Saudi Arabia Archives

A missile launched by Yemen's Ansar Allah (Huthi) movement hit a building owned by Saudi Arabia's state oil company Aramco in the eastern city of Dhahran on Tuesday

The Gulf and the US: shifting sands

Summary: as a consensus emerges that US hegemony in the Gulf is over and Washington continues to cast around for an acceptable exit strategy from the war with Iran, it is none too soon to consider how best the US could safeguard its national interests there into the longer term.

October 15, 2026

Saudi Arabia's energy minister has vowed a "serious" response to the deadly attacks on the kingdom's airports and oil and gas facilities by Yemen's Huthi movement.

Saudi Arabia and the Yemen dilemma

Summary: the Huthi offensive has heightened the challenge Saudi Arabia faces in its efforts to extricate the kingdom from the Yemen quagmire.

October 13, 2026

The words "The Qatari Embassy in Israel" projected onto Likud headquarters in Tel Aviv—a visual protest against Netanyahu's long-standing, state-sanctioned backchannel dealings with Doha.

Qatargate and Washington

Summary: much has been made of Qatar’s relationship with both Hamas and the Netanyahu government as a sinister plot; a Washington insider says the reality is far more mundane.

October 12, 2026

The Sudanese government has offered Russia a naval base in Port Sudan, an unprecedented perch overlooking critical Red Sea trade routes and Russia’s first naval base in Africa.

The Red Sea’s emerging two-shore axis

Summary: a recent study reveals that Yemen’s Huthis are expanding their networks along the African coast; their recent seizure of the Red Sea coastline has heightened concerns that security in the crucial waterway is now highly compromised.

October 8, 2026

Iran-backed militias, funded by the Iraqi state, celebrate National Day in the streets of Baghdad, Saturday 3rd October.

Iraq’s militia deadline is losing its leverage

Summary: Baghdad has backed down from its efforts to disarm Popular Mobilisation Forces pushing the deadline back to 2027 thus sending a clear signal that for now at least it has neither the political clout or the hard power to bring the militias under its control.

October 6, 2026

Riyadh's "Suez moment" arrives as Washington scales back its commitments, leaving the Gulf states to face regional rivals without an American shield.

Saudi Arabia’s ‘Suez Moment’

Summary: recent events have forced a recognition that the US hegemony in the Middle East is over. How the inevitable vacuum will be filled remains far from clear. But it is hard to be optimistic in the short to medium-term even though there is surely an opportunity for “a new beginning.”

October 1, 2026

Yemeni civilians in a Djibouti camp after crossing one of the world's most contested waterways, leaving behind looted property and livelihoods amidst collapsing international support.

Yemen’s people bear the brunt of the Huthi war

Summary: the Huthi offensive caught the IRG forces and the Saudis off guard and with rapid advances and the seizure of new territory it is the Yemeni people who yet again pay the price.

September 28, 2026

ehran’s maritime legal strategy takes a rather direct form on the shoreline, where signboards outline precisely who—and what—is barred from the coastal zone.

Navigating the Strait of Hormuz toll, US sanctions and maritime law

Summary: the Strait of Hormuz is still not open for traffic, with the US targeting Iranian oil tankers and imposing more sanctions as the standoff continues, while differing views on maritime rights are further muddying the waters.

September 22, 2026

Saudi Arabia’s military defeat in Yemen has global consequences

Summary: a failed Saudi-backed ground offensive enabled Huthi forces to capture critical Red Sea territory, seize Western weaponry and severely disrupt global energy markets.

September 21, 2026

Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune confronts UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan at the 2024 G7 Summit in Bari. Tebboune's gesture came months after he publicly accused Abu Dhabi of funding regional conflicts, a rift that has now culminated in Algeria severing diplomatic ties.

Algeria-UAE rupture shows a region rearranging its alliances

Summary: Algeria’s severing of diplomatic relations with the UAE is a statement that the North African country has lost patience with what it sees as Abu Dhabi’s meddling in its neighbourhood.

September 18, 2026

A photo from the 2023 Beijing summit that captured the beginning of the end for Washington's exclusive grip on Gulf security arrangements.

Dateline 10 September 2028

Summary: our contributor leaps ahead two years to 10 September 2028 - just ahead of the US presidential election - to project the trend line of current events in the Gulf and the US onto a future history of the region and the world.

September 10, 2026

The people of Bahrain - majority Shia, ruled by a Sunni dictatorship propped up by Washington - are in the streets marching for Khamenei

Religious restrictions in Bahrain reveal sectarian tensions, regional power struggles

Summary: with the Iran war continuing, Bahrain’s majority Shi’a population finds itself under siege, facing further repression and religious restrictions from a regime that sees it as a security threat.

September 8, 2026

Saudi Arabia

Access provided by the Bodleian Libraries of the University of Oxford