Saudi Arabia has quietly expanded access to its only store that sells alcohol, allowing wealthy foreign residents to buy such drinks in the latest step in the once-ultraconservative kingdom’s experiment in liberalisation.

There has been no official announcement of the decision, but word has got out, and long lines of cars and people can now be seen at the discreet, unmarked store in the Diplomatic Quarter of the Saudi capital Riyadh.

The store opened in January 2024 for non-Muslim diplomats.

The new rules allow non-Muslim foreigners who hold Premium Residency to buy.

The residency permit goes to foreigners with specialised skills, investors and entrepreneurs.

Saudi Arabia, home to the holiest sites in Islam, has banned alcohol since the early 1950s.

The store is widely seen as a way to cautiously test the controlled sale of alcohol.

Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and his father, King Salman, have pursued a dramatic liberalisation policy in the kingdom, aiming to attract tourism, boost international business and reduce economic dependence on crude oil.

The kingdom, which adheres to Islamic Sharia law, has opened cinemas, allowed women to drive and hosted major music festivals.

But political speech and dissent remain strictly criminalised, potentially at the penalty of death.

Alcohol remains banned for the general public.

The unmarked store resembles a duty-free shop.

Its ownership remains officially undisclosed.

Security is strict.

Every visitor is subject to eligibility checks and frisking before entry.

Phones and cameras are banned inside, and staff even inspect eyewear for smart glasses.

The Associated Press spoke to several customers leaving the store.

Prices are sharply elevated, they said.

Diplomats are exempt from taxes on their purchases, but Premium Residency holders are not.

The customers described the store as relatively well-stocked, though some said the selection of beer and wine was limited.

The Premium Residency permit was created as part of the kingdom’s drive to attract global expertise.

Unlike other residencies, it does not require a Saudi sponsor, and it offers benefits including the right to own property, start a business and sponsor family.

It requires high incomes or large investments to qualify.

Saudis and other residents who want a drink often travel to the neighbouring island of Bahrain, where alcohol is legally available to Muslims and non-Muslims.

On weekends and holidays, the island sees an influx of visitors from Saudi Arabia and across the Gulf, making it a popular getaway.

The more expensive option is to go to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Others resort to smuggled alcohol, which can be extremely expensive, or to bootleg booze – often homemade and risky, using unsafe materials.

Some people in Saudi Arabia enjoy alcohol-free beverages as a substitute for the real thing or to capture the aesthetic of drinking, often snapping photos for social media.

At major events and festivals, it is not uncommon to see long lines forming at alcohol-free beer stands, especially among young Saudis and visitors looking to partake in the vibe.

King Abdulaziz, Saudi Arabia’s founding monarch, banned the sale after a 1951 incident in which one of his sons, Prince Mishari, became intoxicated and used a shotgun to kill British vice consul Cyril Ousman in Jeddah.

Read more: Two million expected as Hajj season begins in Saudi Arabia.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Wednesday said he would keep pressing Saudi Arabia on civil liberties amid a major diplomatic dispute but also offered an apparent olive branch, saying the kingdom had made some progress on human rights.

Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir – infuriated by Canada’s demand last week that jailed rights activists be released immediately – said earlier on Wednesday that there was no room for mediation, adding that Ottawa knew what it needed to do to “fix its big mistake.”

Riyadh on Sunday froze new trade with Canada and expelled the Canadian ambassador. It also ended state-backed educational and medical programmes in Canada.

Trudeau – who referred to the matter as “a diplomatic difference of opinion” – told reporters in Montreal that Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland had held a long conversation with her Saudi counterpart on Tuesday, but gave no details.

“Diplomatic talks continue … we don’t want to have poor relations with Saudi Arabia. It is a country that has great significance in the world, that is making progress in the area of human rights,” he said.

“But we will continue underscoring challenges where and when they exist, in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere,” he continued.

On Friday, Canada expressed concern over the arrests of activists in Saudi Arabia, including prominent women’s rights campaigner Samar Badawi.

Her brother Raif Badawi, a prominent blogger, is serving a 10-year sentence and has been publicly flogged for expressing dissenting opinions online. His wife and children live in Canada and are Canadian citizens.

A number of women’s rights activists, who campaigned for the right to drive and an end to the kingdom’s male guardianship system, have been targeted in a government crackdown in recent months, human rights’ groups say.

Jubeir said the kingdom was still “considering additional measures” against Canada, but did not elaborate. Canadian investments in Saudi Arabia were still ongoing and would not be affected by the dispute, he said.

The Financial Times, citing unidentified sources, reported that the Saudi central bank and state pension funds had instructed their overseas asset managers to dispose of their Canadian equities, bonds and cash holdings “no matter the cost”.

The central bank did not immediately respond to a Reuters query for comment. Canada’s foreign ministry said it was seeking clarity from the Saudi Arabian government.

A source at a Saudi bank told Reuters it was contacted by the central bank on Wednesday asking for information about all its Canadian exposure – investments in Canada and foreign exchange positions.

THREAT TO INVESTMENT?

Since rising to power in 2015, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has courted Western allies to support his reform plans, offering billions of dollars of arms sales and promising to fight radicalism in the kingdom.

But the row threatens to slow Riyadh’s foreign investment drive, a campaign already unsettled by a series of assertive foreign policy initiatives by the top oil exporter.

“Saudi Arabia simply cannot afford to alienate any other sections of the global community in the midst of its unpopular military engagement in Yemen, its indirect confrontation with Iran,” commentator Jamal Khashoggi wrote in the Washington Post.

In addition to the trade freeze, Riyadh has stopped sending patients to Canadian hospitals and told hundreds of trainee doctors to leave Canada with only weeks’ notice.

That could disrupt Canadian hospitals and end a 40-year-old program to train specialists for the kingdom.

Saudi authorities also suspended educational exchanges, and moved Saudi scholars to other countries. Saudi’s state airline said it was suspending flights to and from Toronto.

Saudi Arabia’s main state wheat-buying agency told grains exporters it will no longer accept Canadian-origin grains in international tenders, European traders said.

Bilateral trade between Canada and Saudi Arabia is worth nearly $4 billion a year. Canadian exports to Saudi Arabia were about $1.12 billion in 2017, or 0.2 percent of the total value of Canadian exports.

On Tuesday, Reuters reported that Canada planned to seek help from United Arab Emirates and Britain to defuse the row.

Women in Saudi Arabia need not wear headcover or the black abaya – the loose-fitting, full-length robes symbolic of Islamic piety – as long as their attire is “decent and respectful”, the kingdom’s reform-minded crown prince said.

With the ascent to power of young Prince Mohammad bin Salman, the kingdom has seen an expansion in women’s rights including a decision to allow women to attend mixed public sporting events and the right to drive cars from this summer.

The changes have been hailed as proof of a new progressive trend towards modernisation in the deeply conservative Muslim kingdom, although the gender-segregated nation continues to be criticized for its continued constraints on women.

“The laws are very clear and stipulated in the laws of sharia (Islamic law): that women wear decent, respectful clothing, like men,” Prince Mohammed said in an interview with CBS television aired late on Sunday.

“This, however, does not particularly specify a black abaya or a black head cover. The decision is entirely left for women to decide what type of decent and respectful attire she chooses to wear.”

A senior cleric said last month that women should dress modestly, but this did not necessitate wearing the abaya.

It remains unclear if these statements signal a change in the enforcement of women’s dress code in the kingdom. Saudi Arabia has no written legal code to go with the texts making up sharia, and police and judiciary have long enforced a strict dress code requiring Saudi women to wear abayas and in many cases to cover their hair and faces.

But the kingdom has witnessed a cautious new climate of social freedoms with the rise of the 32-year-old crown prince to power after decades of elderly rulers.

Saudi women have started wearing more colourful abayas in recent years, the light blues and pinks in stark contrast with the traditional black. Open abayas over long skirts or jeans are also becoming more common in some parts of the country.

On March 8, a group of women in the Saudi city of Jeddah marked International Women’s Day by exercising one of their newly acquired freedoms: the right to go for a jog, paying no heed to bemused onlookers.

However, activists have blasted the country’s continued guardianship system requiring a male family member to grant permission for a woman to study abroad, travel and other activities.

Last week, a U.N. rights watchdog called on Saudi Arabia to end discriminatory practices against women including male guardianship, and give them full access to justice.