MOHAMMAD BIN SALMAN BIN ABDULAZIZ AL SAUD

France’s president and Saudi Arabia’s crown prince held a joint phone call with Lebanon’s prime minister during Emmanuel Macron’s visit to the kingdom.

The sister of a man who was sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia is asking seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton to help save her brother’s life.

The fiancee of slain Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi joined a chorus of voices calling on pop star Justin Bieber to cancel his concert in Saudi Arabia next month.

Saudi Arabia's energy minister is rejecting complaints that the oil kingdom is working behind the scenes to undermine global climate talks.

Greg Norman is relevant in the world of golf again and there are rumblings of another world tour.

A televised remark by a game show host-turned Cabinet minister in Lebanon about the war in Yemen has taken Lebanon's crisis with Saudi Arabia to new depths.

Saudi Arabia’s annual investment forum has drawn over a thousand participants, with big-name U.S. financiers and business leaders back on the stage three years after many stayed away following international outcry over the killing of a government critic in a Saudi consulate.

A former senior Saudi security official who helped oversee joint counter-terrorism efforts with the U.S. claims the kingdom’s crown prince once spoke of killing a sitting Saudi monarch before his own father was crowned king.

One of the world’s largest oil producers, Saudi Arabia, has announced it aims to reach “net zero” greenhouse gas emissions by 2060, joining more than 100 countries in a global effort to try and curb man-made climate change.

Newcastle has played its first game since being bought by the Saudi sovereign wealth fund with Tottenham the visitors to the northeast club.

A court in Saudi Arabia has upheld a 20-year prison term imposed on a Saudi aid worker who had criticized the government on Twitter.

Saudi Arabia’s oil company Aramco closed just shy of a $2 trillion valuation the kingdom’s crown prince has long sought.

President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan is traveling to Saudi Arabia.

A declassified FBI document related to logistical support given to two of the Saudi hijackers in the run-up to the Sept. 11 attacks details contacts the men had with Saudi associates in the United States but doesn't provide proof that senior kingdom officials were complicit in the plot.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says the al-Qaida extremist group that used Afghanistan as a staging base to attack United States 20 years ago may attempt to regenerate there following an American withdrawal that has left the Taliban in power.

Salvator Mundi, a painting of Jesus Christ attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, has been enveloped in mystery and intrigue ever since it was first acquired, restored and celebrated as a lost original of the Renaissance master.

Saudi Arabia’s oil-producing crown jewel, Aramco, has announced a net income of around $47 billion for the first half of the year.

A Saudi humanitarian aid worker’s anonymous Twitter account used to write satirically about the economy in Saudi Arabia has landed him in prison in the kingdom.

A Jordanian state security court has sentenced two former officials to 15 years in prison over an alleged plot against the Western-allied monarchy.

A U.S. lawyer says an American citizen and former top aide to Jordan’s King Abdullah II has alleged he was tortured in Jordanian detention and fears for his life.

Top Biden administration officials have hosted a brother to powerful Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman in Washington.

The OPEC oil cartel led by Saudi Arabia and other allied producing countries are resuming talks amid a standoff with the United Arab Emirates over how much to raise production levels.

Press freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders has put Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on its list of “predators.”.

A former top adviser to Jordan's King Abdullah II and a relative of the monarch have pleaded not guilty to sedition and incitement charges.

Jordan's version of a trial of the century is getting under way.

Turkey's Foreign Ministry says its top diplomat is traveling to Saudi Arabia as Turkey seeks to repair ties that hit an all-time low over the 2018 killing in Istanbul of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

Prominent Saudi women’s rights activist Loujain al-Hathloul was summoned by security officials and informed of a supreme court decision that ultimately upholds her initial conviction.

Top Biden administration officials and U.S. senators have crisscrossed the Middle East, seeking to assuage growing unease among key Gulf Arab partners over America’s rapprochement with Iran and other policy shifts.

President Joe Biden is rounding out his first 100 days in office, and focusing on reining in the coronavirus seems to have paid off.

President Joe Biden is preparing to formally acknowledge that the systematic killing and deportation of hundreds of thousands of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in modern-day Turkey more than a century ago was genocide.

Jordanian authorities say they have foiled a “malicious plot” by a former crown prince to destabilize the kingdom with foreign support.

FILE - In this Dec. 11, 2019, file photo, Saudi Arabia's state-owned oil company Aramco and stock market officials celebrate the debut of Aramco's initial public offering on the Riyadh Stock Market, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Aramco paid the Saudi government 30% less in taxes in 2020, the company reported Monday, March 22, 2021, as the regions largest economy grapples with the pressures of the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)DUBAI – Saudi Arabia’s state-backed oil giant Aramco paid the Saudi government 30% less in taxes in 2020, the company said in a financial report Monday, as the region’s largest economy reels from the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and low oil prices. Even as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s aggressively pushes to diversify the economy away from oil, Saudi Arabia relies on the energy sector for 80% of its exports and two-thirds of its financial revenues. The budget deficit has widened each year since oil prices dropped in 2014, prompting the government to borrow heavily and accelerate its shift away from oil largess.

In this Sept. 20, 2019, file photo, engineers walk in front of an oil separator at a Saudi Aramco processing facility in Abqaiq, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia's state-backed oil giant Aramco announced Sunday, March 21, 2021, that its 2020 profits fell sharply in 2020 to $49 billion, a big drop that came as the coronavirus pandemic roiled global energy markets. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)DUBAI – Saudi Arabia’s state-backed oil giant Aramco announced Sunday that its profits nearly halved in 2020 to $49 billion, a big drop that came as the coronavirus pandemic roiled global energy markets. Saudi Aramco profit of $49 billion in 2020 is down from $88.2 billion in 2019 and $111.1 billion in 2018. Last year, Saudi Arabia needed an oil price of more than $76 a barrel to balance its budget.

As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden promised to make a pariah out of Saudi Arabia over the 2018 murder of dissident Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi. But when it came time to actually penalize Saudi Arabias crown prince, Americas strategic interests prevailed. Biden, in an ABC News interview that aired Wednesday, discussed his administration's decision to exempt Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from any penalties for the Oct. 2, 2018, killing of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi. U.S. intelligence, in a report released Feb. 26, concluded that the crown prince authorized the team of Saudi security and intelligence officials that killed Khashoggi. Rights groups and some journalists organizations criticized the decision not to punish the crown prince, saying it signaled impunity for the royal and other authoritarian leaders in the future.

FILE - In this Sunday, Nov. 22, 2020, file photo, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman attends a virtual G-20 summit held over video conferencing, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia's royal court says Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman underwent a successful surgery for appendicitis on Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021, and left the hospital soon after the operation. The 35-year-old Prince Mohammed had laparoscopic surgery at the King Faisal Specialist Hospital in the Saudi capital of Riyadh in the morning. But the public rebuke of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is still a touchstone in U.S-Saudi relations. Saudi officials have said Khashoggi’s killing was the work of rogue Saudi security and intelligence officials.

President Joe Biden is expected to speak to Saudi King Salman for the first time in Bidens just over a month-old administration. The language came in contrast to Biden's pledge as a candidate to make Saudi Arabia “a pariah” over the killing. The Saudi Arabia Embassy spokesman in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday. U.S. intelligence findings are coming out more than two years after Khashoggi walked hand-in-hand with his fiancee to the Saudi consulate in Turkey. Once in office, Biden said he would maintain whatever scale of relations with Saudi Arabia that U.S. interests required.

Victims of a 2019 shooting at a Florida military base and their families are suing Saudi Arabia, claiming the kingdom knew the gunmen had been radicalized and could have prevented the killings. The suit, filed Monday, also claims that Saudi trainees knew in advance about the plans for the shooting but did nothing to stop it. The suit, filed Monday, also claims that Saudi trainees knew in advance about plans for the shooting but did nothing to stop it. It alleges, for instance, that Saudi Arabia knew about Alshamrani's associations with al-Qaida and his radicalization and yet failed to monitor, supervise or report him. AdThe complaint seeks monetary damages against Saudi Arabia under an exemption of the law that allows for lawsuits against foreign countries arising from acts of terrorism.

(AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili)ABU DHABI – In spite of the surging coronavirus pandemic, major arms makers descended Sunday on a convention center in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates, hoping to make deals with militaries across the Middle East. The UAE unveiled $1.36 billion in local and foreign arms deals to supply its forces with everything from South African drones to Serbian artillery. Significant national pavilions were absent, including the United States, the world’s largest arms exporter. Ad“The threats are obvious lately,” said Walid Abukhaled, CEO of Saudi Arabian Military Industries Company, a holding company owned by the country’s sovereign wealth fund. “If Iran goes into a major rearmament program or starts to flex its muscles, that’s where missile defense and air defense systems come in,” he said.

FILE - This Nov. 30, 2014 image made from video released by Loujain al-Hathloul, shows her driving towards the United Arab Emirates - Saudi Arabia border before her arrest on Dec. 1, 2014, in Saudi Arabia. The family of the leading Saudi womens rights activist says she has been released from prison after nearly three years behind bars. (AP Photo/Loujain al-Hathloul, File)DUBAI – One of Saudi Arabia’s most prominent political activists was released from prison Wednesday, her family said, after serving nearly three years on charges that sparked an international uproar over the kingdom’s human rights record. “I have some welcome news that the Saudi government has released a prominent human rights activist," Biden said in a speech at the Pentagon. The 31-year-old Saudi activist rocketed to prominence in Saudi Arabia for her criticism of the kingdom's guardianship system, which bars women from travel without a male relative, and her outspokenness on human rights issues.

FILE - In this March 22, 2018, file photo, an honor guard member is covered by the flag of Saudi Arabia, in Washington. Three young Saudi men who faced death sentences for acts they were accused of committing as minors have been handed a 10-year prison sentence instead, the Saudi Human Rights Commission said. The move comes nearly a year after Saudi Arabia ordered an end to the death penalty for crimes committed by minors. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)DUBAI – Three young Saudi men who faced death sentences for acts they were accused of committing as minors have been handed a 10-year prison sentence instead, the Saudi Human Rights Commission said. “But other young people like Ali are still facing the death penalty for childhood ‘crimes’ in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates and other countries, entered the war alongside Yemen’s internationally recognized government in March 2015. AdIran, seeing the opportunity to aid a war of attrition against rival Saudi Arabia, has backed the Houthis. AdMeanwhile, the U.S. sold bombs and fighter jets to Saudi Arabia that the kingdom later used in strikes on Yemen that also killed civilians. America also has deployed U.S. troops to Saudi Arabia after it came under a drone-and-missile attack in 2019 that temporarily halved its oil output. Biden's announcement appeared designed to put new pressure on Saudi Arabia to end its coalition campaign there.

(AP Photo/Hani Mohammed)As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden laid out a tougher line on Saudi Arabia than any U.S. president in decades. He said he would make the kingdom “pay the price” for human rights abuses and “make them in fact the pariah that they are.”But if Biden is making Saudi Arabia a pariah now, it's a pariah with benefits. U.S. leaders also see Saudi Arabia as a regional counterweight to Iran. The administration already had said it was pausing the Trump administration's sale of precision-guided munitions to Saudi Arabia. AdInternational criticism of Saudi Arabia has mounted since 2015, under King Salman and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Infantino overlooked FIFA's own significant issues with Saudi Arabia in the meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. That has not happened with beIN, which owns the rights to World Cup matches across the Middle East, outlawed in Saudi Arabia. FIFA did not say if Infantino challenged Prince Mohammed on human rights issues in Saudi, given the governing body's own code. Scrutiny over Infantino's links to Saudi Arabia in 2018 led to FIFA offering assurances that no nation would be allowed to fund its plans for new competitions. The takeover collapsed amid concerns about piracy and human rights complaints.

(Photo by Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP, File)NEW YORK – Even before “The Dissident” made its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival, director Bryan Fogel had a sense that his explosive Jamal Khashoggi documentary was going to be a tough sell. The film, available on-demand this week, was one of the most anticipated of last January's Sundance. The audience at Sundance included Hillary Clinton, Alec Baldwin and Reed Hastings, the Netflix chief executive. Mohammed denied Saudi Arabia was behind the murder, then eventually granted it was carried out by agents of the Saudi government. “Ultimately, those risk assessments took the place of whether or not their couple hundred million subscribers would like to see this film,” Fogel says.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan told reporters after the summit that diplomatic relations would be restored in full with Qatar, although no time frame was given. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are primarily concerned about Qatar’s ties with Iran. The rift between Abu Dhabi and Doha has been deepest, with the UAE and Qatar at sharp ideological odds. Egypt’s foreign minister also attended the meeting of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. Qatar's only land border with Saudi Arabia, which it relied on for the import of dairy products, construction materials and other goods, has been mostly closed since June 2017.

The Saudi border, which Qatar relied on for the import of dairy products, construction materials and other goods, opened briefly during the past three years to allow Qataris into Saudi Arabia to perform the Islamic hajj pilgrimage. The rift between Abu Dhabi and Doha has been deepest, with the UAE and Qatar at sharp ideological odds. This year, Egypt’s president has also been invited to attend the summit of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, which comprises Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar. “Saudi Arabia could frame a partial détente, which allows Qatari civilian planes to fly over Saudi airspace and de-escalates the information war, as proof of ‘new thinking’ in Riyadh,” Ramani said ahead of the announcement. Saudi Arabia and Bahrain are primarily concerned with Qatar's close ties with regional foe Iran.

FILE - In this June 8, 2017 file photo, Al-Jazeera staff work at their TV station in Doha, Qatar. Citizen Lab, which has been tracking NSO spyware for four years, tied the attacks “with medium confidence” to the Emirati and Saudi governments, based on their past targeting of dissidents at home and abroad with the same spyware. Prior to Sunday’s report, NSO’s spyware has repeatedly been found deployed to hack journalists, lawyers, human rights defenders and dissidents. “It’s not only very scary, but it’s the holy grail of phone hacking,” said Bill Marczak, a senior researcher at Citizen Lab. The Citizen Lab researchers connected the hacks to previously identified Pegasus operators in attacks attributed to Saudi Arabia and the UAE over the last four years.

DUBAI – A prominent Saudi prince harshly criticized Israel on Sunday at a Bahrain security summit that was remotely attended by Israel's foreign minister, showing the challenges any further deals between Arab states and Israel face in the absence of an independent Palestinian state. Israel has “incarcerated (Palestinians) in concentration camps under the flimsiest of security accusations — young and old, women and men, who are rotting there without recourse to justice," Prince Turki said. Prince Turki led Saudi intelligence for more than 20 years and served as ambassador to the U.S. and United Kingdom. Bahraini Foreign Minister Abdullatif al-Zayani, also on stage for the tense exchanges, sought to smooth over the differences in his remarks. Still, he too stressed the importance of a resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict based on a two-state solution as envisaged by the Arab Peace Initiative.

JERUSALEM – Israeli media reported Monday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Saudi Arabia for a clandestine meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, which would mark the first known encounter between senior Israeli and Saudi officials. The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, denied on Twitter that the meeting took place. While Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates have reached deals under the Trump administration to normalize ties with Israel, Saudi Arabia so far has remained out of reach. The reported meeting puts even more pressure on Iran ahead of an incoming Biden administration that has signaled a potential willingness to return to the 2015 nuclear deal. But Saudi Arabia appears to have given its blessing to the decisions of its Gulf neighbors, the UAE and Bahrain, to establish ties with Israel.

DUBAI – Yemen's Houthi rebels said they struck a Saudi oil facility in the port city of Jiddah early Monday with a new cruise missile, just hours after the kingdom finished hosting its virtual Group of 20 leaders summit. Videos of a small explosion at a Saudi Arabian Oil Co. facility in Jiddah had circulated on social media all day and a satellite photo confirmed damage at the site. Gen. Yehia Sarie, a Houthi military spokesman, tweeted early Monday that the rebels fired a new Quds-2 cruise missile at the facility. He posted a satellite image online that matched Aramco's North Jiddah Bulk Plant, where oil products are stored in tanks. Its stock traded slightly up Monday on Riyadh's Tadawul stock exchange as crude oil prices remained steady above $40 a barrel.