By the time Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken wrapped up a visit to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, he and Saudi officials had discussed cooperation on a smorgasbord of issues: Iran, Sudan, the Islamic State, regional infrastructure, clean energy and the potential normalization of Saudi-Israel relations. Mr. Blinken gave effusive remarks on the work being […]
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Behind the head-spinning news this week that the PGA Tour wants to merge with a rival, the upstart Saudi-backed league called LIV Golf, was an entity with billions to spend to make it happen: Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund. Though the fund has long been a known presence in financial circles, the deal that stunned […]
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There was no shortage of unpleasant things that the commissioner of the top U.S. golf circuit, the PGA Tour, said about Saudi Arabia when an upstart league backed by the oil-rich kingdom began recruiting his high-profile players. The commissioner, Jay Monahan, lamented a “foreign monarchy that is spending billions of dollars in an attempt to […]
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For most of the last six years, the leaders of Russia and Saudi Arabia worked with each other to control the global oil market during times of war, pandemic and dizzying price gyrations. But their alliance appears to be straining in ways that could help the Biden administration, which was eager to head off another […]
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — “Your final destination is Tel Aviv?” I’ve been a reporter in the Middle East since 1979, and those are six words I’d never heard in the place where I was standing about the place where I was going. I was checking in to fly from Doha, Qatar, to Tel Aviv, via […]
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The News Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Monday that he planned to talk to Saudi leaders and other Gulf state officials this week during a visit to Saudi Arabia about the possibility of the kingdom normalizing ties with Israel. The Biden administration supports such a move, but it should not come at the […]
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PORT SUDAN, Sudan — A few weeks ago, Ahmed al-Hassan was a medical student in Sudan working on a campaign to help refugees from a neighboring country. Then, the forces of two rival generals went to battle in the streets of the capital, Khartoum, and he was forced to flee himself. He left behind his […]
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For much of the past decade, Saudi Arabia sent billions of dollars in aid to Egypt, bolstering a poorer regional ally seen as too strategically important to neglect. But recently, there has been a noticeable shift. Even as Egypt slides deeper and deeper into economic crisis, Saudi officials have sent a stern message: No more […]
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For years, Saudi Arabia has pressed the United States to help it develop a nuclear energy program, as Saudi leaders look beyond oil to power their country. But talks about a nuclear partnership have dragged on, largely because the Saudi government refuses to agree to conditions that are intended to prevent it from developing nuclear […]
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Wealth funds in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar have invested hundreds of millions of dollars with Jared Kushner’s private equity firm, according to people with knowledge of the transactions, joining Saudi Arabia in backing the venture launched by former President Donald J. Trump’s son-in-law as he left the White House. The infusion of money […]
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Only five years ago, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia, derided Iran’s supreme leader, saying he “makes Hitler look good.” Last week in a development that had the world doing metaphorical double takes, the Saudis not only re-established diplomatic relations with Tehran but also spoke […]
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When Beijing stepped into the role of mediator this week in the surprise rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran, it signaled a new level of ambition for Xi Jinping, China’s top leader, who has sought to burnish his image as a global statesman in an escalating rivalry with the United States. China’s top diplomat quickly […]
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The announcement by Iran and Saudi Arabia that they are re-establishing diplomatic ties could lead to a major realignment in the Middle East. It also represents a geopolitical challenge for the United States and a victory for China, which brokered the talks between the two longstanding rivals. Under the agreement announced on Friday, Iran and […]
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WASHINGTON — Saudi Arabia is seeking security guarantees from the United States, help with developing a civilian nuclear program and fewer restrictions on U.S. arms sales as its price for normalizing relations with Israel, people familiar with the exchanges say. If sealed, the deal could set up a major political realignment of the Middle East. […]
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RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — One day in November 2015, Saad Almadi typed out a 14-word post on Twitter about Saudi Arabia’s deputy crown prince. “Mohammed bin Salman has taken over the economy, defense and everything under the king,” he wrote, replying to a professor who is a fierce critic of the kingdom’s monarchy. A Saudi-American […]
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A federal magistrate judge has ruled that the leader of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund, which has bankrolled the new LIV Golf series, must sit for a deposition by lawyers for the PGA Tour who sought his testimony as part of the tangle of litigation involving the sport-splitting circuit. The decision, released on Thursday night […]
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