ABU DHABI // Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, will hold talks with US president Donald Trump in Washington on Monday. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the meeting is aimed at deepening Washington’s cooperation with a key Middle East partner. The meeting is scheduled to take place a week before Mr Trump makes the first […]
A UN forum held in Riyadh last week amounted to a “slap in the face” for Saudis jailed in a country which does not allow independent NGOs, a rights group said Monday. Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), was commenting on a two-day UNESCO NGO Forum staged in the Saudi capital. “To host a prestigious NGO event in Saudi Arabia is a slap […]
By Mike Stone | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Washington is working to push through contracts for tens of billions of dollars in arms sales to Saudi Arabia, some new, others in the pipeline, ahead of U.S. President Donald Trump’s trip to the kingdom this month, people familiar with the talks told Reuters this week. Saudi Arabia is Trump’s first stop on his maiden international trip, a sign of his […]
Saudi Arabia should urgently review its definition of terrorism under a law used to prosecute non-violent journalists and human rights defenders, a United Nations special rapporteur said on Thursday. After a visit to the kingdom, Ben Emmerson told reporters that a 2014 counter-terrorism law contains an “unacceptably broad definition” of the crime and does not comply with international rights standards. “I strongly condemn the use of counter-terrorism […]
White House officials said foreign leaders would be more willing to help the United States if disagreements over human rights and other issues were aired in private. They cited the recent release of an Egyptian-American aid worker detained in Egypt, which was negotiated in quiet talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Continue reading the main story “Obama’s approach was to build support with the Arab public through […]
May 4, 2017 by: Katrina Manson in New York Donald Trump will visit Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican on his first foreign trip as US president in an effort to unite a coalition against Islamist terrorism and Iran and extract more from traditional allies. The travel plans mark a departure from US foreign policy norms, which usually see new presidents visit neighbouring Canada or Mexico within a month of taking office. […]
A nation’s future depends on its young people, Noura Al Kaabi told a forum in Riyadh on Thursday. The Minister of State for Federal National Council Affairs spoke at Unesco’s International Forum of NGOs about the importance of investing in youth for the country’s future. “Investing in young citizens is a wise insurance policy for a better, brighter tomorrow,” she said. “The youth are not only the […]
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) is in talks with investors about introducing its US-based Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants brand to the UAE. Pascal Gauvin, IHG’s India, Middle East and Africa COO, told Arabian Business that Nasdaq-listed IHG began discussions with investors in January and hopes to sign a deal this year. After that, it intends to launch boutique hotel brand Kimpton in Dubai, first, within the next 3-5 […]
. 240 modern gas stations across the country set for completion by 2020 · Strong support is required to encourage organized companies to step in to the service field. 26 April 2017 Riyadh – Petromin, the leading lubricants and automotive services company in Saudi Arabia, outlined plans to build 240 gas stations across the Kingdom at the 10th edition of the Saudi Travel and Tourism Investment […]
WASHINGTON President Donald Trump complained on Thursday that U.S. ally Saudi Arabia was not treating the United States fairly and Washington was losing a “tremendous amount of money” defending the kingdom. In an interview with Reuters, Trump confirmed his administration was in talks about possible visits to Saudi Arabia and Israel in the second half of May. He is due to make his first trip abroad as […]
By Phil Stewart and Yara Bayoumy | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON When U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis greeted Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister at the Pentagon last month, the first thing he did was joke about the time “the Iranians tried to murder you.” Mattis’ reference to a foiled 2011 plot, denied by Iran, was a telling sign of how much more aligned President Donald Trump’s administration is with Gulf […]
Two Saudi soldiers were killed Thursday in a rocket attack near the border with war-torn Yemen, the interior ministry said. They died in a simultaneous landmine explosion and rocket attack while on duty patrolling the border around Jazan, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official SPA news agency. Saudi Arabia leads a Gulf coalition that has battled Iran-backed Huthi rebels in Yemen for two […]
A recent Saudi government and security shake-up aims to strengthen King Salman’s increasingly powerful son against a royal rival and to bolster ties with Washington, analysts and diplomats say. Royal decrees at the weekend saw a number of allies of Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman moved into key positions and another son of the king named as ambassador to Washington. The goal, a foreign diplomat told […]
Saudi Arabia has imposed limits on the ownership of prepaid SIM cards for citizens and foreigners, restrictions that the regulator said aim to prevent the use of cards in carrying out militant attacks in the kingdom. Foreign residents, who make up more than a third of the population, are now limited to two prepaid SIM cards across all operators, according to two people familiar with the matter. […]
. 240 modern gas stations across the country set for completion by 2020 · Strong support is required to encourage organized companies to step in to the service field. 26 April 2017 Riyadh – Petromin, the leading lubricants and automotive services company in Saudi Arabia, outlined plans to build 240 gas stations across the Kingdom at the 10th edition of the Saudi Travel and Tourism Investment […]
ACWA Power International will bid to build a solar energy project in Saudi Arabia, part of the kingdom’s $50 billion push to temper domestic oil use. Riyadh-based ACWA received a request for proposals last week from Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry to develop the 300-megawatt solar project in Sakaka, Rajit Nanda, ACWA’s chief investment officer, said Tuesday in an interview in Dubai. It’s also considering bidding for other […]
Saudi Arabia is about to cast off its oil-dependence, build brand-new industries and open its economy to foreign investment, according to the government. That might make it a good time to buy into a Saudi bank. And substantial stakes in two of them are up for sale. But in both cases, it’s international lenders who are seeking to get out – and there are no big-name global […]
InterContinental Hotels Group announces new signings as well as openings across its MEA brand portfolio at the UAE’s Arabian Travel Market and Arabian Hotel Investment Conference 24 April 2017 Dubai, United Arab Emirates – InterContinental Hotels Group® (IHG), one of the world’s leading global hotel companies, announced four new hotel signings as well as six new hotel openings across the GCC in 2017 at the Arabian Travel […]
By Ulf Laessing | ERBIL, Iraq ERBIL, Iraq High on a rocky outcrop, just 50 miles from the fighting that is wrecking historic sites across Iraq, workers are busy laying out floor tiles, determined to save at least one ancient structure amidst the turmoil. The team is rebuilding the last remains of the fortified citadel in the Iraqi-Kurdish capital of Erbil, constructed on top of the world’s […]
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi received a royal welcome from King Salman as he landed Sunday in Saudi Arabia for a visit to boost ties after months of tension. Salman, surrounded by key Saudi officials, greeted Sisi as he stepped off the plane in the capital Riyadh and hosted him for lunch, the official Saudi Press Agency said. The Egyptian presidency announced the visit in a statement […]
Australian hotel management company StayWell Hospitality Group and the UAE-based Cristal Group are joining forces to develop businesses with a key focus on the Middle East. StayWell CEO, Simon Wan, said the company is seeking further expansion into the UAE market with the upcoming openings of Park Regis Business Bay and Park Regis Boutique Jumeirah this year, followed by the opening of Leisure Inn Jumeirah and Park […]
By Warren Strobel and Arshad Mohammed | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON The United States wants new commitments from Saudi Arabia to improve its targeting procedures to minimize civilian casualties in its part in the Yemen civil war as it weighs resuming sales of precision-guided munitions to Riyadh, U.S. officials told Reuters. An announcement of the weapons sale had been anticipated last month, but objections by mostly Democratic lawmakers and […]
SEOUL U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said the United States was looking at ways to pressure North Korea over its nuclear programme as North Korean state media warned the Americans of a “super-mighty preemptive strike”, saying don’t “mess with us”. U.S. President Donald Trump has taken a hard line with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who has rebuffed admonitions from sole major ally China and […]
By Jeff Mason and Doina Chiacu | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday denied being misleading about a U.S. carrier strike group’s push towards the Korean peninsula, saying it never gave an arrival date and that the ships were still on their way. When Trump boasted early last week that he had sent an “armada” as a warning to North Korea, the USS Carl Vinson […]
