Saudi envoy returns to Doha as rift ends

November 18, 2014

Saudi envoy
Riyadh, Nov 18: Three leading GCC countries — Saudi Arabia, UAE and Bahrain — have resolved their eight-month-old dispute with another GCC member Qatar on Sunday and decided to send back their ambassadors to Doha.

The move initiated by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has been widely welcomed by foreign diplomats, journalists and scholars in the Kingdom.

The annual GCC summit would now take place on Dec. 9 and 10 in Doha, the GCC said in a statement. The Gulf leaders stated this would see a new phase of relations, which would provide stability as the region faces several economic and political challenges ahead.

“We ask God to protect the GCC states from harm and danger, and to sustain its security, stability and prosperity moving forward,” the statement said. The GCC leaders also urged all members to redouble their efforts to protect the Gulf’s people.

The emergency GCC summit in Riyadh was attended by leaders from Saudi Arabia, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain in addition to Deputy Crown Prince Muqrin and GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif Al-Zayani. The king had chaired the proceedings.

Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani commended King Abdullah for playing a vital role to end the dispute. He called the king on telephone on Monday and discussed major regional and international developments.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ambassador Osama Nugali said Saudi Ambassador to Qatar Abdullah Al-Aifan has already arrived in Doha to resume duty.

“It’s a positive development that would further strengthen the GCC countries,” South African Ambassador Mohammad Sadiq Jaafar told Arab News. He said the move was welcome because it showed the commitment of the GCC countries to bolster their unity.

Bangladesh Ambassador Mohamed Shahidul Islam described it as a significant development. “The decision will enhance the understanding among the member countries and have a positive impact on global developments.”

Musaed Al-Zayani, a senior Saudi journalist based in Dubai, said it was good news for GCC citizens and others interested in regional and global development.

“The GCC plays a dominant role in social, economic and political development in the region and globally,” he said.

Sri Lankan Ambassador Mohamed Hussein Mohammed said it was an encouraging sign to see the GCC return to its previous strength. “Such united efforts of the GCC countries will ensure peace and security in the region, which will contribute to global peace and prosperity.”

“This is a welcome development because the GCC countries belong to one family. Whatever differences they have must be solved within the family,” said Mohsin Shaikh Al-Hassan, a Saudi author, Islamic scholar and television host.

“It’s good news. There will be more business in the region with the differences patched up. The reconciliation was expected since the concerned countries are bound by one faith which propagates unity and peace,” said Khaldoon Said, a public relations specialist.

Seyed Hamid Mowlana, a prominent expatriate writer in the Kingdom, said: “The expat community welcomes the successful talks to end the Qatar-GCC row. If we remember right this is the first ever difference of opinion to be experienced by the GCC, which has been mended in a friendly and brotherly manner.”

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News Network
October 4,2024

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Powerful blasts rocked Beirut overnight in some of the heaviest Israeli strikes on the capital of Lebanon so far as the Lebanese Health Ministry reports dozens killed and over 150 wounded in bombing attacks across the country in the past 24 hours.

Israel launched several waves of airstrikes on Beirut’s southern neighborhood of Dahiyeh on Thursday.

The regime used powerful bunker-buster bombs in its latest attacks, whose number was more than a dozen.

Several civilian buildings were the main goals of the regime’s latest strikes.

Reports indicate that more bombs were used in the latest attacks compared to the strike that killed the leader of the Hezbollah resistance movement, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, last Friday.

The attacks also hit the vicinity of Beirut International Airport.

Israel’s strikes also targeted several other locations, including Hezbollah’s media relations office and a warehouse near the Beirut airport.

A source close to Hezbollah said Israel had conducted 11 consecutive strikes in south Beirut on Thursday night.

AFP correspondents in the Lebanese capital heard loud bangs that made car alarms go off and buildings shake.

"Israel struck the southern suburbs 11 consecutive times," the source said on the condition of anonymity.

Giant balls of flame rose from the targeted site with thick smoke billowing and flares shooting out.

Lebanon's official National News Agency (NNA) said that "more than 10 consecutive strikes have been recorded so far, in one of the strongest raids on the southern suburbs of Beirut since the start of the Israeli war on Lebanon."

The strikes echoed to mountain regions outside Beirut, the NNA said.

Earlier Thursday, the Israeli army issued an “urgent warning” to the residents of the south Beirut area of Burj al-Barajneh to evacuate along with maps of the area.

“You are located near Hezbollah facilities and interests, against which the [Israeli army] will operate in the near future,” its official Arabic language spokesperson posted on X.

The death toll from Israeli aerial assaults across Lebanon since early October 2023 has passed the 1,700 mark with nearly 8,770 injured, according to Lebanese government data.

In response, Hezbollah has fired barrages of rockets and drones towards Israeli targets.

Hezbollah has been responding to the aggression with numerous retaliatory operations, including with hypersonic ballistic missiles, targeting the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Lebanese resistance movement has vowed to keep up its operations against Israel as long as the Israeli regime continues its Gaza war, which has so far killed more than 41,780 Palestinians, mostly women and children.

The qualitative strikes of Hezbollah have so far thwarted any hostile "Israeli" advance into Lebanese territory.

Hezbollah said in a statement that at least 17 Israeli troops have been killed since the regime launched its incursion into southern Lebanon.

Since dawn on Thursday, the Lebanese resistance fighters have been repelling every attempt by the Israeli elite forces to advance on multiple fronts in southern Lebanon, inflicting heavy losses in equipment and personnel.

A Lebanese political analyst recently praised Hezbollah’s operational capabilities, warning that Israeli forces will become "sitting ducks" for the Lebanese resistance group should they attempt a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

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News Network
October 2,2024

Yemeni Armed Forces have launched a series of attacks on Israeli military positions deep inside the occupied territories, in solidarity with Palestinian and Lebanese people amid the Tel Aviv regime’s ongoing offensives in the Gaza Strip and across Lebanon.

Delivering a televised statement broadcast live from the capital Sana’a on Wednesday morning, Yemen’s military spokesman Brigadier General Yahya Saree said the country’s missile units had fired three domestically-developed Quds-5 cruise missiles at the strategic installations.

He added that the missiles managed to strike the designated targets precisely, despite the Zionist regime’s attempts to conceal the losses it sustained in the aftermath of the missile attack.

Saree also hailed the Islamic Republic of Iran’s retaliatory attack, dubbed Operation True Promise II, against Israel, stressing that Yemeni Armed Forces are prepared to participate in any joint military operation against the Zionist enemy in support of the Palestinian and Lebanese nations, and in response to Israeli atrocities.

“The continued US and British support for the Israeli enemy will put their interests in the region in jeopardy. Yemeni Armed Forces will not hesitate to expand their military operations against the Zionist enemy and its sponsors until the ongoing aggression against Gaza stops, the siege on the coastal territory is completely lifted, and the attacks on Lebanon come to an end,” he pointed out.

Yemenis have declared their open support for Palestine’s struggle against the Israeli occupation since the regime launched a devastating war on Gaza on October 7, 2023, after the territory’s Palestinian resistance movements carried out surprise Operation Al-Aqsa Storm against the occupying entity.

The Yemeni Armed Forces have said they will not stop their attacks until unrelenting Israeli ground and aerial offensives in Gaza end.

So far, Israel has killed at least 41,638 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured 96,460 others in Gaza.

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News Network
October 1,2024

The Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah says it targeted Israel's Glilot military base and Mossad headquarters in the outskirts of Tel Aviv with salvos of Fadi-4 rockets.

Israeli reports said several settlers were injured in the rocket barrage from Lebanon on Tel Aviv.

The reports said the rocket attack from Lebanon was “the largest” since the beginning of the war.

Hezbollah earlier said it struck gatherings of Israeli troopers in artillery and rocket attacks on the northern part of the occupied Palestinian territories in retaliation for Israel’s deadly strikes on Lebanon.

In separate statements released on Tuesday, the resistance movement said the gatherings of the enemy troops were hit at the Shtula, Metulla, Avivim and Rosh Pina settlements.

The resistance also targeted the Doviv barracks with a Falaq-2 rockets as well as the gathering of Israeli forces near the settlement of Rosh Pina with a rocket barrage.

The resistance group added that it had conducted the operations in support of “steadfast Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip and … their valiant and honorable resistance, and in defense of Lebanon and its people.”

The attacks came amid a major escalation in Israel’s acts of terror and aggression in Lebanon that saw the regime assassinating Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in an airstrike on southern Beirut.

The death toll from Israeli aerial assaults across Lebanon since early October 2023 has reached 1,745 with some 8,767 injured, according to Lebanese government data. In response, Hezbollah has fired barrages of rockets and drones towards Israeli targets.

The deadly exchange of fire was sparked by Israel’s genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has killed 41,615 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and wounded 96,359 others over the past year.

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