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King starts Gulf tour with UAE visit

December 4, 2016

Riyadh, Dec 4: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman arrived in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, kick-starting his tour of four Gulf states.

King

During this visit, King Salman will hold wide-ranging talks with high-ranking officials from the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain.

“King Salman will meet with Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) leaders and high-ranking Gulf officials to review relations and ways of enhancing them in all fields, and he will also discuss regional and international issues of common interest,” said a statement released by the Royal Court on Saturday.

The statement confirmed that the king would attend the 37th GCC summit, to be held in Bahrain later this week.

The statement added that “based on the king’s keenness to communicate with GCC leaders in serving the people and enhancing brotherly bonds among Saudi Arabia and other GCC states, the Saudi monarch started the GCC tour.”

The king’s visit has added significance as it comes a couple of days before the GCC summit in Bahrain.

The king’s visit also coincides with the visits to the UAE of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, French President Francois Hollande, Kurdish President Masoud Barzani and Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic.

On arrival in Abu Dhabi on Saturday, King Salman was received at the airport by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Abu Dhabi crown prince and deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces, and several Cabinet members.

An official reception was held for King Salman at the airport, where the Saudi national anthem was played, accompanied by a 21-gun salute.

The king then shook hands with high-ranking UAE officials, including rulers and ministers, while Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid and Sheikh Mohammad bin Zayed welcomed Saudi officials accompanying the king.

Welcoming the visit of King Salman to the Gulf states, Ibrahim Al-Qayid, founding member of the Riyadh-based National Society for Human Rights, said: “Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as the Kingdom and the GCC, have a strong bilateral relationship, one which has grown even closer these days.”

Al-Qayid added: “King Salman’s visit will be an opportunity to hear and exchange important perspectives on Middle East issues, including Syria, Yemen, the Middle East peace process, Iraq, Daesh, Iran, and above all, terrorism.”

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are close allies, signing a protocol earlier this year to establish a coordination council.

The council is led by Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, who is the UAE deputy prime minister and minister of presidential affairs.

The decision to create the council came after similar agreements between Saudi Arabia and other countries such as Jordan and Turkey.

During this trip, the king is accompanied by several members of the royal family, ministers and top officials.

Prominent among them are Prince Khaled bin Fahd bin Khaled bin Mohammed, Prince Mansour bin Saud bin Abdul Aziz, Economy and Planning Minister Adel Fakeih, Commerce and Investment Minister Majid Al-Qassabi, Culture and Information Minister Adel Al-Toraifi and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Nizar bin Obaid Madani.

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Agencies
July 31,2020

Jeddah, Jul 31: Hajj 2020 pilgrims arrived in Muzdalifah Thursday night to rest after spending the day in Arafat.

Earlier, the pilgrims scaled Mount Arafat to pray and repent, as a highly unusual Hajj approached its climax. They listened to a sermon delivered by Sheikh Abdullah Al-Manea and prayed Dhuhr and Asr prayers together at the Al-Namirah Mosque in Arafat.

This year’s pilgrimage is the smallest in modern times, after the number of participants was greatly restricted to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. 

Tight security was in place around the foot of the rocky hill outside Makkah, also known as Jabal Al-Rahma or Mount of Mercy, in preparation for the high point of the annual ritual.

Video footage shown on state television showed the pilgrims setting off on their climb to the summit. They wore face masks and observed strict social-distancing rules imposed by Saudi authorities.As sprinklers sprayed water on them to provide relief from the summer desert heat, the pilgrims raised their palms as they climbed the slopes of the hill — the site of Prophet Muhammad’s last sermon. When they reached the top they recited holy verses and prayed for forgiveness for their sins.

Earlier, the pilgrims were taken in buses from Mina to Mount Arafat. Strict precautionary measures were in place, with each group accompanied by security teams, ambulances and civil defense vehicles. 

When they arrived, their temperatures were checked before they entered Namirah Mosque to hear a sermon that was translated into 10 languages.

“The camps were set up for pilgrims in Arafat early on,” said Minister of Hajj and Umrah Muhammad Salih Bentin. The sermon at Namirah Mosque was delivered by Sheikh Abdullah Al-Manea, who led the pilgrims in noon and afternoon prayers.

“During Hajj this year, we reiterate that it is essential for pilgrims, as well as everyone assisting them, to adhere to the precautionary regulations that have been implemented,” Al-Manea, a member of the Council of Senior Scholars, said during his sermon. “This is to be done for their own safety.

“Precautions have been put in place to protect lives against the damage that the pandemic can cause, and also to actualize Islam’s teachings pertaining to safeguarding human life by Allah’s permission.”

The stay in Arafat is described as the pinnacle of Hajj and Muslims around the world reflect the actions of pilgrims by asking for forgiveness and praying for their deepest desires.
Pilgrims left Arafat in coaches for Muzdalifah after sunset and will pray the Maghrib and Isha prayers there.

After sunset prayers, the pilgrims made their way down Mount Arafat to Muzdalifah, where they will spend the night before the final Hajj ritual, the symbolic stoning of the devil. 

This year, each pilgrim received sanitized pebbles in advance of the event on Friday, which is the first day of Eid Al-Adha.
This year the Kingdom faced the unprecedented challenge of ensuring pilgrims attending Hajj were protected as much as possible from the risks of the coronavirus.

They will then sleep, pray the Fajr prayer there tomorrow and then leave for Mina.

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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
March 23,2020

Dubai, Mar 23: All inbound, outbound and transit passenger flights to and from the United Arab Emirates – home to one of the world’s busiest hubs – are to be suspended for two weeks.

The UAE’s National Emergency Crisis and Disasters Management Authority (NCEMA) and General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) has announced that passenger flights to, from and through the country will be suspended from 25 March for a period of two weeks, in order to “curb the spread of the Covid-19”.

Freight and emergency evacuation flights will still be permitted to operate.

The suspension affects major global hubs in Dubai and Abu Dhabi. Dubai-based Emirates has already announced that it will suspend most of its passenger flights from 25 March.

“Additional examination and isolation arrangements will be taken later should flights resume, in order to ensure the safety of passengers, air crews and airport personnel and their protection from infection risks,” state the NCEMA and the GCAA.

Dubai International Airport was the third-busiest airport in the world in 2018, handling 89 million passengers.

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