RIYADH: Lebanon’s Patriarch Bechara Boutros Al-Rahi, head of the Maronite Church, met on Tuesday with Saad Hariri, who announced his resignation as Lebanon’s prime minister from Riyadh on Nov. 4.
Patriarch Al-Rahi is making a historic first visit to Saudi Arabia. He arrived in Riyadh on Monday evening and met with community members.
Before leaving Beirut, Al-Rahi said: “The Kingdom has long supported Lebanon … relations between us are based on friendship and brotherhood.”
“The Patriarch represents all the Patriarchs and Christians of the East. He is carrying a message of love and openness to Saudi Arabia, which is now witnessing further openness and positive changes,” Al-Rahi’s spokesman Walid Ghayyad told Arab News in Beirut on Monday.
Hariri announced his resignation in a television broadcast, saying he believed there was an assassination plot against him and accused Hezbollah of sowing strife in the Arab world.
Lebanese Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Abdul Sattar Issa, said the patriarch’s visit demonstrated the important steps taken by Saudi Arabia to modernize its institutions and to reinforce perceptions of Islam as a religion of moderation.
Visiting Lebanese patriarch meets Saad Hariri in Saudi Arabia
Visiting Lebanese patriarch meets Saad Hariri in Saudi Arabia
Court dismisses case against Egyptians accused in shipwreck that killed several migrants, including Pakistanis
- Nine Egyptians were jailed for nearly a year on suspicion they were crew members of ship that sank last year
- Adriana, carrying hundreds of migrants from Pakistan, Egypt and Syria, sank off a Greek coast in June 2023
NAFPLIO, Greece: A group of Egyptians jailed for nearly a year pending trial for a deadly shipwreck were released from jail Wednesday, a day after a Greek court threw out the case against them on grounds that it had no jurisdiction to try it.
Nine Egyptians had been charged with being part of the crew of the Adriana, a massively overcrowded trawler that capsized and sank near Greece last June with an estimated 700 people on board while sailing from Libya to Italy. Only 104 people survived – all men, mostly from Syria, Egypt and Pakistan — and 82 bodies were recovered.
The nine, who have been in pre-trial custody since their rescue last year, had been charged with being members of a migrant smuggling ring and were accused of having caused the shipwreck. They had faced several life sentences if convicted.
But a court in the southern Greek city of Kalamata on Tuesday ruled it had no jurisdiction to try the case, as the shipwreck occurred in international waters, none of those involved had been trying to enter Greece, the ship was not Greek flagged and no Greek citizens were on board.
The Egyptians’ defense team had argued that the nine were not crew members of the ill-fated trawler but had been paying passengers who were mistakenly identified as crew by nine other survivors, and that they were being used as scapegoats by authorities eager to put all the blame for the tragedy on the trawler’s crew.
Eight of the nine were released from a jail outside the southern city of Nafplio on Wednesday evening. They were transferred to a police station in the city, where they were to remain in custody overnight pending further procedures. It was not immediately clear when they would be fully released from custody.
The ninth defendant was to be released from a different jail.
The massive loss of life in the sinking of the Adriana in the early hours of June 14, 2023, renewed pressure on European governments to protect the lives of migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach the continent. The European border protection agency Frontex says illegal border detections at EU frontiers increased for three consecutive years through 2023, reaching the highest level since the 2015-2016 migration crisis, driven largely by arrivals by sea.
The exact circumstances of how the Adriana sank remain unclear. The trawler was sailing in international waters but within Greece’s search and rescue area of operations, and a coast guard patrol boat and passing merchant ships were near the vessel for several hours. Greek authorities have said the trawler’s crew repeatedly refused offers of help, insisting it wanted to continue to Italy.
Several survivors have said the boat capsized after the Greek coast guard attempted to tow it, an accusation Greek authorities have vehemently denied. A Naval Court investigation into the sinking is still underway.
Speaking at the courthouse after the case was dismissed on Tuesday, Dimitris Choulis, one of the lawyers in the defense team for the nine Egyptians, said attention should turn to how the Adriana sank.
“The court today had to be very brave to issue this decision, and to say that these people are not the smugglers,” Choulis said.
The lawyer blamed the tragedy on the Greek coast guard and Europe’s migration policies, and said it was essential to “make sure that nothing like that would happen again.”
US returns 133 stolen artefacts to Pakistan valued at $13 million
- illegal antiquities trade is a multi-billion-dollar global industry, as per a 2018 report by Standard Chartered
- This marks fifth such transfer between US and Pakistan, from where artefacts dating to Gandhara period were stolen
ISLAMABAD: The United States this week returned 133 pieces of stolen antiquities valued over $13 million to Pakistan, state-run media reported, marking the fifth such transfer to the South Asian country from where artefacts dating back to the Gandhara period were stolen.
Artefacts are man-made objects, such as pieces of art or tools, that are of particular cultural, historical, or archaeological interest.
The illegal antiquities trade is a multi-billion-dollar global industry according to a 2018 report by Standard Chartered Bank. The trade is also often a major funding source for criminal and militant groups on the supply side, according to a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP).
“The United States returned to Pakistan 133 pieces of stolen antiquities worth over $13 million at a ceremony at the Manhattan District Attorney’s office in New York on Tuesday,” the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) reported.
Some of the antiquities were displayed during the ceremony at which Pakistani Consul General in New York Aamer Ahmed Atozai said the artefacts would adorn museums across Pakistan.
“The consul general also signed an agreement with the Assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, Matthew Bogdanos, who heads the Antiquities Trafficking Unit for the repatriation of the returned artefacts to Pakistan,” APP said.
Bogdanos said he was delighted to return “glorious pieces of Pakistani heritage” to the country whose civilization dates back to 5,000 years, APP said.
Pakistan and the US regularly collaborate to return stolen artefacts to Pakistan. In 2021, the US, after conducting a probe into an Indian-American art dealer Shubash Kapoor, had returned 192 stolen antiquities worth around $3.4 million.
In August 2022, the US again returned 104 artefacts valued at $3.3 million to Pakistan that were among thousands of antiquities looted from Asian countries and seized from Kapoor.
UK Labour Party will pursue recognition of Palestine once in power: Shadow foreign secretary
- David Lammy spoke on same day Ireland, Spain, Norway announced recognition, PM called July general election
- Lammy slams Israeli politicians who want ‘no-state solution’
LONDON: The UK Labour Party will work toward recognition of a Palestinian state if it wins the next general election, Shadow Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Wednesday.
His comments follow Ireland, Norway and Spain deciding to recognize Palestinian statehood, and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announcing a general election for July 4.
Lammy said: “I think it’s important, or preferable, that recognition is part of the process to two states, and that’s why I place my emphasis on the two-state solution.”
He added: “I have been quite prepared to disagree with a position put by some politicians in Israel, that there can be a one-state solution or actually I think what is preferred is a no-state solution.”
Israel said it was recalling its ambassadors to Ireland, Norway and Spain.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said recognition of Palestine is the “right thing to do.” He added that innocent people in Gaza are enduring “appalling hardship and suffering,” and that recognition of Palestinian statehood is not a move against recognizing Israel’s right to exist.
His Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Store said: “There cannot be peace in the Middle East if there is no recognition.” He added: “Palestine has a fundamental right to an independent state.”
Saudi crown prince and French president discuss bilateral relations during phone call
- Saudi crown prince and French president exchanged views on a number of regional and international issues including the latest developments in Gaza
RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed relations between their countries and ways to develop existing cooperation during a phone call on Wednesday.
The leaders congratulated each other on an agreement between the Saudia Group, represented by Saudia and flyadeal, and Airbus to purchase 105 aircraft, Saudi Press Agency reported.
France is one of Airbus’ four founding countries, as well as home to the company’s headquarters facility – which is located in Toulouse.
The crown prince and Macron also discussed topics of common interest. They also exchanged views on a number of regional and international issues including the latest developments in the situation in Gaza, the need to intensify efforts and international communication to reach an immediate end to the war there, and the necessity of delivering adequate humanitarian aid to the territory.
Washington stepping up defense cooperation with GCC states: US official
- ‘The threats from Iran and its proxies are pervasive,’ Dan Dhapiro tells briefing attended by Arab News
- ‘The US has an interest in deepening the partnerships we’ve forged with our Gulf partners’
LONDON: The US is stepping up defense cooperation with Gulf Cooperation Council countries in a bid to address one of the region’s “most challenging periods in recent years,” Dan Shapiro, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Middle East policy, told a press briefing attended by Arab News on Wednesday.
Gulf military representatives on Wednesday met senior US officials at the GCC headquarters in Riyadh as part of the partnership’s maritime and missile defense working groups.
It comes a month after Iran launched a massive drone and ballistic missile strike at Israel, and amid simmering regional tensions over the Gaza war.
Conversations between GCC and US officials are “more important than ever,” said Shapiro. “The US-GCC defense working groups are rooted in a strong US partnership with the GCC and our collective commitment to cooperating on regional security issues,” he added.
“For over a decade, we’ve worked together to address pressing threats and crises. The US has an interest in deepening the partnerships we’ve forged with our Gulf partners.”
Shapiro, who previously served as US ambassador to Israel and Abraham Accords envoy, warned that “the threats from Iran and its proxies are pervasive” in the region.
He said Yemen’s Houthi militia is carrying out “utterly illegitimate acts of terrorism” in its Red Sea campaign against civilian shipping.
The working group meetings saw US and Gulf officials explore ways to “bolster information sharing, counter proliferation, and increase the effectiveness of combined interdictions of illegal maritime shipments to the Houthis,” he added.
The April 13 Iranian attack on Israel, which Shapiro said was a “watershed moment in the Middle East,” also loomed large in the meetings.
“In the wake of Iran’s unprecedented attack and our successful defeat of this attack, the US and our Gulf partners agreed that taking steps to deepen the integration of our air and missile defenses across the Middle East is more important than ever,” he added.
“On April 13, we showcased what we’re collectively capable of when we work together on defeating regional security threats.
“It was a proof of concept of integrated air and missile defense, showing that our work to build this architecture isn’t theoretical.
“It has real-world, real-time impact. It saves lives and it keeps conflicts from escalating. And it showed we’re stronger when we act together.
“Ironically, Iran’s attack on April 13 was ultimately successful in sparking deeper cooperation on integrated air and missile defense.”
Shapiro said Washington’s Gulf partners, by increasing integrated air and missile defense in the near term, hope to lay the foundations for a GCC-wide air defense system.
US officials at the working group meetings also proposed joint military training “to ensure that our forces share a common operational language,” he added.
At the press briefing, a senior US defense official said on condition of anonymity that Washington’s Gulf partners are “laser focused” on understanding the nature of the Iranian threat, adding: “Having that conversation with the GCC in May 2024 is completely different from any conversation you could’ve had with any partner in the region before April 13, 2024.”
The Iranian strike produced a “galvanizing effect” across the Gulf, encouraging states to boost their commitment to building shared defense systems, the official said.
On the flare-up in the Red Sea, Washington does not view its campaign against the Houthis as a “purely military challenge,” instead accepting that “military solutions are necessary but not sufficient,” the official added.
“It’s a whole-of-government challenge from the US perspective. And it’s an international challenge from the world perspective.”
The working group meetings in Riyadh also saw discussions on “some of the non-military ways” to target the militia, including “delegitimization, sanctions and condemnation, and designation as a global terrorist organization,” the official said.
