Most days, people have to wait for Hayek, Israel’s first ambassador to the UAE, whose schedule is jammed with Israeli company executives who want his help to break into Gulf markets, as he told The Circuit’s Jonathan Ferziger in an interview. It also fueled talk of Saudi “sportswashing.”ĭiplomatic Response: When Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett touched down last week in Abu Dhabi, Ambassador Amir Hayek was waiting on the tarmac to whisk him to the royal court. While the government allocated $100 million on a program to train 100,000 people to perk up the country’s tourist trade, a Saudi-funded $25 million golf tournament outside London tangled with the PGA, prompting the suspension of Phil Mickelson and other top players from the sport’s flagship league. In opening up the economy to non-traditional businesses, the kingdom acted on the 36-year-old king-in-waiting’s well-known interest in gaming last week when its Public Investment Fund bought a $1 billion stake in Sweden’s Embracer Group video game and media holding company. Got Game: Prince Mohammed is now trying to make good on his promises to wean Saudi Arabia off its historic oil dependence. The president’s imminent Mideast swing, which will also take him to Jerusalem, is shaping up as a coming-out party for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler, who retreated from the limelight in 2018 after accepting responsibility but not blame for the murder of Washington Post columnist and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi. Rising global gas prices, sparked by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, are filling Saudi Aramco’s coffers with cash and fueling the state-owned petroleum producer’s drive to eclipse Apple as the world’s biggest company, with a recent market value of $2.4 trillion.

Saudi Arabia is stretching its wings as the kingdom prepares for President Joe Biden’s expected trip to Riyadh in July. 👋 Good Monday morning in the Middle East!

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