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  • Ceasefire deal between Israel and Hezbollah looks imminent, officials say

     Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah looked set to reach a ceasefire deal on Tuesday, Israeli and Lebanese officials said, clearing the way for an end to the conflict that has killed thousands of people since it was ignited by the Gaza war 14 months ago. A senior Israeli official and Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib appeared optimistic that a deal could be reached, cooling a second front for Israel's military that is also battling the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

  • Saudi Arabia signs $9.32 bln investment deals with foreign companies

    Saudi Arabia on Tuesday signed nine investment deals worth more than 35 billion riyals ($9.32 billion) with foreign companies including India's Vedanta (VDAN.NS), opens new tab and China's Zijin Group (601899.SS), opens new tab to boost global supply chains, said the Global Supply Chain Resilience Initiative, a government initiative under Saudi Arabia's National Investment Strategy.

  • Saudi Arabia’s NEOM gigaproject a ‘generational investment,’ minister says

    "NEOM was not meant to be a two-year investable opportunity. If anybody expected NEOM to be foreign investment in two, three or five years, then they have gotten (it) wrong - it's a generational investment," Minister Khalid al-Falih said on the sidelines of the World Investment Conference in Riyadh. "The flywheel is starting and it will gain speed as we go forward, as some of the foundational assets come to the market," he said.
    The world's top oil exporter has poured hundreds of billions of dollars into development projects through the kingdom's $925 billion sovereign fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), as it undergoes an economic agenda dubbed Vision 2030 to cut dependence on fossil fuels.

  • Saudi Arabia wants bilateral investment treaty with India before proceeding with an FTA: Sources

    In 2022, India and the GCC announced the resumption of negotiations for a potential FTA after a hiatus of several years. The idea of an FTA with the GCC was first floated in 2004. The GCC is a six-member economic bloc comprising Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain. Apart from historical ties and the presence of nearly 9 million Indian workers, the GCC is a significant trading partner for India. Economic linkages have grown over the years, largely due to increased oil imports. In FY 2023-24, India-GCC bilateral trade reached $161.59 billion, with Indian exports accounting for $56.3 billion and imports for $105.3 billion. Last year, India offered GCC member countries the option to sign individual FTAs instead of a collective agreement. India already has an FTA with the GCC member UAE. Foreign trade experts believe the FTAs with the UAE and Oman could serve as templates for future agreements with other GCC nations.

  • Huge deal struck but is it enough? 5 takeaways from a dramatic COP29

    COP29 is over, with developing countries complaining that the $300bn (about £240bn) a year in climate finance they will receive by 2035 is a "paltry sum". Many of the rich country voices at the UN's climate conference were amazed that developing nations were unhappy with what on the surface seems a huge settlement. It is an improvement - on the current contribution of $100bn (£79.8bn) a year. However, the developing world, which had pushed for more, had many genuine issues with the final sum. There were complaints it simply was not enough and that it was a mixture of grants and loans. And countries were deeply annoyed by the way the wealthy waited until the last minute to reveal their hand.

  • First Saudi THAAD Operators Complete Training at Fort Bliss

    It is reported that the training took place at Fort Bliss, Texas. It should be recalled that permission to sell seven THAAD systems to Saudi Arabia was granted in October 2017. In total, it was planned to supply 44 launchers, 360 missiles, 16 command posts, and 7 AN/TPY-2 radars, as well as auxiliary equipment and maintenance services. The total cost was estimated at $15 billion. In January 2024, Lockheed Martin signed an agreement to localize part of THAAD production in Saudi Arabia.

  • Saudi Arabia’s non-oil exports surge 16.8% in Q3: GASTAT

    Saudi Arabia’s non-oil exports reached SR79.48 billion ($21.17 billion) in the third quarter of 2024, a rise of 16.76 percent compared to the same period in 2023, according to official data. As reported by the General Authority for Statistics, the Kingdom exported non-oil goods worth SR19.58 billion to the UAE, followed by India and China at SR6.78 billion and SR6.48 billion. Chemical products led Saudi Arabia’s non-energy exports in the third quarter, accounting for 25.5 percent of total shipments, marking a 5.3 percent annual rise. Plastic and rubber products followed, comprising 24.9 percent of the total, with an 8.9 percent increase compared to the third quarter of 2023.

  • ‘The extraordinary has become the ordinary in Saudi Arabia,’ says Middle East expert

    “Truth be told, I see so much that is extraordinary in Saudi Arabia that the extraordinary has become the ordinary,” he said on the Arab News current affairs program “Frankly Speaking,” referring to the star-studded “1001 Seasons of Elie Saab” fashion show on Nov. 14 as part of Riyadh Season 2024, which has drawn over 6 million visitors and turned the Saudi capital into a cultural and entertainment hub. “Saudi Arabia must have what it needs to achieve its vision as a global node of progress, stability, interfaith relationships,” Roule said, noting that the Kingdom “is located in the center of so many pathways of global commerce and social exchange between India and Africa, between Europe and Asia.”

  • How Saudi Aramco’s CFO Thinks About Dividends

    The world’s biggest oil producer is largely owned by the Saudi Arabian government, with less than 3% of shares trading freely on the country’s stock exchange following its initial public offering in 2019. For that reason, Aramco is focusing heavily on another option that CFOs have for returning capital to shareholders: dividends. The company is on course to allocate over $124 billion toward that payout this year, up from about $98 billion in 2023 and $75 billion in 2022, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That’s significantly more than its international peers. Shell, for example, spent more than $14 billion on buybacks in 2023, and $8.4 billion on dividends. The trend was similar at other energy firms — apart from at Norway’s Equinor, which is majority-owned by the government and allocated nearly $11 billion to dividends in 2023, while spending $5.6 billion on buybacks.

  • Saudi-Iran Rapprochement Signals Shifting Regional Power Dynamics in the Middle East

    Beginning in 2019, the gradual withdrawal of the Saudi-led coalition from its military engagement in Yemen has largely been interpreted as the conclusion to a devastating conflict. However, beneath the surface lies a far more complex geopolitical realignment in the Middle East; a rapprochement between Riyadh and Tehran, and the renewal of Pan-Arabism, poses a significant challenge to the established order, including the influence of the United States in the Middle East.  Having stepped back from Yemen, and engaged productively in brokering peace with Iran, Saudi Arabia is signalling that it no longer views Tehran as a direct threat to its southern borders. Moreover, Iran’s reduced support for the Houthis indicates that Tehran is willing to moderate its aggressive posture in exchange for greater regional stability.