by admin | May 25, 2021 | Investing, Muslim World
Riyadh : At the invitation of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan arrived in Saudi Arabia to participate in the Future Investment Initiative (FII) conference that kicked off in Riyadh on Tuesday. During the high level talks held on the sidelines of FII, it was agreed that the Kingdom will provide Pakistan with up to $3 billion in deferred payments for oil imports for one year, Pakistan’s government said in a statement on Tuesday.
Khan is accompanied, during the visit, by Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Finance Minister Asad Umar, Information Minister Fawad Ahmed, Advisor to the Prime Minister on Commerce Abdul Razaq Dawood, and Chairman of the Board of Investment (BoI) Haroon Sharif.
During the visit, Prime Minister Khan had detailed bilateral discussions with King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who agreed to the premier’s suggestion to reduce visa fee for Pakistani workers, which is a significant step toward enhancing Pakistan’s workforce in the Kingdom and facilitating travel of people from both countries.
Far-reaching decisions on bilateral economic and financial cooperation were also agreed. These included the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the ministries of finance in the two countries, where it was agreed that Saudi Arabia will give Pakistan $3 billion as a balance of payment support for a year.
The statement noted that the earlier visit to Islamabad by a Saudi delegation had provided the opportunity to evaluate the possibility of investing in a petroleum refinery in Pakistan, where Saudi Arabia confirmed its interest in the project and a MoU will be signed after obtaining cabinet approval. Saudi Arabia also expressed interest in developing mineral resources in Pakistan. For this purpose, a Saudi delegation will be invited to visit Pakistan after consultations between the federal government and the government of Balochistan.
Following the opening of the three-day FII conference, a Pakistan-specific session was organized, in which Prime Minister Khan underlined his country’s priorities toward optimizing the economy and attracting foreign investment.
Stressing the focus of his government on human resource development, Khan highlighted the potential of Pakistan’s youth, identified lucrative investment opportunities in the tourism sector, minerals, coal and gas exploration, and information technology.
Meanwhile, the prime minister said successes have been achieved in the fight against terrorism, citing the peace and stability in the country. He added that this has elaborated the significance of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), including the investment opportunities in the Special Economic Zones (SEZ).
—AB/UNA-OIC
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Riyadh : Saudi Arabia has confirmed that missing journalist and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi died in a fist fight involving more than a dozen Saudi officials at the country’s consulate in Istanbul, the media reported on Saturday.
A statement carried on Saudi state TV on Friday night was the first official confirmation of Khashoggi’s death in Turkey 18 days ago, and the first acknowledgment by Saudi Arabia of its role in it, reports CNN.
“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia expresses deep regret at the painful developments that have taken place in this case and affirms the commitment of the authorities in the Kingdom to bring the facts to the attention of the public and to hold accountable all those involved,” it said.
The statement conceded that Khashoggi died as a result of the altercation after he had come to the consulate to obtain paperwork needed for his upcoming wedding to his Turkish fiancee, Hatice Cengiz.
Five high-ranking officials have been removed from their posts, including the deputy head of the Saudi intelligence service, and 18 Saudis have been detained, it added.
Khashoggi disappeared after going to the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul at about 1.15 p.m. on October 2 to obtain the paperwork. She raised the alarm just before 5 p.m, while she was still waiting outside.
According to Saudi state media, citing official sources, the public prosecutor’s office investigated a number of suspects based on the information they received from Turkish authorities.
Preliminary investigations showed a suspect went to Istanbul to meet with Khashoggi with the possible intention of bringing the journalist to the Kingdom.
The Saudis have set up a commission, led by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, that will restructure the Saudi general intelligence directorate and will have one month to release a report, state TV said.
The commission will consist of national security officials, the Foreign Ministry and the Interior Ministry.
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he found the Saudi claim credible, CNN said.
He called the official statement from Riyadh a “good first step” and said talks with Saudi officials would continue, including raising some questions about their account of events.
“I think we’re getting close to solving a very big problem,” Trump said.
He added that Saudi Arabia has been a “great ally in the Middle East”, but that “what happened is unacceptable”.
Trump said he would work with Congress to develop a response to Khashoggi’s death, but said that he didn’t want sanctions to affect US arms sales to the Kingdom.
Trump said he would withhold a fuller comment until he speaks with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi Arabia has been under intense pressure since Khashoggi’s disappearance.
Turkish officials, mostly speaking privately, have released a steady stream of gory details about what happened to the journalist at the consulate. They said he was killed soon after he entered the embassy, and his body dismembered.
None of the Saudi statements however, give any clue as to what happened to Khashoggi’s remains.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Media, World
Washington : The Washington Post has published the last article written by its missing Saudi Arabian journalist Jamal Khashoggi in which he wrote about the poor state of press freedom across the Arab world.
Khashoggi’s editor, Karen Attiah, received the column from the journalist’s translator one day after his disappearance on October 2.
“The Post held off publishing it because we hoped Jamal would come back to us so that he and I could edit it together. Now I have to accept: That is not going to happen,” Attiah said on Wednesday.
“Khashoggi’s last column titled “What the Arab world needs most is freedom of expression”, espoused the cause that animated most of his life: free expression in the Arab world”.
“Arab governments have been given free rein to continue silencing the media,” including the internet, so the region “is facing its own version of an Iron Curtain, imposed not by external actors but through domestic forces vying for power”, Khashoggi wrote.
He added that the Arabs “are either uninformed or misinformed. They are unable to adequately address, much less publicly discuss, matters that affect the region and their day-to-day lives”.
In his final article, the journalist who left Saudi Arabia where he held comfortable positions in the ruling establishment, and moved to Washington where he began contributing columns to The Post, called for “the creation of an independent international forum, isolated from the influence of nationalist governments spreading hate through propaganda”.
In 2016, he had warned against the regime of King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and his son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, about “an overly enthusiastic embrace of then-President-elect Donald Trump”.
In the columns he published in The Washington Post before his disappearance, Khashoggi offered a consistent message: “Saudi Arabia desperately needed the liberalizing reforms being promised by Mohammed bin Salman, but they could not be combined with repression.”
“Replacing old tactics of intolerance with new ways of repression is not the answer,” he wrote in an article in April .
Khashoggi has been missing since he entered the Saudi Consulate in Istanbul on October 2 to pick up documents for his upcoming wedding to his Turkish fiancee Hatice Cengiz.
Unconfirmed reports said that Khashoggi was likely killed inside the compound, a claim denied by Saudi officials as “baseless”.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Business Summit, Events, Investing, Markets, Social Media, Technology
San Francisco : US internet giant Google Inc. has said its Cloud CEO Diane Greene will not attend an upcoming international business conference to be held in Saudi Arabia.
The high-profile Future Investment Initiative (FII) Summit, dubbed as “Davos in the Desert” is scheduled for October 23-25 in Riyadh, Xinhua news agency reported.
Greene is among the latest list of big-name executives in Silicon Valley that have announced staying away from the FII after Jamal Khashoggi, a columnist for Washington Post, reportedly disappeared from a Saudi consulate in Turkey on October 2.
Over the past week, many corporate leaders and executives have announced their decision to shun the Saudi tech summit.
Among them were Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, former AOL CEO and venture capitalist Steve Case, J.P. Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Ford Chairman Bill Ford, and Google Android creator Andy Rubin. They have cancelled their plans for attending the event in Saudi Arabia last week.
“We can confirm Diane Greene will not be attending the FII Summit,” a Google spokesperson said in a statement, without specifying whether the decision was linked to the Khashoggi incident.
Turkey media said Khashoggi, a critic of the Saudi government, vanished soon after he entered the Saudi consulate in Istanbul and was said to have been killed there.
The Saudi government has denied any role in the alleged killing of the Washington Post columnist.
The business summit is being hosted by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund, which has invested in some Silicon Valley tech firms such as Uber and other startups.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Muslim World
Islamabad : The government of Saudi Arabia has signed three grant agreements with Pakistan to finance three road infrastructure and energy projects under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“These agreements have been inked in line with the understanding reached during Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent visit to Saudi Arabia,” Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry told a press conference here on Thursday.
The agreements were signed by the Saudi envoy and the officials of Pakistan’s Finance Ministry, reports Dawn news.
“The first step has been taken as three grant agreements have been signed. This is a very positive step and bodes well for relations between the two countries,” the Minister added.
Giving a briefing about the federal cabinet’s meeting held earlier in the day, he said that a high-level Saudi delegation will arrive in Pakistan on Sunday for materialising the deal between Islamabad and Riyadh.
More agreements would be inked next week between a high-level Saudi delegation and Pakistani officials, Chaudhry said.
The accords will be related to Reko Diq’s gold and copper mines and the oil refinery at Gwadar Port, and the delegation would comprise the Saudi investment team, minister for petroleum and minister for energy.
“During the Prime Minister’s recent visit, Saudi Arabian leaders including Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman were eager to finalise the deal within days despite the fact that such agreements require months for materialising,” the Minister said.
—IANS
