Saudi Arabia

19 Mar 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has announced it will grant citizenship to certain to selected foreign nationals, following the passing of a law, allowing Prime Minister and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to do so, upon the proposal from the Minister of Interior earlier this year.

20 Mar 2023; MEMO: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has received an official invitation froml Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz to visit Riyadh, a senior Iranian official said.

Mohammad Jamshidi, deputy chief of staff for political affairs, said the Saudi king had welcomed the recent deal between the two "brotherly countries" on the normalisation of bilateral ties and called for strong economic and regional cooperation between Riyadh and Tehran.

RIYADH, Mar 17 (NNN-SPA) – Saudi Arabia’s finance minister, announced that, the kingdom’s banking assets have reached 3.6 trillion Saudi Riyals (about 959 billion U.S. dollars) by the end of 2022.

Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan said that, since 2019, the banking assets have increased by 37 percent.

The minister added that, the number of financial technology companies in the country has risen from 20 in 2019, to 147 in 2022.

17 Mar 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia and Russia yesterday confirmed their commitment to the OPEC+ decision to reduce oil production by two million barrels per day until the end of 2023, Anadolu reported.

This came during a meeting held in Riyadh between the Saudi Minister of Energy, Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman, and the Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Alexander Novak, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

15 Mar 2023; MEMO: Neither the US or Europe could have been an "honest broker" between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, Riyadh's former intelligence chief Turki Al-Faisal said yesterday. Speaking in an interview with AFP, the 78-year-old explained why China managed to successfully mediate one of the most bitter rivalries in the region given that the West has failed for so long.

15 Mar 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's Finance Minister, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, said on Wednesday that Saudi investments into Iran could happen "very quickly" following an agreement to restore diplomatic ties, Reuters reports.

"There are a lot of opportunities for Saudi investments in Iran. We don't see impediments as long as the terms of any agreement would be respected," Al-Jadaan said during the Financial Sector Conference in Riyadh.

15 Mar 2023; MEMO: Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz Bin Salman yesterday said that there is a possibility of imposing a price cap on Saudi oil exports and "we will not sell oil to any country that imposes a cap on our supplies."

Prince Abdulaziz made his remarks in an interview published by Energy Intelligence, which was reported by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) in response to a question about reintroducing the NOPEC bill.

13 Mar 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has rejected visa applications for members of an Israeli delegation invited to attend the UN World Tourism Organisation conference in Al-Ula, Bloomberg has reported. Israeli settlers from Kafr Kanna in Galilee were due to join representatives from 22 other countries at the conference but didn't get appropriate visas despite an appeal from the UN for equal treatment between member states and the billions spent by the Kingdom to develop a major t

13 Mar 2023; MEMO: Oil giant, Saudi Aramco, said earning reached $161 billion last year, claiming the highest-ever recorded annual profit by a publicly listed company and drawing immediate criticism from activists, AP reports.

The profit by the firm came off the back of energy prices rising after Russia launched its war on Ukraine in February 2022, with sanctions limiting the sale of Moscow's oil and natural gas in Western markets.

12 Mar 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia is reportedly seeking a number of conditions to be met by the United States in return for its normalisation of relations with Israel, a report has claimed.

According to the New York Times, Saudi Arabia has said that it could potentially normalise ties with Israel if the US provides it security guarantees, assistance in its civilian nuclear program, and the lifting of restrictions on arms sales to the kingdom.