in dw.com: EU and GCC sources both said the negotiations on the finalized joint statement in the weeks leading up to Wednesdays summit were difficult. Top of Europes wishlist was strong wording condemning Moscow for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. One EU diplomat said initially, the GCC — the group of wealthy Gulf states that includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Oman — wanted no direct reference to Russia in the text. Ultimately, leaders compromised by simply lifting the language from a 2022 United Nations General Assembly resolution in which they deplore in the strongest terms the aggression by the Russian Federation against Ukraine.

Via Matthew Martin and Nicolas Parasie in bloomberg.com: Saudi Arabia’s main finance district — almost three times the size of London’s Canary Wharf — is looking to raise about $700 million from equity investors to fund further development of its Riyadh real estate complex. The King Abdullah Financial District, or KAFD, is planning to raise the money by putting some of its income-generating buildings into a real estate investment trust and offering a stake to investors through a listing on the Saudi stock exchange, according to people familiar with the matter.

Via James Mackenzie, Nidal Al-Mughrabi and Samia Nakhoul in reuters.com: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus promises to press on with Israels wars in Gaza and Lebanon dashed hopes on Friday that the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar might help end more than a year of escalating conflict in the Middle East. Lebanese militant group Hezbollah meanwhile vowed to escalate fighting against Israel and its backer Iran said the spirit of resistance would be strengthened by the death of its Palestinian ally Sinwar in Gaza.

Via Scott Nover in gzeromedia.com: Byrne is following the lead of others in the kingdom. In May, the chief executive officer of the Saudi Public Investment Fund-backed fund Alat also said that if asked to choose between the US and China, the fund would divest from China. At a global AI summit in Riyadh last month, the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority recently announced a deal to buy 5,000 Nvidia graphics chips to help develop an Arabic large language model, pending US government approval. The future of Saudi tech depends on the US and, it seems, the government and its most important institutions are signaling that while they don’t want to choose sides, the answer is clear as to who would win if they did.

Via Mark Lomas in alarabiya.net: The third round of Asian qualifying for the 2026 FIFA World Cup continued this past week, with each nation still in the running for a spot at the tournament playing a pair of matches. For some, like Saudi Arabia, it was a difficult seven days, while others moved closer to a spot at the 2026 finals in the United States, Canada and Mexico. Here, Al Arabiya English rounds up the key moments from FIFA World Cup qualifying.

Via Anne McElvoy in politico.eu: Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Britain has urged the United States government to deliver on its threat to suspend weapons supplies to Israel unless more humanitarian aid is allowed into Gaza within the next 30 days. In a strongly worded letter to Israel made public this week, Washington issued an ultimatum, warning that restrictions could be imposed on future support for the country unless the growing humanitarian crisis in Gaza is addressed. Speaking to POLITICO’s “Power Play” podcast, Prince Khalid bin Bandar Al Saud said Joe Biden’s administration now had to keep its word, adding: “We have to assume that the Americans mean what they say; it would be a terrible world if they didn’t.

Via Anthony Di Paola in yahoo.com: Saudi Aramco has canceled plans to build a refinery and chemicals project in the kingdom and is reviewing three others as it evaluates spending plans with a focus on expanding in Asia. The cancellation is a sign Aramco is recalibrating its spending on chemicals to Asia, where it’s pursuing a series of deals in China that would also guarantee long-term demand for Saudi crude. Aramco sees the use of goods such as plastics outlasting the growth in consumption for gasoline and diesel amid the energy transition, with much of the expansion in chemicals likely coming from Asia.

Via Laura Paddison in cnn.com: Striking images from the Sahara Desert show large lakes etched into rolling sand dunes after one of the most arid, barren places in the world was hit with its first floods in decades. The Sahara does experience rain, but usually just a few inches a year and rarely in late summer. Over two days in September, however, intense rain fell in parts of the desert in southeast Morocco, after a low pressure system pushed across northwestern Sahara. Preliminary NASA satellite data showed nearly 8 inches of rain in some parts of the region.

Via Shona Murray in euronews.com: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and other Gulf leaders will be in Brussels for the first EU–Gulf Cooperation Summit, focusing on trade, security, and Middle East peace. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman will be in Brussels on Wednesday for the first EU–Gulf Cooperation Summit, Euronews can reveal. The de facto Saudi leader is discussing a range of issues, including global security, the Middle East, trade and global warming. Its his second official visit to Brussels, having previously attended in 2015 for the Global Coalition against ISIS. On the Middle East, the EU hopes the summit can strengthen support for the Palestinian Authority as a step towards resuscitating a two-state solution.

Via Rachna Uppal in reuters.com: Saudi Arabias annual inflation rate edged up to 1.7% in September, from 1.6% in August, government data showed on Tuesday, with increases in housing rents the main driver once again. Overall housing rents rose by 11.2% in September, according to the General Authority for Statistics, driving up prices for the combined Housing, Water, Electricity, Gas and Other Fuels category which jumped 9.3%. Rental price hikes have been the key driver of inflation in Saudi Arabia for much of this year.

Via Mark Trevelyan in reuters.com: The Kremlin rowed back on Tuesday from earlier comments describing Saudi Arabia as a member of the BRICS group of countries, and left open the question of whether the kingdom would be represented at a BRICS summit in Russia next week. Saudi Arabia has been invited to join BRICS but has not yet formally done so. Last week, however, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov described it as a BRICS member and said its foreign minister would attend the summit in the Russian city of Kazan.

Via Josh Corder in skift.com: The 1,800-kilometer Saudi Red Sea coast is split into three areas by authorities: the north side for luxury; the center for culture and entertainment at a variety of prices; and the south for mid-market and budget choices. But most of the attention has been on luxury mega projects in the north – the center and south haven’t announced much large-scale development. A new report from the Ministry of Investment and the Saudi Red Sea Authority (SRSA) reveals new details about tourism development for mid-market and budget stays.

in arabianbusiness.com: In the 12 months to Q2 2024, Saudi Arabia’s residential transactions across the three major cities of Riyadh, Jeddah, and Dammam Metropolitan Area (DMA) recorded annual improvements in transaction volumes by 51.6 per cent, 43.2 per cent and 22.4 per cent, respectively. “Riyadh particularly is demonstrating attributes of an undersupplied market, driven by strong employment and population growth on the back of government investment projects, resulting in very tight supply in certain areas of the market as new deliveries fail to keep pace with the robust housing demand”.

Via Hussein Ibish in agsiw.org: The three GCC countries with a recent history of disputes with Iran are the ones most concerned. The United Arab Emirates, which is extremely vulnerable to missile attacks, and Saudi Arabia are particularly anxious to avoid any involvement in Israel’s expected retaliation. In meetings with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on the sidelines of an Asia conference in Doha and, most significantly, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi’s highly significant October 9 visit to Riyadh, both sides made their positions unequivocally clear. Iran stated that any overflight, with or without cooperation, would be “unacceptable” and invite potential retaliation, presumably including military reprisals. For their part, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arab countries expressed their neutrality in the bilateral Israeli-Iranian confrontation and their determination not to take sides in any way.

Via Matthew Martin in bnnbloomberg.ca: The KSA-Sino Logistics Zone will be developed at Saudi Arabia’s new King Salman International Airport, Cliff Chau, managing partner at Riyadh-based EWPartners, said in an interview. It will aim to bring in Chinese firms involved in logistics, light manufacturing and reexports into Saudi Arabia to serve the wider Middle East, Africa and Europe, he said.  The firm is currently in talks with potential investors including both Asian and Middle East sovereign wealth funds to finance around $2 billion for the initial development costs, said Chau, a former executive at China Investment Corp. The full cost of developing the 4 square kilometer zone, which is scheduled to launch by the end of next year, is still being determined, he said.