The Middle East is undergoing a historic transformation with unprecedented opportunities to build new relationships, de-escalate tensions, and foster conditions for stronger integration. At the same time, the region remains on edge because of ongoing tensions in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and other conflict zones, a civil war that broke out recently in Sudan, along with the overarching challenges presented by fraught relations between Iran, Israel, and several Arab Gulf countries with the longer-term implications of the still-fragile Iranian-Saudi rapprochement yet to be fully assessed.
On March 10, 2023, with Chinese mediation, Saudi Arabia and Iran signed an agreement in Beijing to foster bilateral ties, thereby ending years of conflict between the two Islamic neighbours – one of whom, Iran, is a nuclear power – and posing a challenge to Western strategic dominance of the Middle East. The delegations from Saudi Arabia and Iran held talks in Beijing from
The Arab world's largest book fair, which closed on 4 February, was offering books to the public at reduced prices. This year the featured country was Italy. Mona Naggar reports
The Government of Kuwait has recently amended its competition law to include for the first time a pre-merger notification regime based on turnover thresholds. Kuwait's Competition Protection Agency has started to apply the new thresholds and has already launched inquiries into transactions that may have failed to file.