Two oil-rich Arab Gulf states suffered severe economic blows Wednesday, as a major credit agency downgraded Kuwait for the first time and the United Arab Emirates acknowledged its economy would contract to a level last seen in 2009. The agency, Moody’s Investors Service, cut Kuwait’s...

Saudi Arabia will gradually lift a coronavirus-related travel ban for the Umrah pilgrimage starting early next month, its official news agency said early Wednesday.  The decision to allow the resumption of Umrah, or the minor pilgrimage undertaken by Muslims, came after a nearly...

From scrubbing hate-filled school textbooks to a taboo-defying religious sermon, Saudi Arabia is pushing for another kind of normalisation after declining to establish formal relations with Israel -- co-existence with Jews. Saudi Arabia has said it will not follow its allies Bahrain and the...

The number of recorded novel coronavirus cases in the six Gulf Arab states has doubled in three months to over 800,000, according to a Reuters tally. All countries have lifted internal curfews and lockdowns, but restrictions on gatherings and foreign travel remain, and social distancing...