Saudi Arabia
Why play the Saudi anthem before an all-British boxing match?
For only the second time in my life, I went to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia last weekend. At least,…
Why are these dead-eyed K-pop groups represented as some kind of ideal?
On Saturday, Made in Korea: The K-pop Experience began by hailing K-pop as ‘the multi-billion-pound music that’s taken the world…
How dangerous is the Sunni-Shia schism?
What unites the two groups is more fundamental than what divides them, says Barnaby Rogerson, and the more serious conflict among Muslims concerns ethnicity and language
Why I admire Saudi Arabia’s monstrous new city
Sam Kriss on Saudi Arabia’s $1 trillion eco-city
Opec will regret taking on the US
Production will be cut. Supplies to the rest of the world will be curbed. And inflation will rise just a…
Bush is leading us to tragedy (2002)
It’s 20 years since the clamour for the invasion of Iraq was at its loudest. Boris Johnson, The Spectator’s then…
Is Biden ready to let MBS get away with murder?
Is Biden ready to let MBS get away with murder?
Why Saudi Arabia is trying to take over the world of golf
Golf came to Saudi Arabia in the 1930s. American expats, working in the nascent oil industry, brought their clubs with…
The West has to bite its lip for Saudi oil
It would be ridiculous to claim that Boris Johnson’s visit to Saudi Arabia is not morally problematic. He is going…
Can Boris get the Saudis to pump more oil?
The oil price is up by more than 40 per cent since the start of the year. It is being…
Why would the Saudis bail out Biden?
Is Saudi Arabia shunning Washington? Mohammed bin Salman has reportedly been refusing to phone Joe Biden, who wants the kingdom to…
Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning art scene
Stuart Jeffries on Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning art scene
Why I should never look at Twitter
Foreign trips can offer a sense of perspective. Heading to Saudi Arabia, I prepare for my first stint of diplomacy.…
In Israel, there’s never an easy fix
From an Israeli army base on the border with Lebanon, I can see the village of Maroun al-Ras. An Iranian…
How China won over the Middle East
How China won over the Middle East
The strange tale of NEOM: Saudi Arabia’s struggling desert megacity
Prince Mohammed bin Salman is desperate to shake Saudi Arabia’s addiction to oil. Its price has still not recovered from…
What the Khashoggi murder report means for US-Saudi relations
Today, after pressure from senior US lawmakers and staring at an impending statutory deadline, the Biden administration authorised the release…
What Bahrain’s deal with Israel really means
On September 15, representatives from the oil-rich Kingdom of Bahrain will meet Israeli leaders at the White House to sign…
Pilgrimage in the age of pandemic
Pilgrimage in the age of pandemic
The art of being a mistress
Gstaad The jokes about keeping a mistress are old and I’ve yet to hear a truly funny one (‘The difference…
Oil on troubled waters: the US-Saudi alliance is crumbling
The US-Saudi alliance is crumbling
Oil on troubled waters: the US-Saudi alliance is crumbling
Donald Trump said in October 2018 that the Saudi royal family ‘wouldn’t last two weeks’ without American military support. Last…
Has Trump finally decided to dump Saudi?
In a dramatic move even by his own mercurial standards, Donald Trump has authorised the withdrawal of two Patriot missile…
What is the US Navy doing in the Persian Gulf?
American alliances and security commitments tend to live on long after the world has changed. Many of our far flung…
Saudi may have won an oil truce – but a greater conflict now looms
For the first time in months, the coronavirus panic was briefly demoted as the main news story on Sunday when…
