September 19th, 20230The Biden administration is seeking trilateral meetings with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as soon as this week to discuss any differences between the Gulf countries that could “upend” the peace talks currently happening between the Saudis and Yemen.
According to U.S. officials speaking with the Financial Times, Tim...
September 15th, 20230On Wednesday, September 14, Yemen’s Ansarallah resistance movement announced that a delegation had left Sanaa to pursue Omani-mediated peace talks in Riyadh.
A member of Ansarallah’s political bureau, Ali al-Qahoum, announced through social media that the delegation had left the Yemeni capital “on board an Omani plane to the...
August 18th, 20230Saudi Arabia and Iran are making progress on mending ties, Iran's foreign minister said after meeting with his counterpart in Riyadh on Thursday, as two regional heavyweights seek to overcome past hostility and boost cooperation.
"Relations between Tehran and Saudi are on the right track and we are witnessing progress," Hossein...
May 19th, 20230President Bashar al-Assad has always seen time as an ally in the Syrian civil war, along with the Iranian and Russian firepower that helped him defeat his enemies, according to sources familiar with his thinking.
After more than 12 years of civil conflict that made him a reviled figure to much of the world, his strategy appears have...
March 31st, 20230BEIJING - China's President Xi Jinping spoke by phone with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, discussing a wide range of subjects, including supporting follow-up talks between Saudi Arabia and Iran, state media CCTV reported on Tuesday.
Xi recently helped broker a surprise deal between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Middle East...
March 10th, 20230Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed on Friday to resume ties after years of hostility which had threatened stability and security in the Gulf and helped fuel conflicts in the Middle East from Yemen to Syria.
The deal was announced after four days of previously undisclosed talks in Beijing between top security officials from the two rival...
January 20th, 20230Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, hosting his first senior member of President Biden's administration on Thursday, said they had discussed prospects for a diplomatic breakthrough between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Visiting White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan also heard from the Palestinians that their hopes of...
January 16th, 20230Israel's sharp tilt to what is likely to be the most hard right government in its history puts its new Arab allies in the awkward position of having to deal with ultra-nationalists while trying to do more than just pay lip service to the Palestinian cause.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's cabinet, sworn in two weeks ago, includes...
December 9th, 20220
MELVINDALE – A Yemeni American who resides with his family in Melvindale returned home after spending more than a month imprisoned in Saudi Arabia.
Mohamed Salem, 63, walked off a plane at Detroit Metro Airport just after noon Thursday, five weeks after he was detained while on a religious pilgrimage.
Salem arrived in...
November 25th, 20220Qatar's ruler opened the World Cup on Sunday with a call for people of all races and orientations to put aside their differences, speaking as the host nation faced a barrage of criticism over its treatment of foreign workers and supporters of LGBT rights.
The Muslim Gulf nation is staking its reputation on delivering a smooth...
November 10th, 20220Lebanon faces an indefinite government crisis that further complicates the path out of its financial meltdown, adding to risks of instability as hardship deepens and state institutions teeter on the brink of collapse.
Lebanon has had neither a head of state nor a fully empowered cabinet since Michel Aoun's term as president ended on...
August 5th, 20220RIYADH - Cathay Pacific and Air Seychelles have overflown Saudi Arabia for Israel flights for the first time, aviation data showed on Thursday, after Riyadh announced last month it would open its airspace to all airlines, paving the way for more overflights to and from Israel.
Opening Saudi airspace to flights to and from Israel was a...
August 4th, 20220Yemen's warring sides agreed to renew a two-month truce expiring on Tuesday, the U.N. envoy said, despite international pressure for an extended and expanded deal that would build on the longest stretch of relative calm in over seven years.
"This truce extension includes a commitment from the parties to intensify negotiations to reach...
July 22nd, 20220Russian President Vladimir Putin ended his first major summit outside Russia since the invasion of Ukraine with an endorsement from Iran for its response to NATO, a clash with Turkey over Syria and signs of progress over the lifting of the Russian blockade of Ukrainian grain.
The White House said the Tehran summit held between Putin,...
July 19th, 20220SAUDI ARABIA — President Biden's visit in recent days to top oil exporter Saudi Arabia ended without any announcements that the kingdom would raise oil production to help lower fuel prices which are spurring the highest U.S. inflation in four decades.
Top U.S. energy envoy Amos Hochstein told a television program on Sunday that...
July 12th, 20220WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. President Biden will make the case for greater oil production from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nations to bring down gasoline prices when he meets Gulf leaders in Saudi Arabia this week, White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said on Monday.
Biden leaves Tuesday...
July 9th, 20220— This article by Abbas Al Lawati originally appeared in CNN Business. It has been edited for style.
Oil has added trillions of dollars to Saudi Arabia’s coffers over the decades, but it’s a resource that will someday run out or lose value as the world turns to alternative energy.
Despite current high oil prices, the kingdom...
July 1st, 20220President Biden said on Thursday he would not directly press Saudi Arabia to increase oil output to curb soaring crude prices when he sees the Saudi king and crown prince during a visit later this month.
Biden also said at a news conference in Spain that Americans will have to stomach high gas prices for "as long as it takes" to beat...
June 5th, 20220WASHINGTON, D.C. — President Biden should not visit Saudi Arabia or meet its Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who approved an operation to capture or kill murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, according to U.S. intelligence, a leading Democratic lawmaker said on Sunday.
Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who wrote opinion columns for the...
May 14th, 20220DUBAI — The United Arab Emirates' de facto leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan (MbZ), was elected president of the Gulf Arab state by a federal supreme council on Saturday, solidifying his rule over the OPEC oil producer and key regional player.
He becomes president at a time when the UAE's long-standing ties with the...
April 9th, 20220On Thursday, Saudi-backed Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi ceded power to a council whose members form the core of an anti-Houthi alliance as Saudi Arabia looks to exit a costly war that has strained Washington's ties with Gulf allies.
Why does this move matter?
The war is a multifaceted one and Saudi Arabia has struggled to...
March 18th, 20220By Andrea Germanos
Multiple United Nations agencies on Monday sounded heightened alarm over the food crisis in Yemen, warning of a projected fivefold increase in famine conditions.
Warnings from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Food Program (WFP) and UNICEF came in response to the just-released Integrated Phase...
February 18th, 20220A single activist helped turn the tide against NSO Group, one of the world’s most sophisticated spyware companies now facing a cascade of legal action and scrutiny in Washington over damaging new allegations that its software was used to hack government officials and dissidents around the world.
It all started with a software glitch...
February 8th, 20220ADEN — The Saudi-led coalition deployed newly formed units near Yemen's Marib, where battles abated over the last week, according to military and government sources, as the warring sides hold their positions in the fight for energy-rich areas that has led to the war's biggest escalation in years.
Last month the Houthi movement...
November 18th, 20210WASHINGTON, D.C. — A group of U.S. senators are opposing the Biden administration's first major arms sale to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia over Riyadh's involvement in the conflict in Yemen, three senators announced on Thursday.
A joint resolution of disapproval to block a proposed $650 million in U.S. arms sales to the Kingdom of...
November 5th, 20210Lebanon is facing its worst rift yet with oil-rich Gulf Arab states, spurred by comments made by Lebanese Information Minister George Kordahi before his official appointment about the Saudi-led campaign that has created a severe humanitarian crisis in Yemen.
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati said on Thursday he had agreed with...
October 8th, 20210GENEVA — Bahrain, Russia and other members of the U.N. Human Rights Council pushed through a vote on Thursday to shut down the body's war crimes investigations in Yemen, in a stinging defeat for Western states that sought to keep the mission going.
Members narrowly voted to reject a resolution led by the Netherlands to give the...
September 17th, 20210An alarming discovery that the Israeli spyware company NSO Group targeted an ordinary citizen’s iPhone yet again caused Apple to deliver an important security update to its users.
Researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab said a security issue in Apple’s software was exploited to plant spyware on a Saudi...
