Saudi king discusses key issues with Lieberman

May 1, 2012

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Riyadh, May 1: Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah held wide-ranging talks with US Sen. Joseph Lieberman, chairman of the US Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, here at Al-Yamamah Palace yesterday.

The talks between King Abdullah and the visiting US senator focused "on key bilateral and regional issues" with a keen desire to strengthen ties and forge common positions to deal with new challenges facing the region and the world at large.

King Abdullah and Lieberman reviewed a number of issues, said an SPA report published yesterday. "The visit of Lieberman, who heads the US Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee responsible for assuring the efficiency and effectiveness of the US federal government, is also said to be some sort of farewell call to Saudi officials," said a reliable source, who preferred to remain anonymous. He was referring to Lieberman's Senate term ending this year.

The audience with the king was attended by Prince Saud Al-Faisal, minister of foreign affairs; Prince Muqrin bin Abdulaziz, chief of General Intelligence; Prince Miteb bin Abdullah, minister of state, member of the Cabinet and commander of the National Guard; Prince Abdulaziz bin Abdullah, deputy minister of foreign affairs; Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi ambassador to the United States; and senior US officials.

The source said Lieberman, who will wrap up his visit to Riyadh today, also met with Prince Salman, minister of defense yesterday. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations and cooperation between the two countries besides exchanging information about regional issues. Lieberman has suggested that Saudi Arabia and Qatar arm Syrian rebels in a bid to stop the bloodbath in Syria.

Lieberman said in a statement a few days ago: “It is time for the Obama administration to acknowledge what is obvious and indisputable in Syria: the Annan plan has failed."

Assad has escalated the violence, killing at least 1,000 additional Syrians and displacing thousands more from their homes, said the US senator, adding that “changing the military balance inside Syria requires the United States, in close coordination with our Turkish, Arab and other allies, to provide the Syrian opposition with the help they are pleading for to defend themselves."

This can include training and equipping the Syrian opposition with weapons, providing them with tactical intelligence, and using air power to target Assad’s command-and-control and help the Syrian opposition to create safe zones inside Syria, he added.

In early April, Lieberman went on a surprise trip to the Turkish-Syrian border to meet with leaders of the Free Syria Army and visit Syrian refugees who have been under attack by Syrian government forces. At that time also, Lieberman said in a statement that Syrian President Bashar Assad has violated the terms of Kofi Anann's cease-fire and that the only practical way forward is to arm the Syrian opposition.


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News Network
March 26,2024

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There is no let-up in the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an “immediate ceasefire.”

Israel carried out air raids and artillery strikes on several parts of Gaza on Tuesday, hitting residential buildings and gatherings of displaced people, “killing and wounding hundreds of people”, the Palestinian Information Center said.

Among the victims are 15 people, including four women and children, who were killed in an attack on a house in the neighborhood of Mosbeh, north of Rafah.

Media reports also said that fighting on the ground continued unabated.

That’s while the UN Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution for an “immediate ceasefire” for the ongoing Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

The resolution was put forward by the 10 non-permanent members of the UN Security Council. The US abstained and the 14 other council members all voted in favor of it.

After the vote, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres wrote on social media platform X that failing to implement the resolution “would be unforgivable.”

Palestinian resistance movements have welcomed the resolution, but Israel’s minister for military affairs Yoav Gallant said Israel will not stop its attacks in Gaza. 

“We will operate against Hamas everywhere – including in places where we have not yet been,” Gallant said.

Israel’s foreign minister, Israel Katz, also said in a post on X that the attacks will continue until all the captives taken by Hamas during its October 7 blitz are released.

Israel unleashed its war on Gaza on October 7 after the Palestinian Hamas resistance group carried out Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the usurping entity in retaliation for its intensified atrocities against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the offensive, the Tel Aviv regime has killed more than 32,300 Palestinians and injured over 74,000 others.

The Tel Aviv regime has also imposed a “complete siege” on the territory, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

Francesca Albanese, the UN special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, said Israel has committed acts of genocide in Gaza.

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News Network
March 29,2024

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Dozens of people have lost their lives and sustained injuries when Israeli military aircraft carried out a string of aerial assaults on targets near the northwestern Syrian city of Aleppo, according to Syrian officials.

Citing an unnamed military source, Syria’s official news agency SANA reported that “the Israeli enemy launched an aerial attack at approximately 1:45 a.m. local time on Friday (March 29) from the direction of Athriya, southeast of Aleppo.”

It added that “civilians and military personnel” had been killed and wounded in the strikes.

SANA noted that Israeli drone strikes had targeted civilians in Aleppo and its suburbs. It did not give an exact number for the casualties.

Two security sources said the strikes on Aleppo early on Friday killed 33 civilians and military personnel.

There was no immediate statement from Israeli officials on the strikes.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and once its commercial center, has come under such attacks in the past that led to the closure of its international airport. Friday's strike did not affect the airport.

On Thursday evening, Syrian media outlets reported Israeli airstrikes near the capital Damascus saying it wounded two civilians.

The Israeli regime often conducts airstrikes on military installations in Syria, particularly those belonging to the Lebanese resistance group Hezbollah.

Hezbollah has been instrumental in supporting the Syrian army in its battle against terrorists backed by foreign entities.

The Tel Aviv regime does not acknowledge its military actions within Syrian territories, which is widely interpreted as a knee-jerk reaction to the Syrian government’s triumph over terrorism.

Since the onset of foreign-backed militancy in Syria in 2011, the Israeli regime has stood as a staunch supporter of terrorist factions that are in opposition to the democratically-elected leadership of President Bashar al-Assad.

The recent strikes also come amid an upsurge in Israel’s acts of aggression against Syria and its ongoing genocidal war against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip which has killed at least 32,552 Palestinians, most of them women and children.

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News Network
March 25,2024

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A Palestinian woman has recounted terrifying incidents after Israeli military forces raided al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City last week, saying the occupying regime’s soldiers are raping Palestinian women before killing them.

Jamila Al-Hisi, an eyewitness who was besieged in the medical complex and managed to finally get out, said on Saturday that women have been subjected to rape, starvation, torture, and extrajudicial execution, adding that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is doing nothing.

She went on to say that Israeli troops have “forced 65 families to leave the area around the al-Shifa Medical Complex whilst burning and killing entire families,” noting that they have burned a building where Palestinian civilians were taking shelter.

“We don’t even have water to break our fast, and we don’t know where to go,” Hisi said, stressing that the displaced people in the compound have not found food or water for six days.

She further called on the Red Cross to provide water for the children and the sick who are being forced to drink dirty water and eat rotten food.

Palestinians are being forcibly displaced by Israeli occupation forces from the area surrounding al-Shifa Hospital in northern Gaza, Hisi said, adding, “We are trapped amid continued Israeli shelling.”

The latest development comes as the Israeli military continues to carry out air strikes and artillery shelling in and around the al-Shifa Hospital for the seventh day in a row.

On Monday, heavily armed Israeli forces stormed the al-Shifa hospital using tanks and drones, claiming that the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas is using the facility to “conduct and promote terrorist activity.” Later that day, Israel said that “terrorist forces” were firing at Israeli troops.

The Ministry of Health in Gaza said at the time that about 3,000 people were inside al-Shifa seeking refuge and that those attempting to leave were being targeted by snipers and fire from helicopters.

Ever since the Israeli military raided the hospital last week, reports have suggested unspeakable atrocities being carried out against the doctors, nurses, and general staff as well as the thousands of displaced people there.

Israelis have admitted to executing 140 people inside al-Shifa, including paramedics, patients and wounded whilst the siege is still ongoing after seven days with mass arrests.

Meanwhile, a group of Palestinian activists have circulated a shocking story about the Israeli soldiers raping a pregnant woman in the al-Shifa hospital, alongside Hisi’s revelation.

Watan-Palestinian activists quoted the husband of a woman who was raped by Israeli forces as saying that “They ordered her to undress and began to beat her… She told the military she was five months pregnant, not to beat her, but they continued to beat her.”

“After hours, they took out all the women except the pregnant woman, and her children… They took her in front of her husband and children and raped her, ordering the men not to close their eyes or they would be shot.”

Israel waged the war on the Gaza Strip on October 7 after Hamas carried out the surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm into the occupied territories in response to the occupying regime’s intensified crimes against the Palestinian people.

Since the start of the aggression, the Tel Aviv regime has killed at least 32,226 Palestinians, most of them women and children, and injured another 74,518 individuals.

Tel Aviv has also imposed a “complete siege” on Gaza, cutting off fuel, electricity, food, and water to the more than two million Palestinians living there.

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