Saudi Arabia

As part of the boycott declared on Qatar some six months ago by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt,[1] these countries drew up three lists of organizations and people who they say have ties to terror and are supported by Qatar. One of the organizations included on the third...

Homosexuality has recently resurfaced as a topic of public debate in Saudi Arabia, following two events: reports about a wedding party for a gay couple in the Mecca region that was raided by local police, and a report in the Saudi daily 'Okaz about American actor Timothée Chalame...

Finding itself in dire straits due to its ongoing crisis with the four countries that are boycotting it – Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt – which is taking its toll in numerous ways, Qatar tried to enlist some outside help. Informed by the old anti-Semitic stereotype tha...

In an article in the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, economist Dr. 'Abdallah Al-Radadi opposed the calls to boycott American products and companies in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital. He wrote that boyco...

On July 11, 2017, the Saudi Education Ministry announced that in the 2017-18 schoolyear, public schools for girls would be introducing physical education programs, in accordance with religious law and where suitable facilities and trained teachers are available.[1] This announcem...

The popular uprising that broke out in Iran on December 27, 2017,[1] and within days spread across the country, has gotten a lot of attention in the Gulf countries – Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, and the UAE – which consider Iran their foremost enemy, and which, they say, is interfering...

In its December 21, 2017 editorial, the Iranian daily Kayhan, the mouthpiece of the Iranian regime, outlines a new strategy for the Houthi war against Saudi Arabia and its allies, based on the principle that missile attacks on Sanaa will be met with Houthi missile attacks on Riya...

On December 16, 2017, an organization apparently affiliated with the Saudi government posted an animated video on YouTube, Twitter, and other social media platforms warning Iran of Saudi retaliation in the event of an Iranian military strike against a Saudi ship (see MEMRI TV Cli...

Following U.S. President Donald Trump's December 6, 2017 announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital, harsh criticism was heard in the Palestinian territories and in Jordan towards Saudi Arabia, which, according to various leaks, is promoting Trump's "deal of the centu...

Saudi researcher Abdelhameed Hakeem, General Manager of the Jeddah-based Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies, said that the Arabs must acknowledge that Jerusalem is "as holy to the Jews as Mecca and Medina are to the Muslims." Speaking on Al-Hurra TV, Hakeem said t...

On December 11, 2017, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Saudi Arabia's former intelligence chief and former ambassador to the U.S. and the U.K., published an open letter to U.S. President Donald Trump in the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, in which he condemned the latter's announcement recognizin...

U.S. President Donald Trump's December 6, 2017 announcement of U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, and of the planned move of the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, has triggered a range of reactions from Palestinians and across the Arab world, from relatively restr...

In an article in the English-language Saudi daily Arab News titled "A Window Has Opened for Middle East Peace — Let’s Grab the Chance," prominent Emirati businessman and writer Khalaf Ahmad Al-Habtoor states that the Arabs and Israel currently have a vested interest in settl...

The concluding announcement of the November 19, 2017 emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo included the description of Hizbullah as a terror organization and the accusation that it "supports terrorism and terror organizations in Arab countries by means of [p...

The concluding announcement issued by the Arab League foreign ministers following their November 19, 2017 emergency meeting in Cairo declared Hizbullah a terrorist organization and accused it of "supporting terrorism and terrorist organizations in the Arab states by [supplying th...

Following the massive November 24, 2017 attack on the Al-Rawdah mosque in Bir Al-'Abed in Sinai, near El-Arish, in which, according to official Egyptian sources, 309 were killed and 128 were wounded,[1] there was a notable exchange of accusations of responsibility. While the Qata...

In response to the deadly terror attack perpetrated on November 24, 2017 against Sufi worshipers in the Al-Rawdah mosque in northern Sinai, in which over 300 people were killed, Saudi writer and journalist Hani Naqshabandi published an article on the Elaph website in which h...

Following Yemeni Houthi forces' November 4, 2017 firing of a ballistic missile at Riyadh, and against the backdrop of regional tensions and the fear of escalation of Saudi-Iranian conflict,[1] 'Abbas Al-Tarabili, historian and former editor of the Egyptian daily Al-Wafd, publishe...

On November 5, 2017, the day after Lebanese prime minister Sa'd Al-Hariri announced, in Riyadh, that he was stepping down, and also the day after the Houthis in Yemen fired a ballistic missile at Riyadh's King Khaled International Airport – both of these events reflecting further...