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June 9, 2006 |
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***** The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz has sent a cable of congratulations to the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano on the occasion of his country's national day. In his own name and on behalf of the government and people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Monarch wished the President continual good health and happiness and his people steady progress and prosperity. The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz has sent a cable of congratulations to Abdul Aziz Belkhadem, Prime Minister of Algeria, on the occasion of his appointment as head of the government. In his own name and on behalf of the government and people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the Monarch wished the Algerian Prime Minister continual good health and happiness and the people of Algeria steady progress and prosperity. A similar cable of congratulations was sent to the Algerian Prime Minister on this occasion by Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Premier, Minister of Defence and Aviation and Inspector General. Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defense and Aviation and Inspector General received at the Royal Court at Al-Yamamah Palace the Nepalese Ambassador to the Kingdom Abu Alleith Tako Rai who bade the Crown Prince farewell at the end of his term of office as his country's ambassador to the Kingdom. During the audience, they exchanged cordial talks and discussed topics of mutual concern. The audience was attended by a number of officials. A Saudi government official denied that Israeli products were in the Saudi markets he said the Kingdom prohibits the entry of products made in Israel or to foreign-made goods containing Israeli components. Saudi customs officials continue to enforce the boycott, asserting that no Israeli-made goods be allowed into the country. "Absolutely not if it is from Israel it is not allowed," an official of the Saudi Customs Department at Jeddah's Islamic seaport said. "I checked with my manager, and he said it is completely forbidden." A Saudi customs official at King Abdul Aziz Airport outside Jeddah also said that Israeli goods were not allowed into the kingdom. "It is prohibited," he said. "It is not allowed to bring any goods made in Israel, whether the whole item or only part of it was made there. That is the rule." Saudi Arabia has donated $10 million to the United Nations Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced. The Kingdom has previously donated $10 million to the fund. In a recent address at the UN, Hasan Al-Attas, Director-General of the Saudi Development Fund, called on the international community to provide greater funding for the campaign to eradicate AIDS. President Mahmoud Abbas has several phone calls with Presidents of Egypt, Syria, Libya, Emir of Qatar, Prince Saud Al Faisal Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia. During the phone calls, Abbas briefed President Hosni Mubarak, Bashar al-Assad, Moammar Gadhafi, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and Prince Saud on the latest developments in the Palestinian territories. He also updated them with the Israeli military escalation on the Palestinian people in light of the economic siege imposed on the Palestinian territories. Bilateral relations and issues of common interest were also discussed during the phone calls. The Secretary-Generals latest report on the UN Observer Mission on the Golan Heights. While the situation in the missions area of responsibility has remained calm, the Secretary-General notes that the overall situation in the Middle East is very tense and is likely to remain so until a comprehensive peace can be achieved. In that light, he asks the Security Council to extend the missions mandate by another six months, until 31 December 2006. A royal order was issued to provide 50,000 food baskets for the Palestinian families in cooperation with world food program. In a statement to Saudi Press Agency (SPA), advisor to the Interior Minister and the Committee's Chairman Dr. Sa'ed Al-Orabi Al-Harthi said that the implementation of this program in cooperation with the program comes in accordance with financial policies and procedures pursued by the committee in the field of providing aid to the needy people in Palestine. It is worth mentioning that the Saudi Committee for Palestinian People Relief in cooperation with the program has provided 200.000 food baskets in 1425 H. at a cost of SR 22 million and have been distributed to more than 200,000 Palestinian families. Saudi humanitarian relief for quake-stricken Indonesia remains ongoing, in line with directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz. A fifth Saudi relief plane was dispatched carrying 70 tons of foodstuffs, tents and medical supplies. Immediately after the May 27 earthquake, King Abdullah extended $5 million in urgent financial assistance to Indonesia. The fourth Saudi relief plane arrived in Indonesia, in line with directives by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz to provide aid to victims of the May 27 earthquake in Java. The plane carried 63 tons of foodstuffs, clothes and medical supplies, which will be distributed by the Saudi Red Crescent Society and the Indonesian government. The Director of the bureau for social supervision in Makkah Al Mukarramah Noura Al Al Sheikh announced that Crown Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Aviation and Inspector General has issued his directives to military hospital to enrol, register and provide the required medical care to all handicapped people in different areas of the Kingdom. The Minister of Labour Dr Ghazi Ibn Abdul Rahman Al Gosaibi said the council of ministers' decree concerning Saudization in the private sector has excluded children and husbands of Saudi women who do not hold the Saudi nationality as well as non-Saudi women married to Saudis from the new Saudization laws . One Palestinian bank began paying some government workers a month's salary, witnesses said, the first bank to do so despite threats of sanctions against institutions dealing with the Hamas government. The Bank of Palestine said in a statement that government employees who held accounts at its branches and earned 1,500 shekels a month ($325) or less could start withdrawing their money from automated teller machines (ATMs). "I did not believe that the salary would ever be paid again. The Palestinian Authority's 165,000 workers have gone without salaries for three months since the Islamic militant group Hamas took power, prompting Israel and Western countries to cut off aid and other transfers to the administration. The move by the Bank of Palestine came after other local banks, in the wake of threats from militants, agreed to pay out of their own funds thousands of other government workers. The banks said they would provide interest-free loans, covering one month's salary, to the Palestinian government's lowest-paid employees. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put Iran on notice that the incentives offered by the West to suspend its nuclear program are not open-ended, although she declined to say Tehran had a firm deadline to respond. "I'm not one for timelines and specific schedules, but I think it's fair to say that we really do have to have this settled over a matter of weeks, not months," Rice said. Asked whether the US and its allies expected an answer by mid-July when the world's economic powers attend a summit in Russia, Rice said, "We'll see where we are at that time." "No one among these six powers is prepared to let this simply drag out with Iran continuing to make progress on its nuclear program," she said. Rice said it was essential that Iran suspend suspect nuclear activity because "you don't want the negotiations to be used as a cover for continued progress along the nuclear front." The six nations the US, Great Britain, Germany, France, China and Russia agreed Thursday to offer Iran new incentives if it would give up uranium enrichment. Rice said the proposal represented "a major opportunity" for Iran. "It's sort of a major crossroads for Iran and it's perhaps not surprising that they will need a little bit of time to look at it. "But the fact is there are two paths, and we hope they're going to choose the path that is a path away from confrontation and toward a solution," the chief US diplomat said. The nations said they would punish Iran, through the UN Security Council, if it refused to accept the terms. "We are absolutely satisfied with the commitments of our allies to a robust path in the Security Council should this not work," Rice said. "I think that we shouldn't place too much emphasis on a threat of this kind," Rice told "Fox News Sunday." She cited Iran's heavy dependence on oil revenue. "So obviously it would be a very serious problem for Iran if oil were to be disrupted on the market," she said. She also made clear that if the first major public negotiations in more than 25 years involving Washington and Tehran go ahead, "This is not an offer of a grand bargain somehow with Iran. This is not an offer to let bygones be bygones and to forget the record of terrorism or the human rights." Lebanese Minister of Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Fawzi Salloukh vowed to reinforce ties with China in all fields, local daily Annahar reported. "China is a great country. The relationships with China are full of chances and possibilities", Salloukh said as he returned Beirut from Beijing where he attended a two-day China-Arab Cooperation Forum. Salloukh said the China-Arab Cooperation Forum was a channel to strengthen relations between Arab countries and China, adding that the Arab countries would gain strategic profit by reinforcing political, financial and cultural relations with China. Chinese government would like to help Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and provide equipment to the Lebanese Foreign Affairs and Emigrants Ministry, he added. Salloukh also thanked China for participating a UN mission in Lebanon. "I'll take the opportunity to express my appreciation to China for dispatching a battalion to join in the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)," said the foreign minister. The China-Arab Cooperation Forum, which was established in 2004,held its second ministerial meeting on May 31 and June 1 in the Chinese capital of Beijing. The withdrawal of Italian troops from Iraq topped the agenda of a meeting in Rome between Italy's new Premier Romano Prodi and British Prime Minister Tony Blair. Prodi emerged from a working lunch with Blair to tell reporters that Italian and British defense ministers would soon meet to arrange the details of the pullout. "The decision to withdraw has been taken and so the discussion was about the best way to put it into practice ... so that the situation remains under control and the necessary elements of security are not lost," said the center-left premier. He stressed that Italian troops in Iraq were under British command and so the withdrawal had to be closely coordinated with Britain. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held talks with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Sharm el-Sheikh over the stalled Middle East peace process. The Mubarak-Olmert summit, first of its kind since Olmert became Israeli prime minister on May 4, also discussed Olmert's controversial convergence plan and a future three-way summit that will also involve Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. At a joint press conference after the summit, Mubarak said that Olmert's visit to Egypt is a good chance for peace in the troubled Middle East region. Egypt and Israel have been carrying out "good cooperation" in solving the Palestinians-Israeli conflicts, said Mubarak, adding that an eventual peace would be achieved no matter how hard it might be. For his part, Olmert said that he would meet with Abbas for the resumption of negotiations on the roadmap peace plan. Without giving a specific date for his meeting with Abbas, Olmert said that Israel is willing to negotiate with the Palestinians on the internationally-backed roadmap peace plan. The first priority was to negotiate with the Palestinians based on the roadmap plan, said Olmert who has been advocating his convergence or realignment plan. According to the plan, Olmert vows to draw Israel's final borders with the Palestinians by 2010 by evacuating around 70,000 Jewish settlers from isolated settlements in the West Bank while keeping major ones with or without peace talks with the Palestinian side. However, Olmert did not rule out the possibility of resuming talks with the Palestinians this time, but insisted that the Palestinian side should meet the requirements set in the roadmap plan before resuming the negotiations. Under the internationally backed roadmap plan, the Palestinians are expected to dismantle militant groups while Israel should freeze settlement expansion. Neither side has fulfilled the commitment. As for the dire economic situation faced by the Palestinians, Olmert said that Israel would take all necessary measures to prevent a humanitarian disaster. "We will take all measures to prevent a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip," he said, adding that Israel will not stop sending humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip. During the summit meeting, Olmert and Mubarak also discussed the border killing incident during which two Egyptian policemen were shot dead by Israeli border guards. Olmert told the press conference that his country and Egypt will set up a joint committee to investigate the fatal incident. He said that he had ordered the Israeli security authorities to cooperate with their Egyptian counterparts in the investigation and to do their utmost to prevent such incident from occurring in the future. Iraqi Vice-President Tareq Hashimi called for the formation of a joint US-Iraqi or a neutral United Nations committee to probe US troops' violations in Iraq. In a press release, Hashimi said a joint committee of Americans and Iraqis or a neutral UN probe should be conducted in the killing of civilians in the town of Ishaqi, 90 kms (60 miles) north of Baghdad last March. A US military investigation cleared soldiers of any misconduct in Ishaqi. It said that soldiers chasing insurgents took direct fire in Ishaqi and up to nine collateral deaths, a military term for civilian casualties, resulted from an engagement. It denied as "absolutely false" allegations that troops executed a family living in a safe house for "terrorists". The Prime Minister said American violations in Samara and Haditha was also necessary. The Ishaqi findings come amid an investigation into allegations U.S. Marines massacred up to two dozen unarmed civilians in the town of Haditha in November. Several other killings are also under investigation in Samara. Tribes' elders in the Iraqi city of Basra asked the þArab League to "intervene urgently" to salvage the Iraqi people from þ þescalation of violence in southern city.þ The request came in several urgent letters the Arab League received from the tribes' elders, requesting rapid intervention to stop the random killings þ þin the southern city.þ The League, meanwhile, voiced deep concern for the escalation of violence þwhich claimed lives of innocent civilians.þ þIt urged all parties to self restraint and refrain from violence.þ The Arab League said it was confident the Iraqi government was capable of þcontaining the violence in Basra and to bring about calmness. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, addressed the nation in a speech marking the 17th anniversary of the death of his predecessor and the leader of Iran's Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini. In his speech he said: We have friendly and good ties with the Arab world. The most important issue in Arab society is the Palestinian cause. On this issue, we speak openly about whatever they have in their hearts. We have a very clear and transparent position on the Palestinian cause and Arab nations like this position wholeheartedly. They feel proud when we voice that position. The Arab League condemned the alleged massacres of Iraqi civilians by US troops and said that it supported investigations by the Iraqi government into the charges. "The Arab League expresses its strong condemnation and denunciation of these crimes," the Cairo-based pan-Arab body said in a statement. It came a day after the US military cleared its troops of any wrongdoing over the raid on March 15 in the town of Ishaqi, south of Samarra, which resulted in civilian fatalities. A report filed by Iraqi police, however, accused US soldiers of rounding up and deliberately shooting 11 people in the house, including five children and four women, before blowing up the building. The US military and Iraqi government are also investigating other reports of alleged misconduct by US marines in Iraq. Russian military officials denied a report that Moscow hopes to create a permanent naval base in Syria that would give it a Mediterranean outpost and represent a major shift in the regional security balance. Russia has begun work on deepening the Syrian port of Tartus and is also widening a channel in another Syrian port, Latakia, the Kommersant newspaper said, citing an official at Russia's embassy in Damascus, Vladimir Zimin. The newspaper noted that Russia is seeking alternative accommodation for the Black Sea fleet, based in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, as it may have to vacate that base when its lease expires in 2017. "This can't be considered information -- this is complete nonsense," said an unnamed admiral quoted by the ITAR-TASS news agency. "The Russian government hasn't had and doesn't have any plans to move the Black Sea fleet from Ukraine. Our fleet is staying in Crimea at least until 2017," he said. The agency quoted a "senior defence ministry" official as also denying the report: "One would have to be crazy to leave Ukraine before 2017. So why then sign an agreement?" According to Kommersant, "For the first time since the Soviet Union's collapse, Russia will create its own military base outside former Soviet borders, which will allow Moscow to conduct its own political game in the Middle East." President Bush pledged a thorough investigation into the killing of civilians at Haditha, an incident the White House said he learned of only when briefed by staff a month after a reporter asked about it. Bush has vowed to punish those responsible if a military inquiry verifies allegations that U.S. Marines rampaged through houses in the Iraqi town of Haditha on November 19 and fatally shot two dozen civilians, including women and children. "I'm not involved with the investigation," Bush told reporters after a Cabinet meeting. "And you shouldn't expect me to be. I expect this investigation to be conducted independent of the White House, with a full and thorough investigation." A nephew of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein has been arrested in Beirut on suspicion of crimes against the Iraqi people, Lebanese and Iraqi officials said. "The criminal Bashar Sabawi was arrested in Beirut in cooperation with Interpol," an Iraqi government statement said without giving the date of the arrest. A Lebanese security source said Sabawi was arrested within the past 48 hours as he was about to leave the country, adding that his case had been brought before prosecutor general Said Mirza. "Bashar is at the top of a list of those wanted for their crimes against the Iraqi people during and after the fall of the dictator," the Iraqi government statement said. "This is also a message to terrorists inside and outside Iraq and a victory for our intelligence services," it added. Bashar's brother Ayman, also accused of being involved in the insurgency, was arrested exactly a year ago, on May 2005 during an operation in Saddam's hometown of Tikrit. The GCC advisory authority concluded its second meeting of the ninth session at the Inter Continental Hotel in Muscat under the chairmanship of Dr Hadef bin Jaua'an Al Dhahri from United Arab Emirates (UAE). Dr Dhahri told Oman News Agency that the authority prepared its views on economic citizenship and the importance of economic partnership in supporting the council states relations with neighbouring countries as tasked by the GCC Supreme Council in order to submit these views to the 27th session of the Supreme Council due to be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Emirati diplomat Naji al-Nuaimi was given an emotional welcome when he returned home after two weeks of captivity in Iraq. Nuaimi was flown by helicopter to his seaside hometown of Diba al-Hosn a few hours after returning to the United Arab Emirates following his release by his Islamist militant captors in Iraq. Hundreds of Emirati men greeted Nuaimi as fireworks were set off to celebrate his safe return. Banners welcoming him back were raised along the routes leading to the town. The state WAM news agency said Nuaimi was received by President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan at his palace in Al-Ain after his arrival. Sheikh Khalifa hailed "the Iraqi government's efforts and the... influential role played by Iraqi political forces of all hues in securing the Emirati diplomat's release", WAM said. China and the Arab world targeted the energy sector as they seek to double their trade volumes over the next few years, the two sides said as they wrapped up a ministerial forum. An agreement signed on the final day of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum said that Beijing and the 22 Arab League members would hold their first meeting on oil issues over the next three years, according to Xinhua news agency. "The two sides attach importance to energy cooperation, particularly the cooperation in the sectors of oil, natural gas and renewable energy," said a document outlining the forum's plans for 2006 to 2008, Xinhua reported. Mohammad Hussein al-Shaali, state minister for foreign affairs of the United Arab Emirates and a co-chair of the forum, told reporters there was a common target to double bilateral trade to $100 billion by 2010. Oman welcomed the new US stance on the direct participation at the bilateral talks between Iran and European Troika concerning the Iranian nuclear issue. A statement issued by the Foreign Ministry said Oman viewed the new US step as encouraging one to find a diplomatic solution to ease the crisis with Iran. The US participation in the talks would help build confidence among the parties concerned and create a new trend with respect to the Middle East crisis, the statement added. Egypt has welcomed the US announcement on the Iranian nuclear file. The official spokesman of the Foreign Ministry said that the Foreign Minister stressed that negotiations and dialogue are the best way of solving the issue amongst all parties. He said Egypt strongly calls for a Middle East Free of weapons of mass destructions and on all parties to join the non-proliferation treaty. |