Saudi Arabia, Turkey have identical views on regional conflicts

February 15, 2017

Riyadh, Feb 15: Ties between the Kingdom and Turkey are set to scale new heights as their interests align on key regional issues following talks between King Salman and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan here Tuesday.

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The summit at Al-Yamamah Palace also focused on bilateral subjects covering political, security and commercial fields.

The talks ahead of the UN-sponsored Syria peace dialogue, have added significance in terms of efforts that have been directed to reach a political solution to the conflict in Syria.

“King Salman and Erdogan expressed satisfaction over the outcome of the first Turkish-Saudi Coordination Council meeting,” Turkish Ambassador Yunus Demirer told Arab News.

Demirer said the two leaders discussed key regional issues like Syria, Yemen, Libya and Iran besides bilateral security cooperation and terrorism.

President Erdogan had separate meetings with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif on Monday.

The Turkish president also held talks with Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday in which they shared concerns and interests regarding developments in the region.

Demirer said the two leaders expressed “their desire to move forward” … and discussed security, combating terrorism, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

Demirer added that the two leaders exchanged views on the most pressing issues on the regional and international agenda.

“There were no differences in our views,” said the envoy adding that the meeting with the crown prince focused “on combating terrorism and cooperation on security issues.”

He said it was a very successful visit to move forward after the Turkish-Saudi Coordination Council meeting. “The summit meeting was in way approval of the results of the joint council meeting by both heads of state,” he noted.

Last week the first meeting of the council, co-chaired by Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu, took place in Ankara.

Syria was a focus point for the president during his meetings with top Saudi officials. On Monday in Manama, Erdogan called for a “safe zone” in northern Syria. The positions of Saudi Arabia and Turkey are “absolutely identical” on Syria, Al-Jubeir said last week in Ankara, after the joint council meeting.

On the sidelines of the visit, a few ministerial bilateral meetings were held. Al-Jubeir met here Monday night with Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu, who is traveling with the Turkish president.

During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations and work of the first session of the Saudi-Turkish Coordination. The meeting was attended by Saudi ambassador to Turkey Waleed Al-Khuraiji.

Erdogan wrapped up his two-day visit to the Kingdom on Tuesday evening and left for Qatar. Qatar hosts a Turkish military base.

Representatives of the two countries signed an agreement in the field of housing issues.

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Wednesday, 15 Feb 2017

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Agencies
July 28,2020

Dubai, Jul 28: Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) (ADCB.AD) is letting go hundreds of employees, sources said, the latest in a round of lay-offs by regional banks as pressure mounts to cut costs amid lower oil prices and the coronavirus crisis.

The UAE’s third-biggest lender is laying off 400 employees, two sources familiar with the matter said, after it had committed to not cutting staff because of the crisis.

In a statement, a spokesman said ADCB had pursued efficiency over the last decade by managing out its lowest underachievers after regular reviews, while ensuring talent was deployed in high-growth areas, such as digital banking.

“A certain number of redundancies are therefore expected every year in the normal course of business,” the bank spokesman added.

The sources said the cuts would involve ADCB’s consumer business and several in top management were among those being let go. One source said the bank was looking to close 20 branches.

In March, ADCB had declared, “No employee will be made redundant during 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

UAE banks have been hit by government measures to rein in the spread of the virus, forcing many businesses to shut temporarily.

Last week, Dubai’s largest bank, Emirates NBD, reported a slump of 58% in profits. In June, sources told Reuters the bank started a new round of hundreds of lay-offs.

In May, ADCB reported a fall of 84% in first-quarter net profit as it took impairments of $292 million on debt exposure to troubled hospital operator NMC Health and payments group Finablr.

It was a major lender, with an exposure of about $981 million, to NMC Health, which went into administration this year after months of turmoil following questions over financial reporting.

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News Network
April 29,2020

Dubai, Apr 29: Saudi Arabia reported 1,325 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 21,402, the Ministry of Health announced on Wednesday (April 28).

Meanwhile, the ministry reported 169 recoveries today, with total recoveries in the kingdom at 2,953. There are 125 cases in intensive care.

The ministry also confirmed 5 deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in the kingdom to 157.

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News Network
July 23,2020

Beirut, Jul 23: The pandemic will exact a heavy toll on Arab countries, causing an economic contraction of 5.7% this year, pushing millions into poverty and compounding the suffering of those affected by armed conflict, a U.N. report said Thursday.

The U.N.'s Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia expects some Arab economies to shrink by up to 13%, amounting to an overall loss for the region of $152 billion.

Another 14.3 million people are expected to be pushed into poverty, raising the total number to 115 million — a quarter of the total Arab population, it said. More than 55 million people in the region relied on humanitarian aid before the COVID-19 crisis, including 26 million who were forcibly displaced.

Arab countries moved quickly to contain the virus in March by imposing stay-at-home orders, restricting travel and banning large gatherings, including religious pilgrimages.

Arab countries as a whole have reported more than 830,000 cases and at least 14,717 deaths. That equates to an infection rate of 1.9 per 1,000 people and 17.6 deaths per 1,000 cases, less than half the global average of 42.6 deaths, according to the U.N.

But the restrictions exacted a heavy economic toll, and authorities have been forced to ease them in recent weeks. That has led to a surge in cases in some countries, including Lebanon, Iraq and the Palestinian territories.

Wealthy Gulf countries were hit by the pandemic at a time of low oil prices, putting added strain on already overstretched budgets. Middle-income countries like Jordan and Egypt have seen tourism vanish overnight and a drop in remittances from citizens working abroad.

War-torn Libya and Syria have thus far reported relatively small outbreaks. But in Yemen, where five years of civil war had already generated the world's worst humanitarian crisis, the virus is running rampant in the government-controlled south while rebels in the north conceal its toll.

Rola Dashti, the head of the U.N. commission, said Arab countries need to “turn this crisis into an opportunity” and address longstanding issues, including weak public institutions, economic inequality and over-reliance on fossil fuels.

“We need to invest in survival, survival of people and survival of businesses,” she said.

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