AL-AHSA: The fasting time during the holy month of Ramadan will exceed 15 hours in the northwestern region of the Kingdom, and many regions will experience very hot weather, an expert has said.
“Tabuk and Haql cities will have the longest fasting hours, that is 15 hours and 30 minutes,” Khalid Al-Zaaq, a member of the Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences, told local media.
The fasting time will be 15 hours and 18 minutes in Dammam, while it will be 15 hours and eight minutes in Riyadh, he added.
The temperatures will hover between 45 and 50 degrees Celsius in Al-Kharj and, Al-Ahsa, Riyadh, Madinah and Qassim, he said.
The days are longer and nights are shorter in the north of the equator during this time of the year, he said. Al-Zaaq, however, expects the day temperatures to be moderate during the Haj season.
Fasting hours longest in Tabuk, Haql
Fasting hours longest in Tabuk, Haql
Saudi Arabia launches initiative to reroute Gulf cargo to Red Sea ports
- The initiative comes as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been severely disrupted by the widening conflict in the region
- Since the US and Israel struck Iran last month, Tehran has moved to restrict passage through the waterway
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has launched an initiative to redirect shipping from ports in the Arabian Gulf to its Red Sea ports amid the ongoing US-Israel-Iran war.
Transport Minister Saleh Al-Jasser, who also chairs the Saudi Ports Authority (Mawani), launched the Logistics Corridors Initiative alongside Zakat, Tax and Customs Authority Governor Suhail Abanmi, Mawani President Suliman Al-Mazroua, and other officials, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The initiative will establish dedicated operational corridors to receive containers and cargo redirected from ports in the Kingdom's Eastern Region and other Gulf Cooperation Council states to Jeddah Islamic Port and other Red Sea coast ports.
Al-Jasser said the Kingdom was committed to ensuring supply-chain stability and the smooth flow of goods through global trade routes. Jeddah Islamic Port and other west coast ports, he added, were already playing a key role in accommodating shipments redirected from the east, while also linking Gulf cargo to regional and international markets.
The initiative comes as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has been severely disrupted by the widening conflict in the region. Iran has long threatened to close the strait — the world's most critical oil and gas chokepoint, through which roughly a fifth of global oil supplies pass — in the event of a war.
Since the US and Israel struck Iran last month, Tehran has moved to restrict passage through the waterway, sending freight rates soaring and forcing shipping companies to seek alternative routes.
Saudi Arabia's Red Sea ports offer a viable bypass, connecting Gulf cargo to global markets without passing through the strait.
