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  • Crown Prince to grace Arab Forum of Anti-Corruption Agencies on May 15 in Riyadh

    Saudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman will patronize the Arab Forum of Anti-Corruption Agencies and Financial Intelligence Units in Riyadh on May 15-16.

    Around 600 experts and 75 speakers from 25 countries and a dozen organizations from within the Kingdom and abroad will participate in the forum, to be organized by the Presidency of State Security and the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha). The forum would include workshops, special meetings, and the launch of a number of initiatives and signing of agreements.

  • Missile defence successes in Gulf, Ukraine fuel global urgency to acquire systems

    The success of ballistic missile defences facing their first complex, high-stakes combat scenarios in Israel, the Red Sea and Ukraine will encourage militaries globally to invest in the pricey systems, experts say - and intensify missile arms races.
    Iran launched as many as 120 intermediate-range ballistic missiles at Israel on April 13, U.S. and Israeli officials say. U.S. SM-3 and Israeli Arrow interceptors destroyed nearly all of them, leaving drones and smaller threats to the Iron Dome system.

  • EU announces five-year Schengen visas for Saudi, Omani and Bahraini citizens

    The Schengen Area, which includes 29 European countries, was expanded last February to include Bulgaria and Romania, eliminating all air and maritime border controls.

    Citizens from the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia have been exempted from the UK's pre-entry visa requirements.

    In November, Gulf countries announced plans for a unified tourist visa similar to the Schengen permit in a move to ease travel for residents and tourists.

  • The world must adapt to a new generation of GCC sovereign-owned investors

    Instead of recycling revenues from oil exports into, say, US Treasuries for future generations, sovereign wealth is being used to kick-start a regional economic and infrastructure transformation, both through regional investment and international tie-ups. They are seeking to achieve their objectives by sharpening their strategies, investing in human capital (with both homegrown talent and expatriates) and hiring the world’s best advisors.

  • The Urgent Need for Transparency Reform in Gulf Central Banks

    The currencies of Gulf Arab states are pegged to the dollar, limiting in significant ways the room for maneuver in central banks’ decision making, as their interest rates need to follow the decisions of the U.S. Federal Reserve. Transparency remains important nonetheless to these banks’ broader governance and accountability framework as well as to their independence from political interference. And conversely, lack of transparency can lead to uncertainty about the ability of Gulf monetary authorities to continue defending the peg, which may encourage speculation and eventually the collapse of the fixed exchange rate regime.

  • ‘Saudi hospitality sector to generate SR42 billion investments and 120,000 jobs by 2030’

    Eng. Mahmoud Abdulhadi, deputy minister of tourism for destination enablement, emphasized that Saudi Arabia is providing promising opportunities for both Saudi and international investors to draw investments into the Kingdom’s vital tourism sector. “The recently launched Hospitality Investment Enablers (HIE) initiative seeks to attract private investments in the hospitality sector, amounting to about SR42 billion ($11 billion) with creation of 120,000 new jobs by 2030,” he said while attending a dialogue session within the Saudi Ministry of Tourism’s participation at the International Hospitality Investment Forum (IHIF) in Berlin.

  • GCC holds emergency meeting amid regional tension, calls for International Conference on Palestinian state

    The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has called for an international conference to comprehensively address the Palestinian issue, with the aim of establishing an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

    This proposal came during the GCC's 44th extraordinary meeting held on Monday in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, alongside a joint ministerial meeting with Central Asian countries. Hosted at the Qatari Embassy and chaired by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Al Thani, prime minister and minister of foreign affairs of Qatar, the meeting was attended by prominent Gulf state foreign ministers.

  • Top US, Saudi military generals hold call after Iran attack

    Saudi Arabia’s Chief of General Staff Gen. Fayyad Al-Ruwaili held a phone call with Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr. to discuss international allies and the security situation in the Middle East following Iran’s attack on Israel, Joint Staff Spokesperson Navy Capt. Jereal Dorsey announced on Monday.

    The two officials highlighted the partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia, reaffirming their commitment to promoting peace and stability in the region.

  • Senior U.S. general to visit Israel to coordinate on Iran attack threat

    Iranian officials have publicly threatened to retaliate against Israel for an attack in Syria last week that killed a top Iranian general. An attack on Israel or its bases could lead to another regional escalation.

  • Opinion: Israel’s strategic defeat and the resurgence of the Palestinian narrative

    Israel’s strategic defeat is encapsulated not by the loss of a single battle but by the crumbling of its moral foundation and the narrative it has long disseminated. As in Vietnam, where the American spirit was broken not by defeat but by the realisation of the moral implications of their actions, Israel stands at a crossroads. It must choose between continuing down a path of moral isolation or embracing a new chapter that acknowledges the rights and aspirations of the Palestinian people.