Saudi Arabia wins seat at UN commission on women

Abdallah Al-Mouallami, the Saudi envoy to the UN
Updated 18 April 2018
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Saudi Arabia wins seat at UN commission on women

  • The Kingdom was one of 12 new countries elected
  • The commission will serve a three-year term beginning next year.

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia has been granted a place on the Executive Council of the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

The Kingdom was one of 12 new countries elected on Tuesday in a secret ballot during a meeting of the UN Economic and Social Council in New York. It will serve a three-year term beginning next year. It comes almost a year after being elected the 45th member of the commission.

“It’s a token of appreciation of the Kingdom’s efforts to empower women and have them... become an integral part of Saudi society, and a recognition of the reform efforts led by King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,” said Abdallah Al-Mouallami, the Saudi envoy to the UN. “This calls on us to underline women’s achievements in the Kingdom and abroad at all levels.”

Saudi Arabia’s UN mission said on Twitter: “Saudi Arabia looks forward to working alongside our fellow members starting in January 2019.”

The role of the commission is to promote women’s empowerment. The body meets annually to evaluate progress and formulate policies to promote the advancement of women.


Saudi, Pakistan defense chiefs discuss ‘measures needed to halt’ Iranian attacks on Kingdom

Updated 11 min 46 sec ago
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Saudi, Pakistan defense chiefs discuss ‘measures needed to halt’ Iranian attacks on Kingdom

RIYADH: Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman and Pakistan’s  Chief of Defense Forces Asim Munir discussed Iran’s attacks on the Kingdom, amid the escalating military conflict in the Middle East. 

“We discussed Iranian attacks on the Kingdom and the measures needed to halt them within the framework of our Joint Strategic Defense Agreement,” Prince Khalid wrote on social media early on Saturday.

“We stressed that such actions undermine regional security and stability and expressed hope that the Iranian side will exercise wisdom and avoid miscalculation.”

The US and Israel began a large-scale military campaign against Iran on Feb. 28. Iran has since attacked a number of sites across the Gulf.

Tehran has also attacked US and Israeli military assets as the war as escalated, impacting lives in the peaceful Arabian Gulf peninsula and risked shaking the global economy as Iran continued restricting energy shipping along the Strait of Hormuz.

The Saudi Defense Ministry said a number of drones had been shot down that were targeting the Shayba oil field in the Empty Quarter on Saturday.

A drone attacked the US embassy in Riyadh on Tuesday causing a minor fire, but no one was hurt in the incident.

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan signed a “Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement”  in September, pledging that aggression against one country would be treated as an attack on both.

Separately, Prince Abdulaziz bin Saud bin Naif, the Saudi interior minister, received a call from his Pakistani counterpart Raza Naqvi, who condemned the blatant attacks targeting the Kingdom and affirmed his country’s solidarity in confronting any threats to the Kingdom’s security and stability, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday.