the Saudi Arabia consulate in Istanbul, Turkey October 25, 2018. "And as even the New York Times reported, Khashoggi was cozy with the terrorist-supporting Muslim Brotherhood," Pompeo wrote. I confirm it to you," Khashoggi's widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, told NBC News on Monday. Hanan Elatr Khashoggi Widow of journalist Jamal Khashoggi

☆ Saudi Arabia was right to defy Biden over oil production, minister says, cementing a power play that seems to have paid off
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-19 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said at Davos the country was right to cut oil production. Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan made the comment at the Davos economic summit in Switzerland on Wednesday. He addressed the diplomatic spat that erupted with the US last October after the Saudis announced alongside Russia that they would cut oil production. Analysts say that one of the reasons that Biden didn't follow through on threats to retaliate against Saudi Arabia over the cut was that oil prices did not spike, as some had expected. Oil prices overall have been volatile in recent months, driven by events such as Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's COVID-19 lockdowns.

☆ Why Egypt is asking its people to eat chicken feet
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-18 | by ( Nadeen Ebrahim | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +17 min

Abu Dhabi CNN —Egypt’s economic situation is so dire that the government is asking people to eat chicken feet. In Egypt, chicken feet are seen as the cheapest of meat items, considered by most as animal waste rather than food. After the recommendation to switch to chicken feet, the price of one kilogram of the product reportedly doubled to 20 Egyptian pounds ($0.67). But those firms don’t operate like private companies, enjoying special privileges without disclosing their financial data to the public. Experts have questioned why international creditors had not leveraged their loans to drive Egypt’s military out of the economy.

☆ Saudi Arabia's $500 billion bet to build a futuristic city in the desert
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Anuz Thapa | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

Saudi Arabia is building a futuristic city in the middle of a vast desert— from scratch. A vital element of the country's Vision 2030 plan, the project is the brainchild of Saudi's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, also known as MBS. "Neom is a mega project seen in Saudi Arabia and the young Saudi population as part of this liberalization process." The Neom project is far from without controversy, though. It also is being seen by some as a way to distract attention from Saudi Arabia's human rights record.

☆ Neom: Saudi Arabia's $500 billion bet to build a futuristic city
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-13 | by ( Anuz Thapa | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: 1 min

Share Share Article via Facebook Share Article via Twitter Share Article via LinkedIn Share Article via EmailNeom: Saudi Arabia's $500 billion bet to build a futuristic citySaudi Arabia is building a futuristic city, Neom, in its desert from scratch. A vital element of the country's Vision 2030 plan, the project is Saudi's de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, a.k.a. MBS's brainchild. The project plans to cover an area of more than 10,000 square miles, about the same size as Massachusetts, costing $500 billion. Watch the video above to find out why MBS is betting on this city.

☆ Saudi Arabia weighs boosting Pakistan investment to $10 bln -report
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

DUBAI, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia said it could increase its investments in the cash-strapped Pakistan economy to $10 billion, the Saudi state news agency reported on Tuesday, as well as increase the ceiling on deposits into the Pakistan central bank to $5 billion. He has also asked the Saudi Development Fund (SDF) to consider raising the ceiling for Saudi deposits into the Pakistan central bank as part of measures to support the struggling economy. Last month, the Saudis extended the terms of an existing $3 billion deposit in the central bank it made in 2021. read morePakistan's Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has sought to forge closer economic ties with Gulf states to secure bigger investments. Qatar's sovereign wealth fund the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) aims to invest $3 billion in Pakistan, and in October, Sharif was invited to address delegates at Saudi's flagship investment conference, the Future Investment Initiative.

☆ Saudi Arabia's new love for soccer could cause ripple effects across the sports world
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-06 | by ( Elliot Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Portuguese football star Cristiano Ronaldo poses for a photo with the jersey after signing with Saudi Arabia's Al-Nassr Football Club in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 30, 2022. Al Nassr Football Club / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty ImagesSoccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo's move to Saudi club Al-Nassr, and the kingdom's growing investments in the sport, could have ripple effects across Europe and the U.S., experts have told CNBC. The former Real Madrid, Manchester United and Juventus star earlier this week contended that the "unique contract" was befitting of his status as a "unique player." The Financial Times reported in October that the Saudi PIF had committed more than $2 billion to sponsorship deals over the first eight months of 2022, most of which was directed toward domestic soccer competitions. The Saudi PIF's takeover of Newcastle United was met with criticism across the soccer world — deemed an effort to launder the country's reputation against the backdrop of a poor human rights record.

Summary Abraham Accords meant to lead to wider normalisationBut four new Arab partners of Israel now in tough spotHow to deal with rightists without ditching Palestinians? It is expected to be the widest-ranging deal of its kind between Israel and an Arab state. "This is the proof that one can make peace without concessions, without capitulation - but rather, peace, peace, between people who have affection for one another," he said in comments published by the conservative Israel Hayom newspaper. “Arab countries who formed normalisation ties with the state of occupation are required more than ever to revise these agreements,” he told Reuters by phone. Netanyahu has pledged to build on the achievement during his previous term of the Abraham Accords that opened the way for a possible normalisation of relations with other Arab countries.

As the Covid-19 pandemic sent global markets swooning in early 2020, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, sensing opportunity, pressed the country’s sovereign-wealth fund to go on an international stock-buying spree. The board of the Public Investment Fund, or PIF, resisted the move as too risky, but soon found itself overruled by an even higher authority, Prince Mohammed’s father, King Salman, according to an October podcast by the PIF governor, Yasir al-Rumayyan.

☆ How Saudi Arabia's crown prince snubbed Biden repeatedly to forge ties with authoritarian China and Russia
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +6 min

In 2022, Saudi Arabia sought closer ties with Russia and China. Russia's President Vladimir Putin (R) and Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attend the G20 Leaders' Summit in Buenos Aires, on November 30, 2018. Analysts say that US criticism of Saudi Arabia's human-rights record and its suppression of domestic dissent infuriate Riyadh. Crown Prince Mohammed has more affinity with the ideology of fellow strongmen Xi or Putin than with the US, said Alterman. "Saudi Arabia, China, and Russia all believe in the model of 'authoritarian stability'.

☆ A Saudi Rave Sparks Debate Over Kingdom’s Cultural Transformation
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-31 | by ( Donna Abdulaziz | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Al-Balad, the historic district of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, was the site of a music festival. JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia—Pulsating purple lights played across the traditional coral stone- and-wood facades of buildings in the center of this ancient Saudi port city on the Red Sea while electronic music boomed and young men and women in jeans and glittery tops danced with glow sticks. The recent musical festival in Jeddah’s Al-Balad neighborhood drew an audience of around 25,000 celebrating young people. It also stirred criticism of a rapid cultural shift in the kingdom being pushed by its day-to-day ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman .

☆ Unemployment among Saudi citizens increases to 9.9% in Q3/22
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DUBAI, Dec 29 (Reuters) - Unemployment in Saudi Arabia among citizens increased to 9.9% in the third quarter, up 0.2 percentage points from the previous quarter but the overall unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.8 percent, data released on Thursday showed. Unemployment in this category fell to 20.5% in Q3 from 21.9% in the year-ago period, making up 37% of the Saudi labour force. Expansion of the private sector is a key pillar of the government strategy, with a wide-ranging programme of privatisations and other government-supported initiatives to spur growth. The latest data showed that 93.3% of unemployed Saudis would accept jobs in the private sector. Historically, the public sector has been the principal employer of citizens in Saudi Arabia.

☆ UAE will look to a world beyond OPEC
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( George Hay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The UAE has chafed at OPEC restrictions before, in 2020 and 2021. OPEC’s alliance with Russia, as part of the wider OPEC+ group, similarly risks lumping its members in with a wider anti-Western bloc. But ADNOC’s accelerated oil production timetable is arguably more in keeping with a different outlook, preferred by the International Energy Agency, whereby oil demand peaks much sooner. If MbZ were to use the COP28 conference to make that more explicit, it could push the UAE further away from OPEC. And quitting OPEC to pump more oil would be awkward while hosting a climate conference.

☆ Saudi Arabia wants ties with both China and U.S., says foreign minister
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

RIYADH, Dec 9 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said on Thursday after a China-Arab summit hosted by Riyadh that the kingdom wants to cooperate with both the United States and China - economic rivals - and that while competition was good, polarisation was not. Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud, asked in a news conference about Washington's denial of Saudi mediation efforts in a Russia-U.S. prisoner swap - said he was aware of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's "personal mediation efforts" to release U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner. Reporting by Maha El Dahan and Aziz El Yaakoubi; Editing by Angus MacSwanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Biden chose humanity over geopolitics with Griner release
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Stephen Collinson | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +10 min

But President Joe Biden’s decision to exchange WNBA star Brittney Griner for Viktor Bout goes beyond the exchange’s bottom line. And it prompted top Republicans to charge that he had prioritized a basketball superstar over an ex-marine who benefited from a vocal political pressure campaign on Biden. This adds another layer of complication for Biden as he seeks to get Whelan free, since it involves another government and would require German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to potentially agree to supersede his country’s own legal system. While Biden is being castigated by some political opponents in Washington for doing a bad deal, administration officials insisted that he got the best one on offer. It was a choice between bringing home one particular American, Brittney Griner, or bringing home none,” a senior administration official told reporters on Thursday.

☆ China, Saudi Arabia stress importance of oil market stability as Xi visits Riyadh
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Ruxandra Iordache | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

Chinese President, Xi Jinping (L) is welcomed by Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (R) at the Palace of Yamamah in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 8, 2022. China and Saudi Arabia stressed the importance of global oil market stability and Riyadh's role in achieving this balance, following a three-day Saudi visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping. China is the world's largest crude oil importer, while Saudi Arabia is the greatest exporter of such resources and chairs the influential OPEC+ producers' alliance. Xi met both King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and his heir, Crown Prince and Saudi Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman, according to Chinese official news agency Xinhua. The Chinese head of state has extended an invitation for King Salman to visit China "at a mutually convenient time," the statement said.

Leaders of Arab League states spanning the Gulf, Levant and Africa began arriving in Riyadh on Thursday when Xi received a lavish reception by Prince Mohammed and signed a China-Saudi partnership pact with King Salman, demonstrating deepening ties. Oil giant Saudi Arabia is a top supplier to China and the joint statement reaffirmed the importance of global market stability and energy collaboration, while striving to boost non-oil trade and enhance cooperation in peaceful nuclear power. Xi invited King Salman to visit China, Saudi state television reported. Diplomats said the Chinese delegation would sign agreements and memoranda of understanding with several states in addition to Saudi Arabia, which inked an MOU with Huawei on cloud computing and building high-tech complexes in Saudi cities. The Chinese tech giant has participated in building 5G networks in most Gulf states despite U.S. concerns over a possible security risk in using its technology.

☆ President Xi says China wants to buy more oil from Saudi Arabia – and that could eat away at the dollar, a think tank strategist says
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( George Glover | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

China is willing to import more oil from Saudi Arabia, President Xi Jinping said Friday. That could spur "de-dollarization", if Saudi Arabia agrees to accept yuan payments. He also agreed to step up coordination with Saudi Arabia on energy policy in his meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "The Saudis have a lot to buy from China and China has a lot to buy from Saudi Arabia," Luft said. The western sanctions against Russia have led to a cooldown in the relationship between the US and both China and Saudi Arabia.

☆ US slaps down Saudi claim it helped secure Brittney Griner's release, undermining Riyadh's efforts to be a global power player
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US pushed back after Saudi Arabia and the UAE said they helped free Brittney Griner. The White House insisted that the only two parties to the prisoner swap were it and Russia. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly upset the US with attempts to take a bigger, independent global role. The Saudi Arabia and the UAE in a joint statement Thursday said that UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had helped mediate the exchange. When asked about it at a White House press briefing, press secretary Karine Jean Pierre pushed back.

DUBAI, Dec 8 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia and China have signed memorandums of understanding on hydrogen energy and the encouragement of direct investment between the two states, state news agency (SPA) said on Thursday, during a state visit by Chinese President Xi Jinping to Riyadh. Xi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman also signed an agreement for harmonization between the kingdom's 2030 vision and Beijing's belt and road initiative, SPA added. Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Toby ChopraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ China’s Xi Jinping to Meet Saudi Crown Prince in Pivotal Visit
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Stephen Kalin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Chinese President Xi Jinping, here arriving in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday, is set to meet Thursday with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who runs the kingdom’s daily affairs. RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet Saudi leaders Thursday and sign agreements worth more than $29 billion as this desert kingdom deepens ties with global partners, including U.S. rivals, amid doubts about Washington’s commitment to the Middle East. No details about the deals were made available, but progress in talks about pricing some Saudi oil sales in yuan, which The Wall Street Journal reported accelerated this year, would draw intense U.S. scrutiny as would any new weapons deals or further cooperation on 5G and 6G telecommunications networks.

☆ China’s Xi Jinping Meets Saudi Crown Prince in Pivotal Visit
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Stephen Kalin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for a visit set to strengthen ties between the two countries. RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with Saudi leaders Thursday at the start of a multiday state visit, as the oil-rich desert kingdom strengthens ties with U.S. rivals amid doubts about Washington’s commitment to the Middle East. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman , who runs the kingdom’s daily affairs, greeted the Chinese leader with a handshake on arrival at Al Yamamah Palace, the seat of the Saudi monarchy. A Saudi honor guard welcomed Mr. Xi before Prince Mohammed accompanied him inside to meet his father, King Salman . The two sides are expected to sign some 20 initial agreements worth more than $29 billion total before attending a large gathering of Gulf and Arab leaders on Friday.

☆ China’s Xi Jinping Deepens Saudi Ties in Pivotal Trip
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Stephen Kalin | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia—Chinese leader Xi Jinping met Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a pivotal visit to the Middle East, where the world’s top oil importer deepened relations with the top exporter, in commercial agreements that included energy and technology deals but stopped short of explicitly expanding military cooperation. An honor guard welcomed the Chinese leader and Prince Mohammed greeted him with a handshake at the Saudi Royal Court on Thursday. Mr. Xi then met King Salman , and the two men signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement affording Riyadh top-tier status in China’s foreign relations. They pledged to visit each other every two years.

It stood in stark contrast to the low-key welcome extended in July to U.S. President Joe Biden, with whom ties have been strained by Saudi energy policy and the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi that had overshadowed the awkward visit. In an op-ed published in Saudi media, Xi said he was on a "pioneering trip" to "open a new era of China's relations with the Arab world, the Arab countries of the Gulf, and Saudi Arabia". [1/6] Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman welcomes Chinese President Xi Jinping in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia December 8, 2022. Chinese and Saudi firms also signed 34 deals for investment in green energy, information technology, cloud services, transport, construction and other sectors, state news agency SPA reported. While Saudi Arabia was an important U.S. ally, she noted, "in recent years, it has upheld its strategic autonomy, resisted the pressure of the United States".

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