US Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs, Barbara Leaf, on 31 May, threw cold water on reports by Israeli media that allege Saudi Arabia is close to normalizing ties with Tel Aviv.

“There’s a lot of misreporting and a lot of hyperventilation in the press, a lot of excitable rumint, I would say, in the press, especially in the Israeli press. They’re just electric with the idea that Saudi Arabia might take that step,” Leaf told a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on Wednesday.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met Thursday with China's deputy foreign minister and other top diplomats from the BRICS bloc of developing economies for discussions that included the group's possible expansion to include the major oil-producing nations of Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates.

Sanaa’s National Salvation Government (NSG) in Yemen accused the Saudi Arabian authorities of preventing Yemeni Muslims from performing their Hajj pilgrimage in Mecca, Al-Mayadeen reported on 31 May.

Fouad Naji, the Deputy Minister of Guidance and Hajj Affairs, said that “the Saudi regime has used the Hajj as a pressure tool throughout the years of aggression and blockade.”

The US and Saudi Arabia on Thursday announced a suspension of Sudan peace talks in the Saudi city of Jeddah, citing “repeated serious violations” of the short-term ceasefire agreement by Sudan’s warring parties.

British intelligence agencies are facing a new investigation over their alleged complicity in the torture of two Saudi men at CIA “black sites” prior to their detention at Guantanamo Bay.

In separate legal cases, the two men accuse British intelligence agencies of conspiring with US officials in a CIA-run “secret detention, torture and interrogation programme” in the aftermath of the 9/11 al-Qaeda attacks in the US in 2001.

The strengthening of ties between the BRICS bank and Saudi Arabia, the world’s second-largest oil producer, is undesirable for the West as it again signals another advancement in the de-dollarisation of the global economy. In the last week of May, Saudi Arabia held talks to join BRICS’ New Development Bank as its ninth member, a decision that is not only economic but also with political motive.

The New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS group of major emerging economies is currently in talks with Saudi Arabia on admitting the kingdom as its tenth member, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The move is expected to cement ties between the Shanghai-based lender, established by BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) back in 2014, with the world’s second biggest producer of oil.

s the Joe Biden administration continues its hurried push to foster an unlikely normalization deal between Riyadh and Tel Aviv, the White House is suggesting Israel make some concessions to the Saudis in the hopes of achieving an agreement, Times of Israel reported on Tuesday.

China is reportedly in talks with Saudi Arabia and Egypt for major arms deals as the countries seek to diversify their weapons supplies to become less reliant on the United States and Russia for their defense needs.