Tag: Saudi Arabia

‘Our phones are ringing off the hook’: Amid a global downturn, the finance world is chasing Middle Eastern money

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A man dressed in a thawb walks past Dassault Falcon executive jets, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Leonid Faerberg | Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images

The organizers of the Investopia x Salt conference in Abu Dhabi — the brainchild of American financier and one-time White House press secretary Anthony Scaramucci and Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum — expected to see 1,000 guests over its two-day event in early March. Instead, it got 2,500. 

“We’re a little overwhelmed, but it’s a great sign,” one of the organizers told CNBC. Some others were annoyed. “It’s too many people. Everyone is coming to the Gulf now begging for money. It’s embarrassing,” one Dubai-based fund manager said. Both sources declined to be named due to professional restrictions. 

That oil-rich Gulf states have a lot of money to spend isn’t new. The region’s 10 largest sovereign wealth funds combined manage nearly $4 trillion, according to the Sovereign Wealth Fund Institute. That’s more than the gross domestic product of France or the U.K. — and it doesn’t include private money.

But the influx of foreign institutional investors — and visible interest from venture capitalists and startup founders in advanced sectors like fintech, digital transformation and renewable energy technology — shows a level of sophistication that’s being noticed now more than ever, industry players say.

“Investment used to only flow from the Gulf outward. Now it’s going both ways; institutional investors are coming and investing here,” Marc Nassim, partner and managing director at Dubai-based investment bank Awad Capital, told CNBC.    

The regional investors, especially the sovereign funds but also the families, are now much more sophisticated than before.

Marc Nassim

Partner & Managing director, Awad Capital

“The Middle East feels more stable than Europe does right now,” Stephen Heller, founding partner at Germany-based AlphaQ Venture Capital, told CNBC. “Europe’s security issues, economic inequality are getting worse … meanwhile, the Gulf has its s— together.” Heller’s fund of funds, which invests in megatrends like climate technology, infrastructure, health and fintech, recently opened its first Middle Eastern office in Abu Dhabi.

“There’s an entrepreneurial energy in the UAE and Saudi Arabia today,” Heller said. “I see the potential because you have technically infinite capital, and if you have entrepreneurs coming here, you can have huge outcomes.”

Follow the capital

As oil prices made a roaring comeback in the last two years, the Gulf’s public wealth funds went on a spending spree. The top five regional funds in terms of spending in the last year — Abu Dhabi’s ADIA, ADQ and Mubadala, Saudi Arabia’s PIF and Qatar’s QIA — deployed a combined total of more than $73 billion in 2022 alone, according to sovereign wealth fund tracker Global SWF. 

Abu Dhabi city skyline, United Arab Emirates.

kasto80 | iStock | Getty Images

Meanwhile, the value of sovereign wealth funds’ assets globally dropped from $11.5 trillion to $10.6 trillion between 2021 and 2022, Global SWF reported, and those held by public pension funds also dropped amid a dramatic downturn in stock and bond markets.

“Five out of the ten most active investors hail from the Middle East,” and ADIA is currently the “world’s largest allocator to hedge funds,” Global SWF’s 2023 report wrote. It added that GCC sovereign wealth funds “played an important role in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic and now again in 2022 during times of financial distress.” 

So it’s an understatement to say that foreign demand is high. “A lot of places in the world are low on capital – Western institutional funds are kind of hamstrung. And this region has a lot of capital. Our phones are ringing off the hook,” one manager from a UAE investment fund said, declining to be named due to professional restrictions. 

No longer ‘dumb money’

But while many overseas companies have long seen the Gulf as a source of “dumb money,” some local investment managers said – referring to the stereotype of oil-rich sheikhdoms throwing cash at whoever wants it – investment from the region has become much more sophisticated, employing deeper due diligence and being more selective than in past years.

“The regional investors, especially the sovereign funds but also the families, are now much more sophisticated than before,” Awad Capital’s Nassim said. “They are much more diligent than before in terms of who they write the check to.” 

“Before it was much easier to come and say, ‘I’m a fund manager from San Francisco, please give me a couple million’. Now, not only are they more sophisticated but there are far more funds from all over the world – the U.S., Latin America, from Europe, Southeast Asia – coming here to raise capital. I think that a very small minority of them will be able to take money from the region – they are much more selective than before.”

A screen broadcasts Khaldoon Al Mubarak, chief executive officer of Mubadala Investment Co., during a session at the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022.

Tasneem Alsultan | Bloomberg | Getty Images

In the UAE in particular, liberalizing reforms, a much-praised handling of the Covid-19 pandemic and a willingness to do business with anyone — including countries like Israel and Russia – have enhanced its image to foreign investors. In Saudi Arabia, financiers are attracted to historic reforms and a massive growth market of nearly 40 million people, some 70% of whom are below the age of 34. 

The money from the GCC funds still overwhelmingly goes to developed markets, in particular the U.S. and Europe. Priority sectors include energy, renewables, climate technology, biotech, agri-tech and digital transformation, fund managers say. 

Like any commodity-related economic boom, however, fortunes are subject to change – it was not so long ago that the pandemic pushed oil prices to multi-decade lows, forcing Gulf governments to reign in spending and introduce new taxes. Saudi Arabia and the UAE in particular are investing heavily in diversification, with a view to the long term. 

“The music would stop if [the price of] oil goes down in a way that some SWFs are forced to use their reserves to help governments shore up their fiscal positions – very unlikely – or geopolitical risk” such as war or uprisings, Nassim said.

“If oil goes down, the surplus generated and which is usually allocated to the SWFs would obviously reduce, and that would force them to reduce their investments and limit them to assets that generate higher returns,” he added, though noted that not all SWFs have the same mandate when it comes to investment strategy.

For those companies seeking investment from the deep pockets of the Middle East, they are wise to do so while the music is playing.

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Who are the ‘dalalas’? The middlemen preying on trapped domestic staff in Saudi Arabia

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Many foreign domestic workers in Saudi Arabia are forced to work in terrible conditions, often with abusive employers. However, they are trapped because of a system that ties their working rights in the country to the employer. Enter the dalalas, middlemen who prowl Facebook, offering desperate women help to flee their employers for better jobs and improved working conditions. These shadowy figures promise to help, but in reality, they are preying on the most vulnerable.

A video posted on YouTube in late 2022 shows about a dozen veiled women standing in a room together. The women are asking for help, most of them speaking Swahili. One of the women in the video says that they are domestic workers who are trapped in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia after fleeing their employers. 

Victimes des dalalas à Jeddah. © Observers

Some of us are very sick and can’t help themselves, we have some who have gone mad but we dont get any help. In case one of us is sick there is no help […] Some of us have been for six months without work, we have waited and we are tired.

In the time since the video appeared online, these women have been able to leave Saudi Arabia. But who are they? In Kenya, women like them are known as “kembois,” domestic workers who have left their legal employers in the Gulf States and are now undocumented. 

The nickname comes from Kenyan runner Ezekiel Kemboi, winner of the 3000-metre steeplechase at four World Championships and two Olympics.

Kemboi can also be used as a verb, meaning to flee one’s employer. 

Many of the African women who travel to the Gulf States to work as domestic workers find themselves caught in terrible working conditions. One of the reasons for that is the problematic “kafala” system, whereby foreign workers must be sponsored by a local employer, meaning that their legal status in the country is tied to that person. In many cases, the employer will take the workers’ passports, exerting total control over their lives.

Saudi Arabia did institute some reforms to the system in March 2021, but according to the NGO Migrants Rights, which defends the rights of workers in the Gulf States, most of the most vulnerable, including domestic workers, are still trapped in the situation. 

And so, if you have an abusive employer, you have two options. Stay and finish your legal contract. Or flee and become a “kemboi”, which can often be just as dangerous.

‘If you run away, you leave without papers’

Debra Nyanchoka was a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia for two years between February 2020 and March 2022. Since returning to Kenya, she has been trying to spread the word about the people who prey on women who have left their employers. 

Dans cette vidéo, Debra Nyanchoka, une kenyane et ancienne domestique en Arabie Saoudite pendant 2 ans, met en garde les domestiques qui songeraient à s’enfuir de chez leur employeur
Dans cette vidéo, Debra Nyanchoka, une kenyane et ancienne domestique en Arabie Saoudite pendant 2 ans, met en garde les domestiques qui songeraient à s’enfuir de chez leur employeur © Debra Nyanchoka

In this video, Debra Nyanchoka, a Kenyan woman who was a domestic worker in Saudi Arabia for two years, warns women who are thinking about running away from their employer about the people who may try to prey on them.

She spoke to our team about the risks that the women who flee face: 

Your passport is confiscated by your boss and all official documents. They keep them for you until you finish your contract. So if you run away, you leave without papers and cannot access any medical facility. But the end result become that you lose basic protection from the government of whichever country that you are in, because now, you are on the loose.

‘You become a hot commodity to a broker when you run away’

The women who flee their employers often hope they’ll find better working conditions somewhere else in Saudi Arabia. But the reality is often different. The domestic workers who flee often end up working for abusive middlemen, nicknamed “dalalas” in Swahili. These shadowy figures exploit migrants in vulnerable situations. 

In another video posted on her YouTube channel, Debra Nyanchoka talks about these middlemen and their motivations. 

Debra Nyanchoka détaille les différences entre “kembois” et “dalalas”
Debra Nyanchoka détaille les différences entre “kembois” et “dalalas” © Debra Nyanchoka

Dalala is somebody who was once a house maid. When you cry online about your situation at your employers’ house, a dalala might see your message and they will contact you. They say they will save you, and you become a hot commodity to a broker when you run away. So they will help you run away first. They send you a taxi to pick you up from your workplace and bring you to your next location. At that moment, you become business to those dalalas. They will then connect you to get jobs paid under the table. And they will receive a payment for offering your services to bosses who cannot afford to labour from outside of the country. […] without kembois, the dalalas are nothing. So when someone encourages you to run away, ask yourself: why is this person is trying to make me run away fom my workplace?”

In fact, there are tons of Facebook posts by dalalas offering their services, just waiting for someone naive and desperate enough to ask for their help. 

Promising security and better working conditions, the dalalas offer, in exchange for cash, to pick up a domestic worker who wants to leave her employer and bring her to a safe place, as shown in these Facebook posts.

“Hosting ladies in Riyadh at affordable price [sic],” says this post. The second part, in Swahili, reads: “Those who want to “kemboi”, send a private message to find out more 🤗”
“Hosting ladies in Riyadh at affordable price [sic],” says this post. The second part, in Swahili, reads: “Those who want to “kemboi”, send a private message to find out more 🤗” © Facebook

This post is offering “help” to vulnerable domestic workers who want to leave their employers in different towns in Saudi Arabia. Note that the post asks to be paid in cash.
This post is offering “help” to vulnerable domestic workers who want to leave their employers in different towns in Saudi Arabia. Note that the post asks to be paid in cash. © Facebook

This is another post offering women help leaving their employer.
This is another post offering women help leaving their employer. © Facebook

In a comment under this post, someone talks about the terrible experience they are having after fleeing their employer:

I can’t advise someone’s child to kemboi. Saudi has changed alot, these women especially in Riyadh are beasts, you can work a whole month and madam can choose not to pay you, afterall you can’t report her. Another thing Africans are being deported in large number […]. There’s no security here […] someone who hosts you can choose to throw you anytime if you delay paying rent, lastly Kenyans out here are so wicked[…]. A times I real want to go back to my employer but I know they can slaughter me [sic].

A former domestic worker tricked, exploited and sexually abused

Our team spoke to a Kenyan woman who we are calling Mary who went to Saudi Arabia to work as domestic worker. She told us that life was very difficult with her legal employer: “Life was not easy. I could go hungry in my employer’s house. More work, less food, less sleep.” 

Mary decided to post about her bad experiences in a Facebook group. A woman who saw her post said she could help, promising Mary a better life with less work and more freedom. 

The woman said she would help Mary for 3,500 Saudi riyals (equivalent to 885 euros). Mary decided to take the woman up on her offer and gave the woman her address: “I shared my location with her and she sent a driver who picked me when I went to throw litter by the road”. 

After picking Mary up, the driver dropped her at the home of this woman, who turned out to be a dalala. 

Mary didn’t have the money to pay the woman back for the escape. So the dalala told her “to accept any job available to get some money and pay for transportation and driver. I accepted, she told me to get ready for anything. Then she came with two men. They just used me as a sex toy. That is how they recovered the money they were demanding from me.”

Mary didn’t want to tell us how she was able to escape and return to Kenya. 

‘Domestic workers who want to change employers due to abuse, non-payment, or whatever reason, often have no one else to turn to’

The NGO Migrants Rights says that dalalas are often from the same country as the domestic workers they prey on. Sometimes they are former domestic workers themselves. In other cases, dalalas pretend to work for “recruitment agencies.”

Rima Kalush is the spokesperson for Migrant Rights: 

They can and do exploit co-nationals. But they exist because there are needs not being met by the state. Domestic workers who want to change employers due to abuse, non-payment, or whatever reason, often have no one else to turn to – under the sponsorship system, all migrant workers can encounter difficulties in changing employers, but domestic workers face the greatest restrictions. Brokers can and do take advantage of this vulnerability, but the source of the problem is the lack of labour protections for domestic workers. In local (origin and destination country) media reporting, you will often see government officials blaming women for leaving their employers and being lured by these brokers, without really acknowledging why people have to leave in the first place.

The United Nations’ body, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), is aware of the issue. They do run programs to help migrant workers return to their home countries. However, it is often hard to access undocumented workers. 

“It is difficult for the Government of Kenya to trace where the migrants are, as runaways hardly get in touch with the embassy to update on their location,” said Yvonne Ndege, the spokesperson for the IOM in East Africa. 

Our team reached out to the Kenyan Embassy in Saudi Arabia about the situation of undocumented Kenyan domestic workers. However, we didn’t get a response.

This article was written in collaboration with Hillary Ingati / RFI Kiswahili. 

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Sunday Shows: Post-State Of The Union Rundown

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We’ve had a lot of fun since liveblogging President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address. We’ve mocked the official unhinged Republican response,the public ritualistic humiliation of Rick Scott and Mike Lee, as well as the crazy lengths that Tucker Carlson has gone to save the GOP’s face.

The Republicans who appeared on the Sunday shows continued flailing and set themselves up for more mockery. Let’s watch!

Damned If You Do, Damned If You Don’t

On CNN’s “State Of The Union” with Jake Tapper, Chairman of the Intelligence Committee Rep. Mike Turner of Ohio was all to eager to prove us correct when we pointed out Republicans’ bad-faith criticism of the “Chinese Balloon Crisis” last week.

youtu.be

When Tapper asked about the two flying objects shot down this week over Canada and Alaska, Turner made it clear Republicans have no issue with political inconsistency.

TURNER: Yes, well, I certainly don’t know, as the administration is saying they don’t know. They do appear somewhat trigger-happy, although this is certainly preferable to the permissive environment that they showed when the Chinese spy balloon was coming over some of our most sensitive sites.

“Trigger-happy”?! After all their whining and posturing about shooting at the sky, they have the gall to now act like the Biden Administration is paranoid or “trigger-happy”? Turner, when asked about the discovery of further classified documents on a laptop and thumb drive belonging to a Trump aide, topped his hypocrisy with an extra helping of good ole’ whataboutism.

TURNER: […] They are not to be taken lightly. And we’re just amazed as people keep finding them stuffed in the strangest places like behind Biden’s Corvette. This is —this is clearly a failure of an understanding of how to handle the importance of these documents.

This lack of unseriousness and blatant partisanship is what we have to expect for the next two years.

We Aren’t Cutting Social Security, Just Taking It To A Nice Farm Upstate

Rep. Turner was followed on “State Of The Union” by Sen. Mike Rounds of South Dakota, who wanted to make sure that Biden was wrong about Republicans’ intentions regarding Social Security.

youtu.be

ROUNDS: […] I think that’s misleading in terms of what he really intended to do. But, look, the bottom line is, is, Republicans want to see Social Security be successful and be improved. […]

Well, you know what, maybe Biden was wrong and Republicans’ intentions are noble, regardless of Rick Scott or Mike Lee. So, what is the senator’s great plan to improve Social Security and make it more successful?

ROUNDS: […] I kind of look at security the way I would at the Department of Defense and our defense spending. We’re never going to not fund defense. But, at the same time, we — every single year, we look at how we can make it better. […]

So Republicans want to fund Social Security on a year-by-year basis?! I’m sure a lot of the seniors reliant on those benefits will be happy to know they’d be dependent on the Republican Party’s political games and whims every year.

I guess a cut by any other name would still make Scott’s shriveled heart flutter.

Influence Peddling Is Bad … Unless It’s Jared Kushner

Over on ABC’s “This Week” with George Stephanopoulos, Chairman of the Oversight Committee Rep. James Comer assured everyone that his committee will take the buying of influence very seriously.

COMER: Now I don’t disagree with the Democrats and their criticism of the previous administration. We have a problem here that needs a legislative solution. That’s why this Biden investigation is so important. There’s a legislative solution to this, and it can be bipartisan. The Democrats complained about Kushner’s foreign dealings. Republicans are certainly complaining about the entire Biden family’s foreign business dealings.

But when Stephanopoulos pushed Comer on why it seems that they’re taking no actions on Kushner or the Trumps (other than lip service), Comer made it clear that his committee is just weaponizing the government for partisanship. Again.

COMER: […] The difference between Jared Kushner and Hunter Biden is that Jared Kushner actually sat down [and] was interviewed. He was interviewed by investigators. So he’s already been investigated. […]

Thankfully, Stephanopoulos did a final fact-check before Comer slimed out the door.

STEPHANOPOULOS: […] I think we only learned of the $2 billion Saudi investment from the Washington Post this morning, at least the details of it.

Unless James Comer’s committee is full of Minority Report pre-crime investigators, it is pretty clear that the congressman’s full of shit.

The Real Meaning of “Woke”

We end with New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on CBS’s “Face The Nation” with Margaret Brennan.

youtu.be

When asked about Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’s ongoing culture war against Disney, Sununu tried to describe his opposition to “woke cancel culture.” Brennan asked for a simple explanation of whatever Sununu meant by “woke,” and he quickly descended into gobbledygook.

SUNUNU: It’s the … it’s the divisiveness … divisiveness […] Where it is me versus you. Whereas if you are not adhering to my ideals, then I’m going to cancel you out. It is us versus them. It is this binary, where everything’s a war. […]

Oh! Guess by that logic we can start counting Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson, January 6th insurrectionists, and Ron DeSantis as “woke.”

However, Sununu successfully demonstrated that “woke” and “cancel culture” are right-wing dog whistles that, like “critical race theory,” they can’t coherently describe. Despite his efforts at distancing himself from other Republicans, he also proved our theory that “good Republicans” are not a thing. It is the media’s attempt at “fetch.”

Have a week.

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Why Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Saudi Arabia means so much for the Gulf monarchy’s sporting ambitions | CNN

Post By Sports , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Editor’s Note: A version of this story appears in today’s Meanwhile in the Middle East newsletter, CNN’s three-times-a-week look inside the region’s biggest stories. Sign up here.


Abu Dhabi, UAE
CNN
 — 

It’s a partnership that’s been hailed as “history in the making.”

One of the world’s most famous soccer stars landed in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday, where Cristiano Ronaldo was received in an extravagant ceremony, with excited children sporting his new club’s yellow and blue jerseys.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia’s success in luring the five-time Ballon d’Or winner on a two-year contract with the kingdom’s Al Nassr FC is the Gulf monarchy’s latest step in realizing its sporting ambitions – seemingly at any cost.

According to Saudi state-owned media, Ronaldo will earn an estimated $200 million a year with Al Nassr, making him the world’s highest-paid soccer player.

Shortly after the 37-year-old’s signing with Al Nassr, the club’s Instagram page gained over 5.3 million new followers. Its official website was inaccessible after exceeding its bandwidth limit due to the sudden surge in traffic, and the hashtag #HalaRonaldo – Hello, Ronaldo in Arabic – was trending for days across the Middle East on Twitter.

Analysts say that his recruitment in Saudi Arabia is part of a wider effort by the kingdom to diversify its sources of revenue and become a serious player in the international sporting scene.

It is also seen as a move by the kingdom to shore up its image after it was tarnished by the 2018 dismemberment and killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi at the hands of Saudi agents, and a devastating war it started in Yemen in 2015.

Critics have decried the kingdom for “sportswashing,” an attempt to burnish one’s reputation through sport.

“I think Saudi Arabia has recognized a couple of years ago that to be a powerful nation internationally, you cannot just rely on hard power,” Danyel Reiche, a visiting research fellow and associate professor at Georgetown University Qatar, told CNN.

“You also need to invest in soft power, and the case of Qatar shows that this can work pretty well,” he said, adding that Saudi Arabia is following in the Qatari approach with sport, but with a delay of around 25 years.

Neighboring Qatar has also faced immense criticism since it won the bid to hosting last year’s FIFA World Cup in 2010.

Despite the smaller Gulf state facing similar accusations of “sportswashing,” the tournament has largely been viewed as a success, not least in exposing the world to a different view of the Middle East, thanks in part to Morocco’s success in reaching the semifinals and Saudi Arabia beating eventual World Cup champion Argentina in their opening group game.

Gulf nations engage in fierce competition to become the region’s premier entertainment and sporting hubs. The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, in close proximity to each other, each have their own Formula One racing event. But their competition hasn’t been confined to the region. Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE have also bought trophy European soccer teams.

Riyadh is playing catchup with neighbors who have long realized the importance of investing in sports, said Simon Chadwick, professor of sport and geopolitical economy at SKEMA Business School in Lille, France, especially as its main source of income – oil – is being gradually shunned.

“This is part of an ongoing attempt to create more resilient economies that are more broadly based upon industries other than those that are derived from oil and gas,” Chadwick told CNN.

Ronaldo’s new club Al Nassr is backed by Qiddiya Investment Company (QIC), a subsidiary of the kingdom’s wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund (PIF), which has played a pivotal role in Saudi Arabia’s diversification plans.

“It is also a sign of interconnectedness, of globalization and of opening up to the rest of the world,” said Georgetown University’s Reiche.

The move is part of “several recent high profile moves in the sports world, including hosting the Andy Ruiz Jr. and Anthony Joshua world heavywight boxing championship bout in 2019, and launching the LIV Golf championship,” said Omar Al-Ubaydli, director of research at the Bahrain-based Derasat think tank. “It is a significant piece of a large puzzle that represents their economic restructuring.”

The kingdom has been on a path to not only diversify its economy, but also shift its image amid a barrage of criticism over its human rights record and treatment of women. Saudi Arabia is today hosting everything from desert raves to teaming up with renowned soccer players. Argentina’s Lionel Messi last year signed a lucrative promotional deal with the kingdom.

Hailed as the world’s greatest player, 35-year-old Messi ended this year’s World Cup tournament in Qatar with his team’s win over France, making his ambassadorship of even greater value to the kingdom.

The acquisition of such key global figures will also help combat the monarchy’s decades-long reputation of being “secretive” and “ultra-conservative,” James Dorsey, a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore and an expert on soccer in the Middle East, told CNN’s Eleni Giokos on Wednesday.

Al-Ubaydli said that the kingdom wants to use high profile international sports “as a vehicle for advertising to the world its openness.”

Saudi Arabia bought the English Premier league club Newcastle United in 2021 through a three-party consortium, with PIF being the largest stakeholder. The move proved controversial, as Amnesty International and other human rights defenders worried it would overshadow the kingdom’s human rights violations.

Ronaldo’s work with Saudi Arabia is already being criticized by rights groups who are urging the soccer player to “draw attention to human rights issues” in Saudi Arabia.

“Saudi Arabia has an image problem,” especially since Khashoggi’s killing, says Reiche. But the kingdom’s recent investments in sports and entertainment are “not about sportswashing but about developing the country, social change and opening up to the world.”

Saudi Arabia is reportedly weighing a 2030 World Cup bid with Egypt and Greece, but the kingdom’s tourism ministry noted in November that it has not yet submitted an official bid. Chadwick believes that Ronaldo’s deal with Al Nassr, however, may help boost the kingdom’s bid should it choose it pursue it.

Another way Saudi Arabia may benefit from Ronaldo’s acquisition is that it will be able to improve commercial performance, says Chadwick, especially if this collaboration attracts further international talent.

“It is important to see Ronaldo not just as a geopolitical instrument,” said Chadwick, “There is still a commercial component to him and to the purpose he is expected to serve in Saudi Arabia.”

What Ronaldo’s move to Saudi Arabia shows is that the kingdom aspires “to be seen as being the best” and that it wants to be perceived as a “contender and a legitimate member of the international football community,” said Chadwick.

UAE FM meets Syria’s Assad in Damascus in further sign of thawing ties

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad received the United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed in Damascus on Wednesday in the latest sign of thawing relations between Assad and the Gulf state. The meeting addressed developments in Syria and the wider Middle East, according to UAE state news agency WAM.

  • Background: It was Abdullah bin Zayed’s first visit since a November 2021 meeting with Assad that led to the resumption of relations. Months later, in March 2022, Assad visited the UAE, his first visit to an Arab state since the start of Syria’s civil war.
  • Why it matters: A number of Assad’s former foes have been trying to mend fences with his regime. Last week, talks between the Syrian and Turkish defense ministers were held in Moscow in the highest-level encounter reported between the estranged sides since the war in Syria began. The regional rapprochement is yet to improve the lives of average Syrians. Syria is still under Western sanctions.

Turkish President Erdogan says he could meet with Assad

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech on Thursday that he could meet the Syrian leader “to establish peace.”

  • Background: Erdogan’s comments came after the Moscow talks between the two nations’ defense ministers and intelligence chiefs. “Following this meeting… we will bring our foreign ministers together. And after that, as leaders, we will come together,” Erdogan said on Thursday.
  • Why it matters: The meeting would mark a dramatic shift in Turkey’s decade-long stance on Syria, where Ankara was the prime supporter of political and armed factions fighting to topple Assad. The Turkish military maintains a presence across the Syrian border and within northern Syria, where it backs Syrian opposition forces. Erdogan has also pledged to launch yet another incursion into northern Syria, aiming at creating a 30-km (20-mile) deep “safe zone” that would be emptied of Kurdish fighters.

Iran shuts down French cultural center over Charlie Hebdo’s Khamenei cartoons

Iran announced on Thursday it had ended the activities of a Tehran-based French research institute, in reaction to cartoons mocking Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and fellow Shia Muslim clerics published by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo this week.

  • Background: Iran summoned the French ambassador to Tehran on Wednesday to protest cartoons published by satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. More than 30 cartoons poking fun at Iran’s supreme leader were published by the magazine on Wednesday, in a show of support for the Iranian people who have been protesting the Islamic Republic’s government and its policies.
  • Why it matters: French-Iranian relations have deteriorated significantly since protests broke out in Iran late last year. Paris has publicly supported the protests and spoken out against Iran’s response to them. French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna criticized Iran’s freedom of press and judicial independence on Thursday, saying “press freedom exists, contrary to what is going on in Iran and… it is exercised under the supervision of a judge in an independent judiciary – and there too it’s something that Iran knows little of.”

The prized legacy of iconic Egyptian singer Umm Kulthum re-emerged this year when Rolling Stone magazine featured her in its “200 Greatest Singers of All Time.”

Ranking 61st, Umm Kulthum was the only Arab artist to make it to the list, with the magazine saying that she “has no real equivalent among singers in the West.”

Born in a small village northeast of the Egyptian capital Cairo, Umm Kulthum rose to unmatched fame as she came to represent “the soul of the pan-Arab world,” the music magazine said.

“Her potent contralto, which could blur gender in its lower register, conveyed breathtaking emotional range in complex songs that, across theme and wildly-ornamented variations, could easily last an hour, as she worked crowds like a fiery preacher,” it wrote.

Nicknamed “the lady of Arab singing,” her music featured both classical Arabic poetry as well as colloquial songs still adored by younger generations. Her most famous pieces include “Inta Uumri” (you are my life), “Alf Leila Weileila” (a thousand and one nights), “Amal Hayati” (hope of my life) and “Daret al-Ayyam” (the days have come around). Some of her songs have been remixed to modern beats that have made their way to Middle Eastern nightclubs.

The singer remains an unmatched voice across the Arab World and her music can still be heard in many traditional coffee shops in Old Cairo’s neighborhoods and other parts of the Arab world.

Umm Kulthum’s death in 1975 brought millions of mourners to the streets of Cairo.

By Nadeen Ebrahim

Women athletes aim their air rifles while competing in a local shooting championship in Yemen's Houthi rebel-held capital Sanaa on January 3.



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After Snubbing US, Middle East’s Red Carpet for China’s Xi Jingping

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Xi Jinping will visit Saudi Arabia for several days starting Wednesday.

Two months after snubbing US President Joe Biden’s pleas for oil, Saudi Arabia is rolling out the red carpet for his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

Xi will visit Saudi Arabia for several days starting Wednesday, during which he will take part in a regional summit with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and other Arab leaders, the kingdom’s SPA state news agency said, promising agreements worth some $30 billion.  Energy and infrastructure deals will top the agenda, according to two people briefed on the plans.

China confirmed the trip on Wednesday morning, a day after Xi led the nation in mourning the death of former leader Jiang Zemin on the heels of recent protests against his Covid Zero policy. The summit will give both Xi and Prince Mohammed a chance to showcase the Gulf’s deepening ties with Beijing, underlining just how far US-Saudi relations have sunk.

“This visit is the culmination or crowning of a deep strengthening in relations over the last few years,” said Ali Shihabi, a Saudi commentator and advisory board member for the kingdom’s Neom megaproject. “The US is concerned about this but cannot slow this already strong relationship down.” 

A low point in US-Saudi ties came in October when Biden accused Riyadh of allying with Russia on oil production cuts, and vowed “consequences.” However, relations have been fraying for some time as the US shifts its global focus to the competition with China.

It’s a decade since the US was Riyadh’s biggest trading partner, and in that time not only has China leapfrogged America, but so too have India and Japan. Total US-Saudi trade shrank from some $76 billion in 2012 to $29 billion last year.

That’s in part because the US shale industry means it no longer imports much Middle East oil; China is Saudi Arabia’s top crude customer now –  and regional oil exporters will be keen for information on China’s plans for lifting Covid restrictions.

Yet Washington has also riled Saudis with its attempts – now all but dead – to return to the nuclear deal with Iran, a regional Saudi rival, while Riyadh’s powerful alliance with Russia and other oil exporters in OPEC+ is another point of friction.  

“For the Arab states, it’s about alternatives, in all possible ways”

“It’s high time we stopped seeing this as being purely about economic and commercial relations,” said Cinzia Bianco, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, who focuses on the Gulf. “For the Arab states, it’s about alternatives, in all possible ways.”

Beijing has been picking up some of that economic and political slack.

In the past six months, Janes IntelTrak Belt & Road Monitor reported a surge of activity across the Middle East by US-blacklisted telecoms firm Huawei Technologies Co.; that State Grid Corporation of China was looking at investment opportunities in regional electricity transmission and distribution; and Saudi Arabia and China agreed to coordinate their investments in Belt and Road Initiative participating nations. 

The countries will sign pacts for the further “harmonization” of the Belt and Road Initiative with Saudi Arabia’s own Vision 2030 development plan, the SPA agency said. 

Talks on a free trade agreement between China and the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council are entering a “final stage,” China’s ambassador to the United Arab Emirates Zhang Yiming said last month. He even mentioned a memorandum on moon exploration signed with the UAE.

Gulf states view the US as an increasingly unreliable partner and “want to capitalize on a new global multipolar landscape that presents fresh opportunities,” said Elham Fakhro, a research fellow at Exeter University’s Centre for Gulf Studies. In doing so, they might “strengthen their own bargaining power with the United States,” she said.

Still, the US maintains a significant troop presence in Saudi Arabia and across the region, and there are limits to how far Gulf states will look elsewhere.

It’s seen as unlikely, for example, that Saudi Arabia will move forward with the idea of accepting yuan payments instead of the dollar for oil, the two people briefed on the preparations said, referring to reports earlier this year. Diplomats and analysts said at the time the reports should be seen as a political message to the US, rather than the kingdom’s plans.

Whereas Donald Trump chose Riyadh for his first overseas trip as president, Biden came to office pledging that he’d treat the crown price as a pariah for his part in the murder of columnist Jamal Khashoggi.

But faced with high inflation going into the midterm elections, he swallowed his pride and visited the kingdom in July seeking help to lower global oil prices. 

He appeared to make some headway, expressing optimism Riyadh would take steps to comply – only for Saudi Arabia and OPEC+ to then announce production cuts. A furious Biden said it was time for the US to rethink the relationship.

Buoyed by higher oil revenues spurred by Russia’s war, the Saudi crown prince has cast the kingdom as a growing power capable of standing up to US pressure.

China has cheered on from the sidelines: Foreign Minister Wang Yi praised the kingdom’s “independent energy policy” and efforts to stabilize the international energy market after meeting with his Saudi counterpart in October. Wang also thanked Riyadh for “long-term and firm support” on matters including Taiwan, Xinjiang, Hong Kong and human rights – all touchstone issues for the US.

China Praises Saudi Arabia’s ‘Independent’ Energy Policy

“There’s a real synergy to the relationship,” said Jonathan Fulton, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council focused on China’s relations with the Gulf. 

Whereas “the US keeps talking about a great power game” and focusing on counterterrorism, China has been helping address domestic concerns. The upshot is it’s less about China trying to replace the US than the two countries playing completely different games when it comes to the Middle East, he said.  

Since China held its last biennial dialog with Arab states in July 2020, Saudi Aramco revived discussions to build a multi-billion dollar refining and petrochemicals complex in China.

Saudi Arabia started working with Huawei to develop artificial intelligence systems and the kingdom’s using Chinese expertise to make its own drones. It’s even been reported to be manufacturing ballistic missiles with China’s help, according to a U.S. intelligence assessment.

China is now Saudi Arabia’s top crude customer. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg

It’s not all one way, though. High oil prices hurt China as well as the US, and Beijing nurtures close relations with Iran, a key Saudi rival. China cannot just replicate US military support for the region. 

The US isn’t asking countries to choose between Washington and Beijing but asking them to be “mindful” of the relationships they’re developing, Derek Chollet, a counselor at the US State Department, told a briefing in Kuwait ahead of Xi’s visit. 

“Our assessment is that China, in its efforts to build relations in this region, does not have an interest in building mutually beneficial partnerships,” he said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

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