BY JAMES M DORSEY Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi hit all the right cords when he spoke virtually with his Saudi counterpart, Prince Faisal Bin Farhan, at a meeting of the China-Saudi Arabia High-Level Joint Committee last month. Wang told Bin Farhan: “China attaches great importance to the development of China-Saudi Arabia relations and puts
Well, it looks like the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have decided to kick off the New Year by throwing another log on the already-roaring fire that is burning much of the Middle East. A bigger blaze that engulfs even more of the region isn’t out of the question. The latest crisis revolves around Riyadh’s mass execution of 47 people last weekend, including a Saudi Shiite cleric, Sheikh Nimr al Nimr, a key figure in the 2011 Arab Spring protests in the kingdom’s Eastern provinces.
The ruling is part of an ongoing clampdown on dissent and minorities in the kingdom. But so far, it's unlikely to have an affect on the kingdom's newly polished image as a global oil provider in times of crisis.