Saudi crown prince and Erdogan plan crucial talks in Turkey

September 26, 2016

Riyadh, Sep 26: Crown Prince Mohammed bin Naif, minister of interior, will travel to Turkey and meet with top Turkish officials including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Binali Yildirim on Thursday for the first time since the attempted coup in Turkey in July.

naifThe crown prince will also hold talks with Turkish business leaders, according to reports published Sunday in local Arabic media here.

“The crown prince will be accompanied by several high-ranking Saudi officials including Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir and Majid Al-Qassabi, minister of commerce and investment,” said a reliable source, while giving details about the royal visit.

He said that the crown prince will hold wide-ranging consultations with the Turkish president and prime minister during his two-day stay in Turkey.

The visit of the crown prince, ahead of the meeting of the high-profile Saudi-Turkish Strategic Cooperation Council, is significant, keeping in view the close ties between the two countries.

Turkey has also been vocal on the US’ Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), and has vehemently opposed the bill. Erdogan, in fact, called on the US and the US officials, including President Barack Obama, to veto the bill.

In a recent report, Erdogan said: “Turkey will never approve such an act by the US. The entire country cannot be held responsible just because a few Saudi nationals committed a crime.

Let me give you another example. The leader of FETO lives in the US and all can see the terrorism waged by this group. Should we punish the US for that? Can we pass a law in Parliament to demand compensation from the US?”.

Referring to the major topics on the agenda of discussions between the crown prince and Turkish officials, the source said they include “key bilateral, regional and international issues including terrorism and security.”

The talks may also focus on the failed coup in Turkey.

Crown Prince Mohammed, who is also the chairman of the Council for Political and Security Affairs, will also meet with the Turkish minister of defense and minister of foreign affairs.

The visit coincides with the plan of the Turkish government to announce new incentives and facilities for foreign investors, in particular to Saudi and Gulf businessmen, to promote foreign investments.

A large number of Saudi companies are active in Turkey, while Turkish companies have been actively working in the Kingdom for the last several decades.

The investment of Saudi companies in Turkey will exceed $2 billion as of now.

On the other hand, the trade turnover between Turkey and Saudi Arabia amounted to $2 billion between January and March 2016.

The trade turnover between the countries amounted to $5.5 billion last year.

Several Turkish companies, which have had sound technological know-how, have expressed keen interest to set up joint ventures or work closely with their counterparts in the Kingdom.

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News Network
May 19,2020

Dubai, May 19: In a heart-warming decision to reunite families that have been split by anti-Covid travel restrictions, the UAE has announced that residents with valid visas stranded outside the country can return from June 1.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Federal Authority for Identity and Citizenship said they will begin the process on Monday, June 1, by allowing the return of those residency holders currently stranded outside the country who have relatives in the UAE. Residents who meet this criteria must apply for a Resident Entry Permit on smartservices.ica.gov.ae.

The ministry and the authority said the decision was taken to reunite families that have been affected by the anti-coronavirus measures taken due to the exceptional circumstances.

"The UAE is keen to facilitate the procedures for holders of UAE residency visas who are stuck outside the country and reunite them with their families who were affected by the precautionary measures taken by the country in light of the current exceptional circumstances to combat Covid-19," the federal authorities were quoted by state news agency Wam.

Hundreds of UAE residents are currently stuck abroad and are separated from their families due to the unexpected freeze on air travel imposed by many countries as precautionary measures to curb the spread of coronavirus.

The #BringBackUAEresidents hashtag was trending on Twitter on Monday as several residents and families requested the government to expedite their return to the UAE.

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Agencies
July 22,2020

Riyadh, Jul 22: Saudi King Salman held a cabinet meeting via video call from hospital in the capital Riyadh on Tuesday, a day after the 84-year-old monarch was admitted with inflammation of the gall bladder.

Three Saudi sources said the king was in stable condition.

A video of the king chairing the meeting was broadcast on Saudi state TV on Tuesday evening. In the video, which has no sound, King Salman can be seen behind a desk, wordlessly reading and leafing through documents.

The king, who has ruled the world’s largest oil exporter and close US ally since 2015, was undergoing medical checks, state media on Monday cited a Royal Court statement as saying.

Three well-connnected Saudi sources who declined to be identified, two of whom were speaking late on Monday and one on Tuesday, said the king was “fine”.

An official in the region, who requested anonymity, said he spoke to one of King Salman’s sons on Monday who seemed “calm” and that there was no sense of panic about the monarch’s health.

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News Network
May 21,2020

Dubai, May 21: Around 10,000 Iranian health workers have been infected with the new coronavirus, the semi-official ILNA news agency quoted a deputy health minister as saying on Thursday.

Health services are stretched thin in Iran, the Middle East country hardest hit by the respiratory pandemic, with 7,249 deaths and a total of 129,341 infections. The Health Ministry said in April that over 100 health workers had died of COVID-19.

No more details on infections among health workers were immediately available.

Earlier on Thursday, Health Minister Saeed Namaki appealed to Iranians to avoid travelling during the Eid al-Fitr religious holiday later this month to avoid the risk of a new surge of coronavirus infections, state TV reported.

Iranians often travel to different cities around the country to mark the end of the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, something Namaki said could lead to a disregard of social distancing rules and a fresh outbreak of COVID-19.

"I am urging you not to travel during the Eid. Definitely, such trips mean new cases of infection...People should not travel to and from those high-risk red areas," Namaki was quoted by state television as saying.

"Some 90% of the population in many areas has not yet contracted the disease. In the case of a new outbreak, it will be very difficult for me and my colleagues to control it."

A report by parliament's research centre suggested that the actual tally of infections and deaths in Iran might be almost twice that announced by the health ministry.

However, worried that measures to limit public activities could wreck an economy which has already been battered by U.S. sanctions, the government has been easing most restrictions on normal life in late April.

Infected cases have been on a rising trajectory for the past two weeks. However, President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that Iran was close to curbing the outbreak.

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