The hardship Samer’s wife faces is even more unbearable. She tries to hide her tears from her children, who keep asking when their father will return from the market. The loss forced her to become a father overnight, pushing her to stand in long queues in front of community kitchens just to get a bit of food.
A memorable moment from that 2017 trip to Saudi Arabia was during the inauguration of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology in Riyadh. In a surreal photo op that quickly went viral, Trump stood alongside King Salman and President el-Sisi with their hands on a glowing orb.What is the value of US-Gulf investments?
Sami al-Arian, director of the Center for Islam and Global Affairs at Istanbul Zaim University, told Al Jazeera that Trump has been very vocal about his objective in visiting the three Gulf states: investments.Trump’s administration has reportedly discussed the possibility ofexpediting investments
by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the UAE before his trip to the region.“He’s trying to get trillions of dollars out of these countries,” al-Arian told Al Jazeera.
“He’s already said that he’s hoping to get $1 trillion from Saudi Arabia in terms of arms sales and commercial deals,” he said.
According to the latest data from the US Department of Commerce, the total stock of US foreign direct investment (FDI) in Saudi Arabia reached $11.3bn in 2023.CNE also said that 23 out of 24 state governor positions were won by the government flagging a setback for the opposition, which previously controlled four states.
Turnout in the elections was 8.9 million or roughly 42 percent of 21 million voters eligible to cast their ballots. CNE chief Carlos Quintero noted that was the same figure as in the 2021 elections.However, the country’s main opposition leaders had urged voters to boycott the election in protest over
July’s 2024 presidential election. The opposition insists that it won that race but authorities declared Maduro the winner.