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Saudi Arabia

November 12, 2026

Riyadh 4:29 pm

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ankers are seen at the Khor Fakkan Container Terminal, the only natural deep-sea port in the region and one of the major container ports in the Sharjah Emirate, along the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one-fifth of global oil output passes, on June 23, 2025.

Explainer

UAE selling Saudi oil highlights new Gulf energy realities

News surfaced on Nov. 10 that the UAE has reportedly marketed 1.87 million barrels of Saudi crude salvaged from a damaged supertanker for sale, marking an exceptional example of energy cooperation between Gulf rivals.

United Arab Emirates

ANDY BUCHANAN / AFP via Getty Images

GCC to build military command center in Kuwait as region simmers: What to know

GCC countries have stepped up their joint defense efforts with the announcement of a new forward command center to be headquartered in Kuwait, as tensions between Iran and the US continue to escalate.

Latest News

Analysis

Syria denies sending troops to fight Houthis in return for Saudi loans

Saudi Arabia's Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed el-Khereiji (R) speaks with Syria's interim foreign minister Asaad al-Shaibani

Amberin Zaman

By Amberin Zaman

Reporting on geopolitics, minorities, human rights, culture

Iraq, Saudi Arabia face attacks as Trump pursues Iran deal

Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Analysis

Gulf’s $3 trillion US investment drive faces post-midterm Trump reckoning

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 18: Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and U.S. President Donald Trump shake hands during a dinner in the East Room at the White House on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. Trump is hosting the Crown Prince for meetings aimed at strengthening economic and defense ties, including the U.S. sale of F-35 fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Samuel Wendel

Senior Analyst, Middle East Business & Tech

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

People read the newspapers with cover stories of Osama bin Laden, in Riyadh, May 3, 2011. Bin Laden was killed in a U.S. special forces assault on a Pakistani compound, then quickly buried at sea, in a dramatic end to the long manhunt for the al Qaeda leader who had been the guiding star of global terrorism. REUTERS/Mohammed Mashhor (SAUDI ARABIA - Tags: SOCIETY MEDIA) - RTR2LXUQ

Saudi Arabia toughens stance on jihadist groups

Saudi Arabia is responding to widespread accusations that it is supporting extremist groups by publicly toughening its rhetoric against jihadists.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Tammam Salam (L) shakes hands with former Lebanese prime minister Saad al-Hariri upon his arrival at the government's headquarters in Beirut August 8, 2014. Hariri arrived back in Lebanon on Friday for the first time in three years, a visit seen as reasserting his leadership over the Sunni community after a deadly incursion by Islamist militants in the northeast. REUTERS/Georges Farah (LEBANON - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR41O2O

Could Maliki's departure spur Lebanon’s presidential election?

Many Lebanese are looking for signs that the departure of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki in Iraq will lead to progress in Lebanon's presidential race, but diplomatic sources are quick to downplay any such hopes.

A burnt vehicle belonging to Iraqi security forces is pictured at a checkpoint in east Mosul, one day after radical Sunni Muslim insurgents seized control of the city, June 11, 2014. Sunni insurgents from an al Qaeda splinter group extended their control from the northern city of Mosul on Wednesday to an area further south that includes Iraq's biggest oil refinery in a devastating show of strength against the Shi'ite-led government. REUTERS/Stringer (IRAQ - Tags: CIVIL UNREST POLITICS TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

Can Egypt, Saudi Arabia, UAE form Arab security alliance?

With the Islamic State (IS) out to change the regional order, Gulf states ought to establish a security alliance to prevent this from happening.

Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz al-Saud (R) and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry wait for a meeting at the King's private residence in the Red Sea city of Jeddah June 27, 2014. Kerry arrived in Jeddah on Friday to discuss the crises in Iraq and Syria with Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah and meet Syrian opposition leader Ahmad Jarba, who has close ties to the kingdom. REUTERS/Brendan Smialowski/Pool (SAUDI ARABIA - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3W2PT

Saudi Arabia and the third Gaza war

Saudi Arabia has remained quiet during the current Gaza war, working instead through Egypt.

Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani reviews honour guards during a welcoming ceremony at Algiers airport April 2, 2014. REUTERS/Louafi Larbi (ALGERIA - Tags: POLITICS) - RTR3JOO5

UAE tries to scuttle Qatar-Saudi reconciliation

There are signs that ties between Qatar and Saudi Arabia are improving, but the United Arab Emirates is maintaining a hard-line position on Doha, threatening Gulf reconciliation.

Army and police officers sit on the ground during a protest to denounce fuel prices hikes in Sanaa August 4, 2014. Yemen raised fuel prices last week, oil officials told Reuters, as the impoverished country tries to cut energy subsidies to ease the burden on its budget deficit. REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah (YEMEN - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST ENERGY MILITARY) - RTR415WW

Saudi Arabia losing influence in Yemen

Saudi Arabia once enjoyed unrivalled influence in Yemen, but the transition of power and breakdown of state have allowed other foreign powers, particularly Qatar and Iran, to get a stake in Yemeni affairs.

New alliances for a 2015 Middle East peace conference?

The Gaza conflict demonstrates that Egypt, Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and Saudi Arabia share common regional interests, which could lead them to an international peace conference based on the Arab League's peace initiative.

A general view of the venue during an extraordinary session of the Arab League at the league's headquarters in Cairo July 14, 2014. Egypt launched an initiative on Monday to halt fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants, proposing a ceasefire to be followed by talks in Cairo on settling the conflict in which Gaza authorities say more than 170 people have died. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh (EGYPT - Tags: POLITICS CIVIL UNREST) - RTR3YNOV

Cease-fire initiatives pit Turkey against Egypt

Is Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan more concerned with undermining Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi than to broker a cease-fire in Gaza?

Saudis see Houthi gains in Yemen as advance for Iran

Many Saudis are interpreting the Houthis’ sudden advance toward the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, as a message from Iran that it will not tolerate a Sunni Islamist advance on Baghdad.

Muslims visit and walk in front of the Mecca Clock Tower after they finished their Umrah Mawlid al-Nabawi pilgrimage, at the Grand Mosque in the holy city of Mecca January 14, 2014. Muslims mark Eid Mawlid al-Nabawi, or the birth of Prophet Mohammad, on Tuesday. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh (SAUDI ARABIA - Tags: RELIGION ANNIVERSARY) - RTX17DLC

Saudi Arabia denies visas to Egyptian pilgrims

As Saudi authorities denied Umrah visas to more than 50,000 Egyptians, Egypt’s Ministry of Tourism says the crisis with Saudi Arabia is being solved.

JERUSALEM:Deputy Defence Minister Ephraim Sneh shows journalists in Jerusalem 19 March 2000 the planned Israeli withdrawal from 6.1 percent of the occupied territoris in the West Bank. The Israeli cabinet approved earlier in the day the long-due handover of land to full Palestinian control. (Photo credit should read MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP/Getty Images)

ISIS should be catalyst for new Middle East alliance

The author, who served as a minister in several Israeli governments and as a brigadier general in the Israel Defense Forces, makes the case for an Israel-Saudi Arabia-Egypt alliance, anchored in an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

Members of the Iraqi security forces fire artillery during the clashes with the predominantly Sunni militants from the radical Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the town of Dalli Abbas in Diyala province, June 28, 2014. Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, the most influential Shi'ite cleric in Iraq, called on the country's leaders on Friday to choose a prime minister within the next four days, a dramatic political intervention that could hasten the end of Nuri al-Maliki's eight year rule. Picture take

The Syria disconnect in US Iraq policy

Iraq welcomes Syrian airstrikes on ISIS; Aleppo’s water crisis.