Saudi Arabia

7 Mar 2023; MEMO: In further signs of improving ties between Saudi Arabia and Turkiye, Riyadh announced yesterday that it has deposited $5 billion into the Turkish central bank. The deposit is likely to be used to help Turkiye strengthen its currency, the lira, after last month's massive earthquakes.

6 Mar 2023; MEMO: More than two million people have participated in a popular donation campaign in Saudi Arabia that has collected over 474 million riyals ($126.4 million) for the victims of the last month's devastating earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria, Anadolu News Agency reports.

RIYADH, Mar 5 (NNN-SPA) – Haramain High-Speed Railway will now provide over 100 daily trips to transport pilgrims between Makkah and Madinah, during the holy month of Ramadan, local media reported.

The decision to increase the number of train services comes, in the wake of the increase in the number of pilgrims and visitors to the Kingdom during the month of Ramadan.

2 Mar 2023; MEMO: Saudi Defence Minister Prince Khalid Bin Salman and his British counterpart, Ben Wallace, yesterday signed a "declaration of intent regarding the participation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the Future Air Capabilities Program (FCAS)."

This was after a meeting between the two officials, during a visit that Wallace started to Riyadh, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.

27 Feb 2023; MEMO: Israel's national air carrier El Al yesterday began operating a new time-saving route via the airspace of Oman and Saudi Arabia, it said.

El Al Flight 083 departed from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport yesterday evening bound for Thailand's capital Bangkok, according to Xinhua, marking the first Israeli commercial flight using the new corridor.

The new route, the Israeli company said, would shorten flights to some Asian destinations by about two hours.

27 Feb 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide Ukraine with $400 million in aid, surprising many with its assistance to the embattled country a year into Russia's invasion and the Kingdom's neutral stance throughout.

27 Feb 2023; MEMO: The Executive Committee of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will hold an extraordinary, open-ended meeting today regarding "the escalation of the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people," the OIC said in a statement on its website.

Recent Israeli raids on the Palestinian city of Nablus in the northern West Bank left 11 Palestinians dead and and over 100 injured.

23 Feb 2023; MEMO: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) strongly condemned the Israeli "massacre" committed in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus and which resulted in 11 deaths and 102 injuries among Palestinians.

"This heinous crime constitutes an extension of the record of Israeli crimes and organised state terrorism practiced against the Palestinian people," the OIC said in a statement.

19 Feb 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia said Saturday that its good relations with Russia would benefit all, Anadolu reports.

Speaking at a panel of the Munich Security Conference 2023 on the geostrategic role of Middle Eastern countries, Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan reiterated that his country maintains a dialogue with Kyiv and Moscow and sees a willingness in the two warring parties.

But issues between Ukraine and Russia are complex, he said.

19 Feb 2023; MEMO: Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said consensus was building in the Arab world that isolating Syria was not working and that dialogue with Damascus was needed "at some point" to at least address humanitarian issues, including a return of refugees, Reuters reports.