Saudi royals

Bin Salman remarked that without US presence, Iran would gain a greater foothold in the region, establishing a 'Shi'ite Crescent.'

Prince Mohammed has won Western plaudits for seeking to ease Saudi Arabia's reliance on oil, tackle chronic corruption and transform the Sunni Muslim kingdom.

"Opening cinemas will act as a catalyst for economic growth and diversification," said Minister of Culture and Information Awwad bin Saleh Alawwad.

How a $450 million painting became part of a Qatari misinformation campaign against Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia has welcomed the lobbying, they said, though it is likely to worry regional rival Iran at a time when tensions are already high in the Middle East.

The kingdom intends to offer visits to historic sites such as Mada'in Saleh, a 2,000-year-old Nabataean city carved into the rocks of the northern desert.

The Saudi crown prince’s reformist ambitions bring to mind the precedents of post-Shogun Japan, post-Ottoman Turkey and post-Mao China – with a few exceptions, some potentially fateful.

But now, they argue, under the leadership of King Salman and his son, 32-year-old Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudis are going too far.

Salman also affirmed Saudi Arabia’s “[commitment to] providing everything that is needed to establish an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.”

The supply of rockets to the Iran-allied rebel Houthi movement could "constitute an act of war against the Kingdom."