Saudi Arabia

09 Feb 2023; MEMO: An appeals court in Saudi Arabia has increased the prison sentence of US citizen Saad Al-Madi over a series of political tweets from 16 years to 19 years, his son Ibrahim has revealed.

09 Feb 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has offered to pay for new football stadiums in Greece and Egypt in return for their alliance in jointly bidding to host the 2030 World Cup.

06 Feb 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has attracted more than $9 billion in investments in future technologies, including by US giants Microsoft and Oracle Corp, which are building cloud regions in the Kingdom, a government minister said on Monday, Reuters reports.

05 Feb 2023; MEMO: Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman warned on Saturday Western sanctions against Russia could result in a shortage of energy supplies in future, Reuters reports.

Tehran, IRNA – The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has held a meeting to review possible actions against recent cases of desecration of the holy Quran in Europe.

OIC’s extraordinary meeting was held on Tuesday at the organization’s headquarters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

31 Jan 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched an electronic four-day transit visa on Monday for those arriving in the kingdom by air. The visa will be issued free of charge and will last for up to 96 hours.

The new visa service aims to facilitate visits to the kingdom for all purposes, including stop-overs and those wishing to perform Umrah and visit the Prophet's Mosque in Madinah, or attend tourist events.

31 Jan 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia will invest up to one trillion riyals ($266.40 billion) to generate "cleaner energy", Saudi state TV reported on Monday, citing the Kingdom's Energy Minister, Reuters report.

According to the report, Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, said that the investments aim also to "add transport lines and distribution networks in order to eventually export the energy to the world and produce clean hydrogen".

26 Jan 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia, on Thursday, strongly condemned a raid by Israeli commandos on the Palestinian town of Jenin that killed seven people and injured two, state news agency, SPA, reported.

The Saudi Foreign Ministry said it denounced Israeli forces' "storming of the city" that led to "the fall of a number of victims".

24 Jan 2023; MEMO: The Israeli economic website, Globes, reported that Saudi Arabia plans to make the islands of Tiran and Sanafir a tourist destination, including hotels and casinos, which Israelis can visit.

The site quoted informed sources as saying that Saudi Arabia will allow the Israelis to spend their holidays in Tiran and Sanafir and plans to build a bridge linking the two islands with Egypt.

24 Jan 2023; MEMO: A twenty-billion-dollar takeover bid (£16bn) by Saudi Arabia to buy Formula One was rejected by the sport's current owners, Liberty Media. The American firm had bought F1 in 2017 for less than a quarter of the amount Saudi Arabia was willing to pay, £3.3 billion pounds ($4.1bn). Nevertheless, talks between the wealthy Gulf State and Liberty Media are said to have broken down.