Saudi Arabia

21 Mar 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's investment in Credit Suisse is almost wiped out and is expected to lose $1.5 billion, the Wall Street Journal has reported. Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman directed the government-backed Saudi national bank to make the investment last year following an increase in the price of oil. He reportedly made the investment against the opinion of his advisers.

RIYADH, March 21 (Reuters) - Saudi authorities released on Tuesday a U.S. citizen jailed for 19 years for posting criticism of the government on Twitter but he remains banned from travelling, his son said, as the kingdom moves to ease tension with the United States.

Saad Ibrahim Almadi, 72, was jailed for 16 years by a criminal court in 2022 and an appeals court increased his sentence to 19 years last month.

His son, Ibrahim, told Reuters his father was at his home in Riyadh with his family.

21 Mar 2023; MEMO: The Saudi Arabian authorities have freed a prisoner with dual Saudi-US citizenship after widespread pressure for his release, Associated Press has reported. Saad Almadi, 72, has lived in Florida for years, and was visiting his homeland when he was arrested a year ago.

20 Mar 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia plans to reopen its consulate in the Syrian capital, Damascus, nearly 12 years after it was closed due to the outbreak of the civil war, Russia's Sputnik news agency reported.

The agency quoted sources as saying that the kingdom may reopen the consulate in Damascus after the Eid Al-Fitr holiday, which follows the holy month of Ramadan.

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.