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  • Aster DM Gulf unit explores $250m Saudi expansion

    The UAE-based hospital chain Aster DM Healthcare’s Gulf unit is exploring acquisitions worth $250 million to expand its presence in Saudi Arabia. The deals will focus on medical centres and hospitals, Bloomberg reported, quoting Alisha Moopen, managing director and group CEO of Aster’s Gulf Cooperation Council unit.  These deals will be finalised in the next three to five years, she said.

  • Commentary: A view from Israel – Pezeshkian’s Israel stance could undermine his domestic priorities and nuclear diplomacy

    Masoud Pezeshkian’s victory in Iran’s July presidential elections gained little attention or enthusiasm in Israel. The elections took place amid the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza following the Hamas-led attack on Israel on 7 October attack last year. It is Israel’s longest war. Israel has also been involved in a simultaneous war against Hezbollah, which started after the latter’s unilateral attack on 8 October and has escalated significantly in recent weeks. These conflicts, coupled with the ongoing hostage crisis, have taken up most of the news cycle in Israel.

  • Desert Diplomacy: Saudi Arabia’s Quest for Regional Harmony

    By prioritizing dialogue, diplomacy, and economic cooperation over conflict and confrontation, the Kingdom hopes to reduce tensions in the Middle East and create a more stable environment for its ambitious domestic reforms. While challenges remain, the early successes in mending relations with Iran, Qatar, and Yemen offer hope that Saudi Arabia’s new foreign policy could contribute to lasting peace and stability in the region.

  • Saudi Arabia plots space industry transformation

    Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund-backed Neo Space Group (NSG) is looking to lease multi-orbit capacity to bolster its foothold in the satellite market, ahead of likely owning and operating its own constellation. “Our team is currently working hard to identify those areas in the market where it makes sense to deploy our own capital,” NSG’s newly appointed CEO Martijn Blanken told SpaceNews in an interview.

  • Iran’s ambassador to Lebanon injured by pager explosion

    Iran's ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was slightly injured on Tuesday by the explosion of an electronic pager, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency reported, as numerous such devices exploded across Lebanon. "Amani has a superficial injury and is currently under observation in a hospital," Fars quoted a source as saying. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, in a phone call with his Lebanese counterpart, strongly condemned the "terrorist attack" and thanked Lebanon for providing immediate medical treatment to Amani, Iranian state media reported.

  • Second wave of exploding devices raises fears of wider Israel-Lebanon conflict

    Hand-held radios used by armed group Hezbollah detonated on Wednesday across Lebanon's south in the country's deadliest day since cross-border fighting erupted between the militants and Israel nearly a year ago, stoking tensions after similar explosions of the group's pagers the day before. Lebanon's health ministry said 20 people were killed and more than 450 injured on Wednesday in Beirut's suburbs and the Bekaa Valley, while the death toll from Tuesday's explosions rose to 12, including two children, with nearly 3,000 injured.

  • Hezbollah exploding pager trail runs from Taiwan to Hungary

    The detonation of thousands of pagers targeting Hezbollah in Lebanon has left a mysterious trail from Taiwan to Hungary, while raising the prospect of another full-scale war in the Middle East between the Iran-backed group and arch-foe Israel. Israel's Mossad spy agency, which has a long history of pulling off sophisticated attacks on foreign soil, planted explosives inside pagers imported by Hezbollah months before Tuesday's detonations that killed nine people, a senior Lebanese security source and another source told Reuters.

  • Hezbollah vows to punish Israel after pager explosions across Lebanon

    Militant group Hezbollah promised to retaliate against Israel after accusing it of detonating pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday, killing nine people and wounding nearly 3,000 others who included fighters and Iran's envoy to Beirut. Lebanese Information Minister Ziad Makary condemned the late-afternoon detonation of the pagers - handheld devices that Hezbollah and others in Lebanon use to send messages - as an "Israeli aggression". Hezbollah said Israel would receive "its fair punishment" for the blasts.

  • Commentary: Workplace child care in Gulf countries would help employed mums. What gets in the way?

    As a result, it is much more efficient to have – hypothetically – two childcare facilities serving 30 children each than it is to have 10 childcare facilities serving six children each. Certainly, in the case of an office tower with thousands of employees, having a shared, building-level childcare facility is economically sound. However, for smaller workplaces such as a bank branch, a clothing store or a coffee shop – where many Gulf women work – mandating an establishment-level childcare facility is both costly and highly inefficient.

  • Saudi cement companies explore mergers amid market tension

    The crowded cement sector in Saudi Arabia is experiencing tensions due to its varying market shares, according to Majed Al Osailan, vice chair of the National Cement Committee. He noted that despite initial slow demand, renewed spending on construction has led to a shift, with most companies now able to meet market needs. The cement sector saw its first merger between Qassim Cement and Hail Cement, according to Argaam news, with another planned between City Cement and Umm Al-Qura Cement. NCC chair Badr Johar said that demand for cement is expected to strengthen substantially from late September 2024 to February 2025.