MUST-READS

• Why Is Saudi Arabia Seeking To Mediate A Deal Between U.S. And Iran?

  “Riyadh is looking for a way to address concerns around Iran's nuclear program, as well as its regional activities and its support for proxies,” says Gregory Brew, senior analyst at the U.S.-based Eurasia Group. “Given Riyadh's interest in avoiding an escalation in the Gulf, it probably sees diplomacy as a more effective means of addressing these issues, rather than military action,” he added. “Saudi Arabia's willingness to moderate between Tehran and Washington was not borne of a political vacuum,” said Behnam Taleblu, senior director of the Iran Program at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD). “By stylistically accommodating Tehran through diplomatic normalization but substantively remaining in the Western orbit, Riyadh is hoping to insulate itself from being the place where a larger regional conflict involving Iran is adjudicated.”

• Russia’s Putin holds phone call with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince

  Russia’s President Vladimir Putin held a phone call with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday, the Kremlin said. Putin said the two countries will continue to work within the OPEC+ framework to maintain stability in the global oil market. Putin also expressed his gratitude for organizing the Russia-US negotiations that took place in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday.

• Reconstruction and rivalries: What to expect from Saudi Arabia’s Gaza summit

  Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is expected to host leaders from Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates in Riyadh on Friday to discuss the Egyptian proposal. Just because Trump has warmed up to an Arab post-war plan for Gaza and is keen on Gulf cash does not mean the crown prince and his counterparts have it easy. The Egyptian plan, which has now been widely reported, calls, unsurprisingly, for Palestinians to stay in the Gaza Strip. They would live in mobile housing while debris is cleared away and reconstruction begins. The main sticking point is who will pay for reconstruction and temporary housing. Analysts and diplomats have speculated that Trump’s call for the US to take over the enclave without paying for it was a ploy to get oil-rich Gulf states to foot the bill. More than $50bn will be required to rebuild Gaza, a joint assessment provided by the United Nations, European Union and World Bank on Tuesday said. At least $20bn will be required in the first three years. Asked in an interview in January if Saudi Arabia would fund Gaza’s reconstruction, Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud, Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UK, said: “To reconstruct a Palestinian state, yes. To reconstruct a territory that the Israelis might destroy again in a matter of years, I don’t think that would be a sensible thing to do.”

• Trump hails Saudi Arabia at investment event in Miami

  This was the first time a US president has spoken at the Miami event. Elon Musk, who co-heads Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency, was also there. As part of an increasingly high-profile relationship with the United States under President Trump, earlier this week Saudi Arabia hosted talks between the US and Russian foreign ministers aimed at paving the way for a resolution to the Ukraine war. In late January, during the first phone call Trump held with a foreign leader after returning to the White House, the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed Bin Salman, pledged $600 billion of trade and investment in the US over Trump’s four-year term.

• A Guide to Saudi Arabia
  The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia may be progressing to the future at hastened speed, but its history dates all the way back to the Al Saud dynasty in 1744. With the opening of the UNESCO-listed Hegra site, a collection of ancient, preserved tombs and rock formations carved in the first century by Nabatean tribes, visitors are flocking to Saudi Arabia. History buffs have no shortage of options between the six UNESCO World Heritage sites. Archaeological landmarks showing traces of Neolithic period human settlement can be found in the verdant Al Ahsa Oasis where millions of date trees sprout from the ground and hot and cold springs refresh. Alternatively, wander the mudbrick home-lined alleyways at the 15^th century Al Turaif. And then there’s Hima in the southwest, which is situated on an old caravan route with some of the oldest inscriptions and rock carvings in the world. Animal and human scenes spanning thousands of years abound at two petroglyph sites in Al Hail.

• Trump calls Saudi Arabia a ‘special place with special leaders’

  US President Donald Trump thanked Saudi Arabia on Wednesday for hosting talks between Washington and Moscow last week, calling the Kingdom a “special place with special leaders.” Speaking at the opening of the Future Investment Initiative (FII) Institute, Trump said it was “a tremendous honor” to be the first American president to address the FII Institute. The US president singled out Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for his efforts in this regard. “But in particular, we have to thank [Crown] Prince Mohammed bin Salman for hosting these historic talks that went very, very well,” Trump said. Launched in 2017, FII brings together investors, policymakers, government officials and international private sector executives from across the globe.

• Saudi Arabia’s Shrewd Embrace of Ahmed Al Sharaa

  In late December, Al Sharaa sat down with the Saudi pan-Arab news channel Al Arabiya for his first television interview as Syria’s leader. Al Sharaa’s choice of venue did not go unnoticed on the Syrian street and around the region. In the interview, the new president echoed MBS’s view that the region should focus on economic cooperation and investment over armed conflicts, praised Saudi Arabia’s crucial role regionally and globally, and made a point to reminisce about his childhood in Riyadh and his wish to walk its streets again. On the Saudi side, this opening gambit of the new Syrian administration is a smart one for the Kingdom’s own interests. MBS has made clear his desire for more calm in the region, allowing him to focus Saudi Arabia’s resources on his domestic reform agenda and economic diversification campaign rather than regional problems. The fall of the Assad regime has benefited Riyadh in a second crucial way: it has meant the near-total destruction of Assad’s captagon trafficking ring, which had impacted Saudi Arabia more than any other country in the region. Ensuring Syria’s stability to prevent a vacuum that allows for the continuation of the drug trade is a core Saudi national interest.

• Saudi Arabia’s Shrewd Embrace of Ahmed Al Sharaa

  In late December, Al Sharaa sat down with the Saudi pan-Arab news channel Al Arabiya for his first television interview as Syria’s leader. Al Sharaa’s choice of venue did not go unnoticed on the Syrian street and around the region. In the interview, the new president echoed MBS’s view that the region should focus on economic cooperation and investment over armed conflicts, praised Saudi Arabia’s crucial role regionally and globally, and made a point to reminisce about his childhood in Riyadh and his wish to walk its streets again. On the Saudi side, this opening gambit of the new Syrian administration is a smart one for the Kingdom’s own interests. MBS has made clear his desire for more calm in the region, allowing him to focus Saudi Arabia’s resources on his domestic reform agenda and economic diversification campaign rather than regional problems. The fall of the Assad regime has benefited Riyadh in a second crucial way: it has meant the near-total destruction of Assad’s captagon trafficking ring, which had impacted Saudi Arabia more than any other country in the region. Ensuring Syria’s stability to prevent a vacuum that allows for the continuation of the drug trade is a core Saudi national interest.

• NDMC closes the February 2025 Issuance under the Saudi Arabian Government SAR-denominated Sukuk Program

  The National Debt Management Center announces the closure of February 2025 issuance under the Saudi Arabian Government SAR-denominated Sukuk Program. The Total Amount Allocated was set at SAR 3.071Bn (three billion and seventy-one million Saudi Riyals)

• Saudi Arabia’s rise as a global diplomacy broker

  Saudi Arabia is solidifying its position as a global and regional diplomatic hub. On Friday, Riyadh will host the leaders of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries, in addition to Jordan and Egypt, to discuss an Arab plan for the reconstruction of Gaza without displacing its 2.2 million inhabitants. Once approved, the plan will be presented at the meeting of Arab leaders in Cairo at the end of the month. It will become a counterproposal to President Donald Trump’s plan to displace the people of Gaza while taking over the beleaguered enclave and turning it into a regional riviera. So, when Jordan’s King Abdullah met with Trump at the White House last week, his response to Trump’s idea was that Arab leaders had been invited by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, whose country has rejected any attempt to displace the Palestinians from their land, to work on an Arab plan for the reconstruction of Gaza without the displacement of its people.

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