KSrelief’s prosthetics center provides vital services in Aden
Updated 11 February 2022
SPA
ADEN: The prosthetic limbs and physical rehabilitation center in Aden governorate has provided 846 services for 418 beneficiaries in the past month. It continues to provide medical services for Yemenis with the support of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center.
Its work this month included the manufacturing, fitting and maintenance of prosthetic limbs for 171 patients, covering their delivery, measurement and maintenance.
The center also provided other treatments for 247 patients, including physical therapy and consultations.
This project is part of the Kingdom’s efforts, represented by KSrelief, to improve the capacities of the health sector in Yemen.
Meanwhile, the mobile medical clinics of KSrelief provided treatment services for 387 patients in the Hajjah governorate in one week.
KSrelief has implemented 672 projects in Yemen at a total cost of more than $3.9 billion. Yemen is among the top beneficiaries of KSrelief’s assistance.
Saudi foreign minister urges developing cooperation with BRICS to achieve prosperity
Updated 03 June 2023
SPA
CAPE TOWN: Saudi Arabia is keen to develop future cooperation with the BRICS group to achieve collective prosperity, Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah said on Friday.
The BRICS group consists of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The Saudi foreign minister participated on Friday in the ministerial meeting of Friends of BRICS in Cape Town, South Africa, held under the theme, “Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism.”
In his speech at the meeting, Prince Faisal bin Farhan said that the Kingdom was keen to advance its future cooperation with BRICS by benefiting from the potential and capabilities possessed by both sides.
This aimed to fulfill joint interests and achieve prosperity for all, the foreign minister said.
Saudi Arabia was the BRICS group’s largest commercial partner in the Middle East, Prince Faisal said, affirming that trade relations with the BRICS countries had witnessed great growth.
“This reflects the growing and developed relations with the countries of the group,” he said.
The total value of bilateral trade with the countries of the BRICS group increased from $81 billion in 2017 and $128 billion in 2021 to surpass $160 billion last year, the foreign minister said.
The Kingdom shared basic values with the BRICS countries, represented in the belief that relations between countries were based on the principles of respect for sovereignty, non-interference and adherence to international law, Prince Faisal said.
These principles also included the existence of multilateral frameworks and collective action as reference points in the face of mutual challenges.
Saudi Arabia, along with BRICS countries, also believed in the importance of peace, security and stability in order to refocus efforts toward national development and common prosperity, Prince Faisal said.
The Kingdom maintained its commitment to working with international partners to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030, he said.
He added that Saudi Arabia also worked on intensifying global efforts to enhance food and energy security amid recurring crises and supply-chain issues.
The Kingdom was a pioneering country worldwide in humanitarian and development aid and was among the top 10 donors to low- and middle-income countries, Prince Faisal said.
Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Rassi, undersecretary of the foreign affairs ministry for international multilateral affairs, and Saudi Ambassador to South Africa Sultan Al-Liwiahan Al-Anqary were also part of the Saudi delegation at the meeting.
Malaysian minister lauds Saudi Arabia’s Makkah Route initiative
Updated 01 June 2023
SPA
RIYADH: Malaysian Interior Minister Saifuddin Nasution praised Saudi Arabia’s Makkah Route initiative, facilitating the travel procedures of Hajj pilgrims from Malaysia.
The statement was made during Nasution’s visit on Wednesday to a hall dedicated to the initiative at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, where he was briefed on its readiness to facilitate pilgrims’ journey.
The Makkah Route initiative enables Hajj pilgrims from six countries to complete immigration, cargo and travel procedures before departing for the Kingdom.
Kenyan defense minister meets Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition chief
Updated 31 May 2023
Arab News
RIYADH: Secretary-General of the Islamic Military Counter Terrorism Coalition Maj. Gen. Mohammed bin Saeed Al-Moghedi met Kenyan Defense Minister Aden Bare Duale in Nairobi on Wednesday to discuss counterterrorism and violent extremism-related issues.
During his meeting with Al-Moghedi, the Kenyan minister praised the coalition’s framework – for military, counterterrorism, anti-terrorism financing, as well as intellectual and media matters – as a strategic pillar in fighting terrorism and violent extremism.
He added that terrorism has its roots in intellectual and ideological orientations, which constitute the basis of the extremist approach.
“Working on preparing the mindset and integrating it within the proper framework constitutes one of the proactive action pillars aimed to repress and contain extremist thinking,” Duale said.
Al-Moghedi said that strategic initiatives by the coalition in its counterterrorism efforts have taken into consideration the hierarchy of terrorist tendencies.
The secretary-general also spoke about social media and communication platforms, and their role in influencing users. He also discussed countering illegal terror financing through military support and assistance services.
Who’s Who: Hussain AbdRab Al-Nabi, vice president at SAP South Europe, Middle East and Africa
Updated 31 May 2023
Arab News
Hussain AbdRab Al-Nabi is an innovation and strategy marketing leader and expert who has worked in both marketing and finance fields. He is vice president and head of marketing strategy at SAP South Europe, Middle East and Africa.
He has contributed significantly to SAP throughout his more than decade-long experience with the company.
As VP, his responsibilities include developing and implementing cohesive marketing strategies for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and managing relationships with regional and global stakeholders across all departments.
AbdRab Al-Nabi is also executive marketing director at SAP for Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Iraq, Syria, Pakistan and Afghanistan. His responsibilities cover seven countries and more than 13 major cities.
Before that, he worked as head of marketing transformation at SAP, where he led a team for restructuring the scope of marketing within the targeted countries.
In 2016, he was appointed marketing director for the newly segmented market unit of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Yemen, and as a financial services marketing program head for the MENA region. During that time, AbdRab Al-Nabi developed marketing programs for the financial services industry.
Previously at SAP, he was assigned as marketing lead for the public services and energy, and natural resources industries, and he worked closely with industry principles to drive a focused marketing plan.
He first joined SAP in 2011 as a country marketing manager, handling the marketing and demand generation initiatives in Saudi Arabian operations.
In 2008, AbdRab Al-Nabi worked at Zain Group as a segment manager of corporate marketing and acting head of business marketing.
Before that, he was a relationship manager in the commercial markets division at SAMBA Financial Group.
AbdRab Al-Nabi started his career in 2001 as a credit and marketing senior officer at ORIX Leasing company, and later worked as a financial controller at Arab National Bank.
He holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals. AbdRab Al-Nabi completed the Esade executive leadership program and the Misk leaders program last year. He has also obtained certifications from the Association of International Product Marketing and Management.
Saudi citizen’s kidnapping adds new chapter to Lebanon’s chronicle of crime and impunity
Despite Mashari Al-Mutairi’s record-fast rescue, incident revives memories of abductions, hijackings, and armed robberies
Saudi Arabia is committed to having Lebanon back in the Arab fold, says Saudi researcher Salman Al-Ansari
Updated 31 May 2023
Rawan Radwan
JEDDAH: Despite the record-fast rescue by Lebanese security services on Tuesday of a kidnapped Saudi citizen, the incident comes as yet another reminder of the many heists, abductions and hijackings that have plagued the Arab country since the 1970s.
Mashari Al-Mutairi, an employee of Saudi Arabia’s Saudia airlines who lived in the Beirut suburb of Aramoun, was abducted at about 3 a.m. on Sunday. The Lebanese Army’s intelligence directorate found and freed him after a security operation on the border with Syria.
He was received at the Saudi Embassy in Beirut by Ambassador Walid Bukhari, who said in a statement: “The released Saudi citizen is in good health, and we thank the army and internal security forces. The security efforts confirm the Lebanese authorities’ keenness to secure tourism security.”
News of Al-Mutairi’s abduction will have come as little surprise to millions of Lebanese who have endured decades of similar disappearances, hostage situations and armed robberies — crimes that are again on the rise as the nation grapples with chronic economic woes.
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Walid bin Abdullah Bukhari, right, and Lebanon’s caretaker Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi attend a press conference at Saudi Arabia’s embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. (Reuters)
In the first 10 months of 2021, the number of car thefts rose by 212 percent, robberies by 266 percent and murders by 101 percent compared to the same period of 2019, according to figures from International Information, an independent consultancy based in Beirut.
Ever since the 1975-90 civil war, Lebanon has been a transit, source and destination country for arms trafficking. These same networks are today used to move stolen goods, control the black market and facilitate the burgeoning drugs trade — many of them controlled by the armed Shiite group Hezbollah, which continues to dominate Lebanese public life.
“Any country that has a non-state actor within it is considered a ‘failed state,’” Salman Al-Ansari, a Saudi political researcher, told Arab News. “Lebanon has never been this dominated by a militia that works for an outside power.
“The crime, drug smuggling, economic collapse, currency decline are only symptoms of the actual root problem, which is the lack of national sovereignty. There is no point in rectifying the symptoms as long as the actual root problem exists. It’s like hoping to treat a serious illness with a painkiller.
“Lebanon should change course and realize that their future is very dark if they allow a non-state actor to dictate its trajectory.”
Events in Lebanon today have echoes of the bad old days of the 1980s, when kidnappings, torture, murder and drug trafficking reached endemic proportions against the backdrop of the civil war, which devastated the country.
Back then, Westerners were common targets. In 1982, pro-Iran extremists kidnapped Davis S. Dodge, then president of American University in Beirut, from the university campus. He was flown to a prison near Tehran and held until his release a year later.
In 1984, Dodge’s successor as president of the AUB, Dr. Malcolm Kerr, was shot dead by two gunmen outside his office. The Islamic Jihad Organization claimed responsibility for the killing, citing the US military presence in Lebanon as its motive.
The same year, William Francis Buckley, a CIA operative working at the US Embassy in Beirut, was kidnapped by Hezbollah and later murdered. One of the reasons for his abduction was thought to be the upcoming trial of 17 Iran-backed militants in Kuwait.
Several times during this period, whole planeloads of people were taken hostage. In 1984, a Kuwait Airways flight from Kuwait City to Karachi, Pakistan, was hijacked by four Lebanese and diverted to Tehran.
Due to unmet demands, the hijackers shot and killed American passengers Charles Hegna and William Stanford, both of whom were officials from the US Agency for International Development, before dumping their bodies on the tarmac.
Less than a year later, on June 14, 1985, TWA Flight 847 was hijacked soon after taking off from Athens. For three days, the plane went to and from Algiers and Beirut. US Navy diver Robert Stethem was murdered aboard the flight.
Dozens of passengers were held hostage over the next two weeks until they were finally released by their captors after some of their demands were met. The hijackers had demanded the release of 700 Shiite Muslims from Israeli custody.
Western analysts accused Hezbollah of hijacking the plane, a claim the group rejected.
In 1987, British humanitarian and hostage negotiator Terry Waite traveled to Beirut to negotiate with the IJO, which had taken several hostages. However, he was himself abducted by the group and remained in captivity for 1,763 days — the first four years of which he spent in solitary confinement.
A year later, Col. William Higgins, a US marine serving with the UN forces in South Lebanon, was kidnapped and murdered by a Hezbollah-aligned splinter group of the Al-Amal movement, “Believers Resistance.”
Malcolm Kerr, President of the American University of Beirut, who was shot and killed by gunmen as he arrived at his office on campus. (AUB)
Although Lebanon is no longer in the grip of outright civil war, the financial crisis which began in 2019, combined with the political class’s failure to establish a new government, have created an environment of growing lawlessness and desperation.
Indeed, there are indications that the kidnapping of Al-Mutairi could have been orchestrated by a criminal organization with a hand in the production and trade of the amphetamine Captagon, which blights the entire region.
Lebanese news station MTV reported in recent days that a drug dealer known as Abu Salle, who is described as one of the region’s most prominent cartel bosses, was behind Al-Mutairi’s kidnapping.
The Lebanese Army raid of a Captagon factory in connection with the kidnapping lends weight to this theory.
Criminal networks move stolen goods, control the black market and facilitate the burgeoning drugs trade in Lebanon — many of them controlled by Hezbollah. (AFP)
Although Lebanese officials were quick to condemn the kidnapping, there are concerns the incident could hamper efforts to normalize relations between Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, which have long been strained by the influence of Hezbollah.
However, Al-Ansari is confident the kidnapping will not obstruct progress on normalization.
“This could be considered a small obstacle in the way, but at the end of the day, Saudi Arabia is committed to having Lebanon back to the Arab fold in a way that it can have its own sovereignty away from Iranian hegemony,” he said.
In March, Saudi Arabia and Iran restored diplomatic relations under a Chinese-mediated deal. How this new arrangement will impact the activities of Iran’s proxy forces throughout the region, however, remains ill-defined.
TWA Boeing 727 captain John L. Testrake from Richmond, Missouri, emerges from the cockpit of his hijacked airliner 19 June 1985 at Beirut airport to talk to newsmen. (Getty Images/AFP)
“It is still unclear what the Chinese mediation between Saudi Arabia and Iran will result in with regard to the Lebanese file,” Al-Ansari said. “It will de-escalate the tension, but it will not solve the problem overnight.”
Although Lebanon is a long way from reaching stability, Al-Ansari believes Saudi Arabia “will work hard with the highest level of government in Lebanon to find a way to have political and economic reforms, combat corruption and drug smuggling, and have the right kind of governance.”
International observers warned of a potential power vacuum after long-time president Michel Aoun left power in October. To this day, Lebanon’s parliament has yet to elect a new president, prolonging the nation’s political paralysis.
“The Saudi ambassador to Beirut has been vocal and supportive in finding a solution to the power vacuum and pushing for reforms and appointing a government, because at the end of the day, Saudi Arabia can’t provide anything if there is no actual solidified government in Beirut,” Al-Ansari said.
“Saudi Arabia doesn’t want anything from Lebanon except for it to be politically stable and prosperous. It will take a long time to accomplish these goals, but at the end of the day, it’s up to the Lebanese to decide their future, and the Saudis will be helping them with whatever they can.”