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March 11, 2005 |
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***** Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, received a telephone call from Egyptian President Mohammad Hosni Mubarak. During the conversation, they discussed bilateral relations and latest developments in the region. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, received at the royal court at Al Yamamah palace in Riyadh princes, ministers, senior officials and citizens who came to greet him. The Crown Prince also received sons and nephews of Late Ismael Abu Dawood, praying to Almighty Allah to bless his soul. Later, the crown prince received a delegation of Hail-based Bani Tamim community who condemned the criminal acts perpetrated by the deviant group. The Crown Prince thanked them for their support for the Saudi leadership and their loyalty to their religion and homeland. Crown Prince Abdullah noted that the deviating group has been tempted by the Satan and its individuals will be eradicated. The audiences were attended by a number of princes and officials. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, paid a visit to Prince Abdul Rahman Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General to be assured of the prince who underwent a successful surgery for an appendectomy at the Armed Forces Hospital. The Crown Prince was accompanied by Prince Mishaal Ibn Abdul Aziz; Prince Mit'eb Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Minister of Municipal and Rural Affairs; Prince Abdulilah Ibn Abdul Aziz; Prince Sattam Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Vice Governor of Riyadh Region and Prince General Miteb Ibn Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Assistant Deputy Commander of the National Guard for Military Affairs. The Crown Prince also visited Prince Fahd Ibn Mohammed Ibn Abdul Aziz to be assured of the health of the prince who is undergoing a medical check-up. The Crown Prince was accompanied by Prince Sattam Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Vice Governor of Riyadh Region and Prince General Miteb Ibn Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Assistant Deputy Commander of the National Guard for Military Affairs. The two visits were attended by a number of princes. Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Aviation and Inspector General has issued his directives to transfer baby Ohoud Al Balawi who suffers from a hole in the heart to King Fahd Hospital in Riyadh. Dr Abdul Rahman Abdullah Saeidi said the little girl is on a respirator and addressed his thanks to the Second Deputy Prime Minister and the Governor of Al-Madinah Al Munawarrah. Prince Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Minister of Interior received the Ambassador of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to the Kingdom Saeed bin Hamdan Al-Naqbi. During the meeting, they exchanged cordial talks and discussed topics of mutual concern. Prince Abdul Majeed Ibn Abdul Aziz, Governor of Makkah region and Chairman of the Higher Organization for the development of the region confirmed that the Organization will continue the implementation of all projects in the area which will open the doors for investments and create jobs opportunities. He praised the efforts exerted to improve the Korniche in Jeddah and the role of the privates sector. Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal separately received the Ambassadors of Niger Mamane Oumarou and Brunei Datu Haj Abdul Samman Qahar who bade farewell to the prince at the end of their terms of office in the Kingdom. The meetings were attended by Head of Protocols at the Foreign Ministry Abdulrahman Mohammed Al-Nuwaiser. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has provided Yemen with 250 tons of dates for a number of charitable institutes. Yemen's Undersecretary of Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor for Welfare Sector Saleh Ahmed Ali appreciated the Kingdom's efforts to develop the bilateral relations between the two countries. On his part, Saudi Ambassador to Yemen Mohammed bin Mirdas Al-Qahtani said that the consignment of dates comes within the distinguished relations binding the two brotherly countries. The Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) has recently issued four licenses for the implementation of petrochemical projects in the Industrial City of Jubail with a capital investment of SR 17.2 Billion for the production of ethylene, poly-propylene, benzene and fuel oil. SAGIA's Governor Amr Al-Dabbagh said the implementation of these projects will raise the Kingdom's share in the field of petrochemical industries at the world markets and open new horizons in the field of plastic industries. Yemen denied reports that the country was considering naming a candidate for the post of the Arab League's secretary-general. "The Yemeni government have not decided yet on the candidacy for the post," Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qarubi, told Arab News. "No date has been set so far for the candidacy, and no decision has been taken (by Yemen) on this matter," he added. He was commenting on press reports that Sanaa will put forward the candidacy of a prominent politician to succeed Amr Moussa as secretary-general of the Arab League next year. The reports quoted unnamed political sources in Sanaa as saying that the former Yemeni speaker of Parliament, Yassin Saeed Noman, will run for the post in May 2006. Noman said he was not asked by the Yemeni government to run for the post. "No one has approached me for this, and I don't know the source of these reports, Noman told Arab News by phone from Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, where he is undergoing medical check-ups. He even ruled out that Yemen would seek the post, saying Moussa "maintains good relations with the country. The French President Jacques Chirac made a telephone call to the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Elysees palace said the French President offered during the telephone call his country's readiness to the Palestinian in their reform process. Former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir John Stevens says up to 200 Al-Qaeda "terrorists" are operating in UK and the threat of attacks is real. He has backed proposed anti-terror laws, saying critics were naive about the "brutal" threat posed by fanatics. Sir John, writing in the News of the World, said militants trained by Osama bin Laden "fester" across the country. The Prevention of Terrorism Bill, which passed through the Commons by 14 votes, faces further opposition when it reaches the House of Lords next week. Among the proposals for terror suspects are house arrest, curfew, tagging and bans on internet and telephone use. But Sir John said any delay in enacting the legislation would bring "comfort" to al-Qaeda. He said there were small networks of militants who had been trained by Osama bin Laden and had "spawned and continue to fester" in British towns and cities. "The main opposition to the Bill, it seems to me, is from people who simply haven't understood the brutal reality of the world we live in and the true horror of the terrorism we face," Sir John wrote. Yemeni security forces have arrested two al-Qaeda members, including a local leader, during a raid in the southern province of Abyan, officials say. Abdul Rauf Nassib and Egyptian Sayyed Imam Sherif were arrested with about a dozen other militants in the remote Lawder area, they said. Troops backed by tanks and helicopters launched the raid. Officials said security forces continued to surround a hideout where dozens of militants were believed to be sheltering near Lawder, 470km (290 miles) south of the capital, Sanaa. London's mayor Ken Livingstone denounced Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon as a war criminal, in a searing critique of Israeli policies published Friday in The Guardian newspaper. Livingstone also rejected accusations of anti-Semitism, and brushed off fresh calls in his article to apologize for comments last month comparing a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard. Sharon "is a war criminal who should be in prison, not in office", he wrote, saying that even an Israeli commission had blamed the prime minister for deadly massacres at Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon. The mayor also denounced "ethnic cleansing" of Palestinians during the expansion of the Israeli state, Israeli settlements in the territories and the denial of Palestinians' right to return. "Sharon continues to organize terror," he said, citing the disproportionate number of Palestinians killed compared to Israelis during the intifada, or Palestinian uprising. Livingstone argued that it was necessary to separate criticism of Israeli policies from anti-Semitism, saying the Israeli government deliberately attempted to conflate the two. The Israeli government has for the past 20 years "attempted to portray anyone who forcefully criticizes the policies of Israel as anti-Semitic. The truth is the opposite: the same universal human values that recognize the Holocaust as the greatest racist crime of the 20th century require condemnation of the policies of successive Israeli governments," he wrote. Livingstone's comments came as a response to criticism printed a day earlier in The Guardian by the head of Board of Deputies of British Jews, Henry Grunwald. Grunwald said that the mayor had "let his office down" and should apologize for comments made to Oliver Finegold, a reporter for the Evening Standard, a paper which Livingstone considers hostile to him. Last month he compared Finegold to a concentration camp guard since he was "just doing it because you are paid to" - a reference to working at the Standard. But the Labour mayor, defended his record on fighting anti-Semitism and racism, and rejected a fresh call from a Jewish community leader to apologize for the uproar. "No serious commentator has argued that my comments... were anti-Semitic," Livingstone wrote in The Guardian. His administration had fought anti-Semitism "tooth and nail", and he continued to "detest racism", he said. In his weekly Radio address President George W. Bush expressed support for the Palestinians' efforts to reform their political institutions, their economy, and their security services. He said our common goal is the establishment of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and freedom. The President added the when democracy take root in the Middle East, America and the world will be safer and more peaceful. Sultan Qaboos bin Said has received a written message from Tunisian President Zain Al Abidine Ben Ali. The message was received by Sayyid Fahd bin Mahmoud Al Said, deputy prime minister for the Council of Ministers, when he received in his office Khalid Al Zaytouni, Tunisian ambassador to the Sultanate and envoy of the Tunisian president who conveyed his greetings and best wishes to the Sultan, his government and to the Omani people. Sayyid Fahd and the Tunisian ambassador discussed bilateral relations and ways of boosting them, and reviewed current Arab and international issues as well as matters of common concern. Sayyid Fahd asked the ambassador to convey the Sultan's greetings along with his brotherly wishes to the president, and wished the Tunisian government continued success and the Tunisian people further progress and prosperity. Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said that the Palestinian Authority had taken a final decision to unify its tangled and often competing security services. "The important message is our readiness to work in terms of security," Abbas said, addressing a global conference on Palestinian reform."We ... have taken a final decision in unifying the security apparatus." Egyptian Presidential spokesman ambassador Solaiman Awwad said President Mahmoud Abbas asked President Hosni Mubarak to continue his contacts to maintain the impetus generated by Sharm El-Sheikh summit towards the resumption of Palestinian-Israeli contacts. Commenting on President Mubarak's meeting with Abu Mazen, the spokesman said it covered the positive impressions the Palestinian president had on the outcome of a London meeting on supporting the Palestinian Authority. Mubarak's meeting with Abu Mazen also covered meeting of the Palestinian factions in Cairo in mid-March. The Palestinian President expressed hope the meeting would unify Palestinian ranks towards pacification to utilise the positive results of the Sharm El Sheikh summit and seize the current peace opportunity, added the spokesman. Awwad reiterated that Abu Mazen had condemned in the strongest terms, the Tel Aviv operation and pledged to exert 100 per cent efforts to combat such activities. In Cairo the Arab Foreign Ministers referred two draft resolutions related to the voting system and the mechanism of the implementation of resolutions to the Arab Summit for discussion. The meeting saw an argument between the Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Al Mulki and Farouq Al Qaddoumi of the PLO who accused Egypt and Jordan of speeding up the process of returning their ambassadors to Israel. An Iranian official charged with hunting for three Iranian diplomats and a reporter who went missing in Lebanon more than two decades ago has said he believes they could still be alive and in an Israel jail, the student news agency ISNA said. "According to our latest information, the four Iranians have been seen in the Zionist regime's jails. If it is said they have been martyred, it is only to cover up the Zionist regime involvement in this issue," said Raed Mousavi, a member of an official follow-up committee charged with the case. He said the information that the four had been transferred to Israel came from someone released in a prisoner exchange between Israel and the Iranian-backed Hizbullah movement. "He had seen the four diplomats in Israeli prisons in 1988," said the official, who is also the father of one of the missing men. He added that he believed Israel may have hoped to exchange them for missing airman Ron Arad. The shooting of an Italian reporter in Baghdad will be investigated over three to four weeks by a joint US-Italian team, the US commander of multinational forces in Iraq said as Italians fumed. "My expectation is it will be a joint investigation," General George Casey said yesterday. "These investigations normally take three to four weeks to complete." The general said he had no information at this stage to indicate Italian officials had told US forces in advance that Italian journalist Giuliana Sgrena had been released. "I have no preliminary indication that that's true," he said. Sgrena was wounded and Nicola Galipari, an Italian intelligence officer who had negotiated her release, was killed by US fire just after Sgrena's release. The US military has said its forces warned the driver of Sgrena's car, which they said was approaching a checkpoint at speed when they opened fire. Italy's Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini highlighted sharp differences between Rome's probe into the shooting and the US version. Fini dismissed Washington's view that a lack of communication was responsible for the death of Calipari, and demanded that the United States "identify and punish" those responsible. The incident rekindled popular Italian opposition to the war, and sparked a diplomatic row between Washington and Rome, one of the staunchest US allies in Europe. President Jacques Chirac is to host a summit on March 18 in Paris with Russian president Vladimir Putin, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Spain's Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Chirac's staff said The meeting, which with the inclusion of Spain marks the first of its type, aims at developing new paths of communication between the EU and Russia, a diplomatic source said Hours after telling Parliament that Israel's balking at implementing its commitments threatens what he had greed upon with the Israeli Prime Minister in Sharm el-Sheikh on February 8, President Mahmoud Abbas concluded his first meeting with the Israeli "defense" minister Shaul Mofaz without an agreement on a timetable for the start of withdrawing Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) from five Palestinian towns. Following a two-hour meeting at the main crossing point of Beit Hanoun (Erez) between the Gaza Strip and Israel, Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, said he was still demanding that IOF withdraw from the Palestinian cities and their environs, and that Israel remove the military roadblocks, as Mofaz insisted that the negotiations between the two sides must proceed cautiously in a "step by step" fashion. Abbas said that the agreement did not only include towns. "We are not just talking about towns, but also their surrounding areas," he said. "If there are (Israeli) roadblocks, they must be removed as well," he told a joint press conference with Mofaz. However, both men agreed to arrange for an Israeli withdrawal from Jericho and Tulkarem, without confirming which is to be first, though Abbas told reporters that he expected Tulkarem might be handed over soon to the Palestine National Authority (PNA). Iran vowed to resist pressures from the European Union (EU) as the two sides kicked off a new round of nuclear negotiations in Vienna, the official IRNA news agency reported. "The next few days' negotiations are very decisive in Iran's nuclear dossier, and we will strongly stand against probable pressures from the EU," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi was quoted as saying. "We hope this will not be the last round of negotiations and they will continue, but this depends on how the Europeans behave," Asefi said. Asefi also expressed hope that the nuclear negotiations would continue to make progress. "We have had some achievements so far and our nuclear negotiations over the past few years have never been fruitless," he said. The spokesman stressed that Tehran was not afraid of being referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions. "The rights and interests of the Islamic Republic of Iran stand above anything. The Iranian people regard access to nuclear technology as their obvious right, and according to surveys carried out among various walks of life, an absolute majority of the Iranians approve of it," Asefi said. Iran and the EU have held three rounds of talks on Tehran's disputed nuclear program since Iran froze uranium enrichment activities last November. The EU insisted that Iran should provide "objective guarantees" about the claimed peaceful nature of the country's nuclear activities. Iran, which denied the US accusation of developing nuclear weapons, is under growing pressure from the EU and the US to give up ambitious nuclear program or being referred to the UN Security Council. In his speech at the inaugural session on investment in minerals, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources Ali Al-Naimi affirmed that the Arab world has mineral resources that are largely unexplored, but enough for all Arab countries to meet their needs for raw materials. The Arab world's mining industry, he said, could attract overseas as well as domestic investors. He named Morocco, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Mauritania and Oman as having an abundance of mineral resources, as well as Saudi Arabia, which already has a number of mining operations, including mines for gold, copper, and zinc. About 15 minerals have been discovered in the Kingdom in commercial quantities. Phosphate reserves estimated at 3.1 billion tons make Saudi Arabia the largest source of this mineral. Governor of the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA) Amr Al-Dabbagh commented that new transport projects such as the expansion of the rail system would boost mining activities in the Kingdom, which, he said, is hoping to make the mining sector the "third pillar" of its economy after oil and petrochemicals. President and CEO of the Saudi Arabian Mining Company 'Maaden', Abdallah Dabbagh, confirmed that his company is geared to being the third most important entity in the Kingdom's industrial and economic development after Saudi Aramco and Saudi Basic Industries Corporation (SABIC). Maaden, a joint stock company with a capital of U.S. $1 billion and some $1.3 billion in assets, has mounted projects worth over $7 billion to exploit bauxite, phosphate and other industrial minerals. The company owns six gold mines, four in operation and two being developed, and is in process of consolidating its precious metals businesses prior to privatization, which is planned for late 2005 or early 2006. In a statement on the eve of the seminar, Minister Al-Naimi said seven foreign companies had received mining licenses. He commented that although at present the mining sector contributes only two percent of Saudi Arabia's Gross Domestic Product, employing 47,000 people, it has the potential for development, with new job opportunities and diversification of revenue. He described as a major achievement the Kingdom's recent mining investment law, passed by the Cabinet on September 13, 2004. Sheikh Abdullah bin Salim Al Rowas, minister of regional municipalities, environment and water resources, signed 32 agreements valued around RO7.3 million to implement several projects in translation of the directives of His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said issued during his annual royal meet-the-people tour of the wilayats this year. As per the agreements signed, a total of 327.8km link internal roads will be constructed in a number of the wilayats of the Batinah region. The projects were awarded to some national construction companies. The minister said the projects to be implemented also include lighting of roads, public utilities and others. The signing ceremony was attended by Mohammed bin Sulaiman Al Ghuraibi, undersecretary for regional municipalities affairs at the ministry. Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa called on the International Quartet to deal firmly with the real dangers resulting from the Israeli expansionist policy. At a meeting in Cairo Monday with the European peace envoy to the Middle East Marc Otte, Moussa asserted the need for facing up to the continued construction of the West Bank separation barrier and the Israeli settlement activities. Such policies would undermine efforts exerted to establish an independent Palestinian state, warned Moussa. In press statements following the meeting Otte said, his visit to Cairo came within the framework of a regional tour that would also take him to the Palestinian lands and Israel to follow up the steps agreed upon during the recent London conference on supporting the Palestinian Authority. The conference was held in London on March 1 and called for by British Prime Minister Tony Blair. The European official added that he discussed with Moussa the situation in Lebanon, along with Syrian President Bashar Al- Assad speech before the Syrian parliament on steps Syria planned to adopt regarding the withdrawal of its troops from Lebanon. Answering a question on whether the Syrian plans would be in conformity with UNSC resolution 1559, Otte said Syria has adopted tangible measures in response to calls by the international community. Arab League Secretary General spokesman Hossam Zaki said the meeting comes as part of continued consultation between the pan-Arab body and the European Union (EU). Moussa probed with the European official a host of issues, topped by regional security and the situation in Lebanon, the spokesman said. Otte informed Moussa that European Union Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana accepted an invitation to attend the upcoming Arab summit slated for Algiers on March 22, he added. The 15th edition of the IT and Communication Exhibition (Comex 2005) will open on April 25. Organisers of Comex 2005 are: Oman International Trade and Exhibitions (OITE) and the Ministry of Transport and Communications. The sponsors are: Oman Telecommunications Company (Omantel), Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM) and Oman Centre for Investment Promotion and Exports Development (Ociped). So far 36 local and international ICT companies have confirmed their participation in the Sultanate's premier IT and communications exhibition, according to Ahmed bin Saleh Ba'abood, OITE managing director. |