Gulf

1. Deals shift from Saudi
2. Trump’s Gulf doctrine
3. Hajj draws the crowds…
4. …and sparks the memes

Long-weekend reads.

There will be no briefing on Friday, June 6. Eid Mubarak!

Bankers shift attention from Riyadh

Domestic financial pressure in Saudi Arabia is leaving the door open for Qatar and the UAE to draw more deals. Following US President Donald Trump’s visit — during which Gulf leaders pledged trillions in US investments — “bankers behind the scenes quietly agreed: Saudi Arabia isn’t the draw it once was,” Bloomberg reported.

Qatar is preparing for a windfall, which will help finance the half a trillion dollars it plans to invest in the US over the next decade, as the gas-rich country ramps up exports. Meanwhile, assets under management in Abu Dhabi’s financial center, ADGM, swelled 33% in the first three months of this year, with a total of 119 fund and asset managers now hanging a shingle in the district. Financiers are courting the capital’s new funds, such as energy-focused vehicle XRG.

With oil prices far below what the Middle East’s largest economy needs to balance its budget, the Saudi government will likely prioritize diversifying its economy over boosting foreign assets.

Analysis: Trump’s Middle East doctrine

US President Donald Trump laid out a new approach to the Middle East during his Gulf visit last month, abandoning lectures in favor of engagement with partners who share his vision for security, stability, and prosperity, Jason D. Greenblatt, Trump’s former Middle East envoy, wrote in a Semafor column.

Whereas US policy lurched “between overcommitment and neglect, the Trump Doctrine offers something genuinely new: a sustainable framework for American engagement based on shared prosperity rather than shared enemies,” Greenblatt wrote.

Drones, cooling to keep pilgrims safe

More than 1.8 million people are performing Hajj, braving the heat and crowds in Mecca to join the world’s largest annual religious gathering. To avoid a repeat of the tragedy caused by last year’s deadly heatwave, Saudi Arabia is upping its use of technology and cracking down on unregistered pilgrims — turning away more than 260,000 so far. Drones will monitor crowds and deliver medicine, while misting systems, shaded walkways, and hundreds of new water stations have been added. The Great Mosque will also be cooled by the world’s largest air conditioning system, keeping temperatures between 22 and 24 degrees Celsius (72-75 Fahrenheit).

Managing growing crowds and expanding religious tourism is central to Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification plans: Mecca and Medina house most of the kingdom’s hotel rooms — both existing and under construction.

Hajj, one of Islam’s five pillars, is required once in a lifetime for those able to perform it. It includes a series of rituals, from a specific dress code upon arrival in Mecca to the final act of sacrifice. This multimedia guide from Al Jazeera breaks down the full journey.

— Manal AlBarakati

Safety slogan turns into punchline

Saudi Arabia’s Hajj crackdown slogan — “No Hajj without a permit” — has gone viral, though not quite in the way the authorities intended. It started as a flood of automated messages to deter unauthorized pilgrims, but young Saudis have turned it into a meme. Ask someone to do something they’d rather avoid, like a social gathering or go on a date? You’re liable to hear “No Hajj without a permit,” in response.

One viral image shows an elderly woman asked whether she’d prefer a wedding or to perform Hajj. She blushes and replies: “No Hajj without a permit.” It’s not meant to be subversive — just a young population turning spam into the country’s latest punchline.

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Commodities

• Saudi Agricultural and Livestock Investment Co., backed by the Public Investment Fund, is exploring opportunities to expand its grain trade, including marketing Russian wheat to more markets in the Middle East and Africa. Russian grain already makes up half of the kingdom’s wheat imports. — Reuters

Technology

• Kuwait Investment Authority has been welcomed into the AI Infrastructure Partnership, a $30 billion fund to invest in computing facilities, made up of a who’s who in finance and tech realms, counting BlackRock, Microsoft, Nvidia, and Abu Dhabi’s MGX among its partners.

Mining

• Oman, rich in the minerals used to produce stainless steel and plaster, has set up a trading company to deal with falling prices and negotiate with international buyers. — Muscat Daily

• A clash over quotas could threaten the future of OPEC+, The Economist predicts. The UAE, the cartel’s third-largest exporter, routinely, but quietly, flouts output caps, to the frustration of group leader (and largest exporter) Saudi Arabia. The tightrope balance of price control, preparing for peak oil, and the cash needed for diversification is a fraught one within the group.
• Abu Dhabi’s AI ambitions may soon extend to manufacturing the world’s most advanced chips. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. is considering building a facility in the UAE and has discussed the plan with Trump administration officials, Bloomberg reports. A timeline for breaking ground on the project — similar to TSMC’s $165 billion plant in Arizona — is “likely several years away, if not longer.”
• Don’t call it ping pong in Qatar. A former government employee has spent decades trying to make his country a world capital of table tennis. But Khalil Al-Mohannadi’s recent run to become president of the sport’s governing body has drawn allegations of vote buying, and a critic of Al-Mohannadi was recently detained and interrogated in Doha during the table tennis championships, The New York Times reports. (Al-Mohannadi was defeated in a tight election last Tuesday by the incumbent.)

Oil prices jumped on Monday despite the decision by OPEC and its partners to increase their production quotas for the third time in as many months. But many analysts remain decidedly bearish about their trajectory over the next couple of years, with far-reaching implications for the US economy and foreign policy, Semafor’s Tim McDonnell wrote.