FaceOf: Turki Al-Askar, adviser to the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Investment

Updated 23 February 2019
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FaceOf: Turki Al-Askar, adviser to the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Investment

Turki Al-Askar has been an adviser to the Saudi Ministry of Commerce and Investment since January 2018.

Previously, he worked for more than six years in the Riyadh office of Merieux NutriSciences, which offers analytical and consulting services to ensure the safety and quality of food, nutrition, agrochemicals, pharma and cosmetics products. 

Al-Askar worked at the company as a planning manager, an acting business development manager, vice president of client services, and vice president of business development. 

He was also a senior market intelligence specialist at Yum! Brands in the UK between July 2010 and February 2011. 

There, he contributed to successful market research by conducting customer surveys, and participated in creating new client profiles in the company database.

He served as a business development specialist and government relations officer at Al-Askar Co. for Property Development between April 2006 and February 2008. 

Al-Askar holds a master’s degree in marketing management from the University of Southampton in the UK. 

He also graduated from the Executive Education Leadership Development Program at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, Switzerland. 

Recently, the Eastern Province Chamber hosted an investment workshop at its headquarters in Dammam to highlight improvements to existing procedures and the new initiatives that are helping to cut bureaucracy and make it easier to do business in the Kingdom.

The chamber's Tayseer committee partnered with 40 government bodies and launched 300 initiatives that aim to improve the Kingdom’s ranking in international indicators.


Saudi defense minister calls on Southern Transitional Council to de-escalate in Yemen

Updated 27 December 2025
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Saudi defense minister calls on Southern Transitional Council to de-escalate in Yemen

  • In a statement addressed “to our people in Yemen” and published on X, Prince Khalid said Saudi Arabia’s intervention came at the request of Yemen’s internationally recognized government

DUBAI: Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman called on the Southern Transitional Council (STC) to respond to Saudi-Emirati mediation efforts and de-escalate tensions in eastern Yemen, urging the group to withdraw its forces from camps in Hadramout and Al-Mahra and hand them over peacefully to local authorities.
In a statement addressed “to our people in Yemen” and published on X, Prince Khalid said Saudi Arabia’s intervention came at the request of Yemen’s internationally recognized government and aimed to restore state authority across the country through the Decisive Storm and Restoring Hope operations.
He said the Kingdom has consistently treated the southern issue as a “just political cause” that must be resolved through dialogue and consensus, citing the Riyadh Conference and Riyadh Agreement as frameworks that ensured southern participation in governance and rejected the use of force.
The minister warned that recent events in Hadramout and Al-Mahra since early December had caused divisions that undermine the fight against Yemen’s common enemy and harm the southern cause. He praised southern leaders and groups who, he said, have acted responsibly to support de-escalation and preserve social stability.
Prince Khalid reaffirmed that the southern issue would remain part of any comprehensive political settlement in Yemen and stressed that it must be resolved through trust-building and national consensus, not actions that could fuel further conflict.