Tag: Saudi Arabia
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Photo : Intending pilgrims fly to Saudi Arabia
FIRST BATCH OF INTENDING WOMEN PILGRIMS FROM GOMBE STATE BOARDING THEIR FLIGHT TO SAUDI ARABIA AT LAWANTI AIRPORT IN GOMBE ON THURSDAY EVENING. -
Arab League postpones talks on regional military
A meeting of Arab defence chiefs and foreign ministers on forming a joint regional military force has been postponed for the second time in two months, the Arab League said Wednesday.
The talks, scheduled for Thursday, were postponed on requests from Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Kuwait, Iraq, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, the Cairo-based League said in a statement.
The pan-Arab organisation did not give a reason for the delay, saying that a new date for the meeting will be set later.
The countries were meant to endorse an agreement on creating a military force that would tackle the growing influence of hard line jihadists in the region.
Arab defence chiefs had met twice in May and June to draft the mechanism for setting up the joint force, which was initially approved at an Arab summit held in Egypt earlier in 2015.
In late March, Saudi Arabia and Sunni fellow Arab countries unleashed an air campaign in Yemen targeting Shiite Houthi rebels allied with Shiite Iran.
In 1950, members of the Arab League signed a joint defence agreement, which has been rarely enforced.
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Saudi Arabia opens $585b stock market to foreign investors
Saudi Arabia’s stock market, valued at $585 billion, opened up to direct foreign investment for the first time on Monday, as the kingdom seeks an economic boost amid low global oil prices.
The opening of the Tadawul Saudi Stock Exchange allows companies, particularly those that are not in the oil business, to raise money straight from foreign investors, with the goal of expanding businesses, diversifying the economy and creating more jobs for the kingdom’s growing population. Before Monday, foreigners only could access the market indirectly, through a local Saudi institution, which was costly and complicated.
The stock exchange’s estimated value makes it the biggest in the Middle East. Petrochemical firms make up a fifth of Tadawul, with heavyweights like Saudi Basic Industries Corp. among those listed.
Associated Press reported that the move comes at a crucial time for Saudi Arabia, whose revenue has suffered from a plunge in oil prices over the past year. That lower revenue could constrain government spending, which in turn would affect the many companies relying on government projects. The kingdom has been drawing from its robust foreign reserves to maintain spending.
An influx of foreign money could “help to plug some of the external shortfall and slow the pace at which Saudi Arabia is drawing down its reserves,” says the London-based analysis firm Capital Economics.
The firm says Saudi Arabia has been traditionally cautious about foreign influence in its political and economic affairs. Its decision to open its stock market could be seen as part of a broader liberalization effort in the kingdom’s economy. The socially and religiously ultraconservative country is already awash in some of the world’s biggest brands and many multinational companies have their factories and facilities there.
However, foreign investors say they are taking a cautious approach and warn not to expect an immediate rush of foreign investment into the Middle East’s biggest market.
“In the immediate to short term, the money flow will be gradual,” says Sachin Mohindra, Gulf portfolio manager for Invest AD.
One reason for the cautious approach: When local investors anticipated the opening of the market, they bid up stock prices, leaving them overvalued in the opinion of fund managers.
Additionally, there are regulations in place for foreign investors. Only financial institutions with $5 billion or more of assets under management that have been in operation for five or more years are eligible to invest, though the regulator says it could make exceptions.
Other regulations are that qualified foreign investors cannot own more than 5 percent of the shares of any company. These investors as a whole cannot own more than 20 percent of shares in the roughly 165 listed companies.
There are also five companies that will be off limits to foreign investors. Most are in construction in the Muslim holy cities of Mecca and Medina, which are closed to non-Muslims.
The kingdom’s stock market regulator, the Capital Markets Authority, says the decision to open the market to direct foreign investment is aimed at supporting increased participation of institutional investors and reducing the role of smaller investors.
According to Tadawul, Saudi individuals make up 34.4 per cent of stock market ownership, but account for nearly 90 percent of trading activity. That has exposed the market to volatility.
John Sfakiankis, Middle East director based in Riyadh at emerging markets investment firm Ashmore Group, says he does not expect a big influx of foreign investment right away. He expects a gradual flow over the next few years of $20 billion to $25 billion.
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Kabo airlifts 8,326 pilgrims from Saudi Arabia
THE Kabo Air, has concluded the airlift of over 8, 326 Muslim pilgrims from Saudi Arabia back to the country.
The Managing Director/Chief Executive Captain Saidu Muhammad who disclosed this , while speaking with reporters, described the operation as yet another successful one in the company’s over three decades of existence
According to him, passengers cut across Adamawa,Kaduna, Kano and Kwara states.Capt Muhammad noted that the last flight came into the country through Illorin International Airport with a total of 500 passengers on board which comprises of 412 pilgrims and 88 officials.
He added that apart from the conveying the pilgrims to the holy land and back, along with their luggage, the company has made another history with its 580 seater B747-400 aircraft, in which it recently acquired.
The B747-400 with registration number 5N-MDK is the aircraft with the highest seating capacity in the country.
Captain Saidu then expressed his gratitude to all and sundry that contributed to the success of the exercise.
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Saudi Arabia bans recruitment from Ebola-affected countries
The Saudi Ministry of Labour has imposed a ban on the recruitment of labour from Ebola-affected countries of Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
Deputy Labour Minister Moufarrej Al-Haqbani said the decision was taken as a preventive measure against the spread of the Ebola virus in the Kingdom, describing it as a temporary ban. “We have taken this action in coordination with the Ministry of Health (MoH), which stopped issuing Hajj and Umrah visas to pilgrims from these endemic countries in April,” he noted.
The ministry also warned against travel to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The travel advisory issued cautioned citizens and residents to avoid all travel to these countries until further notice due to the active outbreak of Ebola virus in those countries.
Al-Haqbani said such a ban on these countries will not affect the labour market in the Kingdom since the manpower recruited from these countries are negligible in number. “Until June this year, there was a total of 527 workers deployed in the Kingdom from these three countries,” he said, pointing out that 152 of them are domestic workers. He also noted that the total number of visas issued to these three countries was 120 during this period and 88 of them were domestic workers.
The deputy minister also said that there is no reason for the Kingdom to impose a similar ban on Nigeria since the Ebola virus did not originate from that country.
However, Saudi missions abroad have been instructed to take maximum quarantine measures before issuing employment, business and pilgrimage visas to foreigners.
“All new recruits to the Kingdom are subject to comprehensive medical tests in the their respective countries before the visas are issued by the Saudi missions,” Al-Haqbani said.
The new recruits will have to undergo medical tests at the clinics assigned by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Accredited Medical Clinics Association (Gamca) in their respective countries.
Three weeks ago, the GCC countries adopted a unified strategy against the deadly Ebola virus by training its health officials to combat the disease and to make use of the facilities available in the region to diagnose and treat such diseases within the Kingdom.
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Terror suspects held in Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia has arrested 88 people accused of plotting attacks inside and outside the country, officials say.
The interior ministry said the men had been monitored for several months before their arrest and “were on the verge of carrying out operations”.
Police say three of the men are from Yemen, one is still being identified and the rest are Saudis.
Correspondents say Saudi Arabia has stepped up its security amid Islamic State’s offensive in Iraq and Syria.
Interior ministry spokesman Mansour al-Turki did not give any details about the plots but said 59 of the men had previously served prison sentences for similar offences.
He told reporters the arrests were made over the past few days, and said it showed that Saudi forces were “serious in tracking down” anyone who joined extremist groups.
“It is unfortunate that some of those who had completed their sentences and were released by court orders returned to their previous ways,” he added.
Those arrested support “misguided ideology and glorify terrorist acts,” the spokesman added, saying several of them were in contact with “members of terrorist organisations” outside the country.
Earlier this year, Saudi Arabia made it illegal for its citizens to fight for groups overseas amid growing concerns that those citizens would eventually threaten the kingdom’s stability.
‘Europe and US at threat’
The six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council, of which Saudi Arabia is a member, said on Saturday that it was ready to act “against terrorist threats that face the region and the world”.
Saudi King Abdullah said groups like Islamic State posed a danger that could “affect several countries outside the Middle East”.
“If we ignore them, I am sure they will reach Europe in a month and America in another month,” he warned.
Saudi Arabia has faced a growing threat from extremist fighters across its southern border with Yemen and has voiced concern about Islamic State’s rise to its north, in Iraq and Syria.
Security in the Saudi kingdom will come under the spotlight over the next few weeks as millions of Muslim pilgrims make their way to the country to take part in the Hajj in October.
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Saudi Arabia’s top cleric says Nigeria’s Boko Haram smears Islam
Saudi Arabia’s grand mufti, the top religious authority in the birthplace of Islam, yesterday condemned Boko Haram as a group “set up to smear the image of Islam” and deplored its kidnapping of over 200 schoolgirls.
Sheikh Abdulaziz Al al-Sheikh dismissed the movement, which says it wants to establish a “pure” Islamic state in Nigeria, as “misguided” and should be “shown their wrong path and be made to reject it.”
His remarks came as religious leaders in the Muslim world, who often do not comment on militant violence, joined in denouncing Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau for saying Allah had told him to sell off the kidnapped girls as forced brides.
“This is a group that has been set up to smear the image of Islam and must be offered advice, shown their wrong path and be made to reject it,” he told the Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat in an interview published yesterday.
“These groups are not on the right path because Islam is against kidnapping, killing and aggression,” he said. “Marrying kidnapped girls is not permitted.”
On Thursday, Islamic scholars and human rights officials of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the world’s largest Muslim body representing 57 countries, denounced the kidnapping as “a gross misinterpretation of Islam”.
This week, Al-Azhar, the prestigious Cairo-based seat of Sunni learning, also said that the kidnapping “has nothing to do with the tolerant and noble teachings of Islam.”
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15 pilgrims die in Saudi Arabia hotel fire
Fifteen people died and around 130 were injured when a fire broke out in a hotel packed with Muslim pilgrims in the Saudi Arabian city of Medina yesterday, the state news agency said.
All 15 were Egyptians and the blaze was started by an electrical short circuit, according to a separate report on Egypt’s state television station.
It took rescue teams more than two hours to put out the fire and a nearby hotel was evacuated as a precautionary measure, Saudi Arabia’s state news agency reported.
Around 700 Muslim pilgrims were staying in the hotel at the time, it added.
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Saudi Arabia rejects UN Council seat offer
The United Nations Security Council is riddled with double standards and has failed the Middle East, Saudi Arabia said Friday as it rejected an offer to join the body.
In a statement published by the Saudi foreign ministry, the kingdom claimed that the council is incapable of keeping the peace internationally.
“To have the Palestinian cause remaining without a fair and permanent solution for 65 years, which resulted in several wars that threatened international peace and security, is evidence and proof of (the) Security Council’s inability to perform his duties and responsibilities,” CNN quoted the ministry as saying in the statement.
It also blamed the Security Council for not preventing the spread of weapons of mass destruction in the region – especially nuclear weapons, a likely allusion to Saudi Arabia’s adversarial neighbor Iran.
Lastly, the kingdom brought up the civil war in Syria, blaming the UN for not punishing the government after a poison gas attack there killed hundreds of civilians.
Saudi Arabia backed the Syrian rebels and called for the overthrow of autocratic Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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Nigerian pilgrims, others get Saudi virus warning
Saudi Arabia health officials have asked intending Muslim pilgrims from Nigeria and other parts of the world visiting the country’s holy sites to wear masks in crowded places to stop the spread of the MERS coronavirus.
A list of requirements issued by the health ministry also advised elderly people or those with chronic diseases to postpone their pilgrimage.
BBC reports that 38 people have died from the virus in Saudi Arabia.
Millions of Muslims from around the world are expected to take part in the Hajj this October.
Once a year, pilgrims make the journey to Mecca in Saudi Arabia and pray together before the Kaaba.
Muslims also travel to the site at other times, as well as visiting the Masjid Al-Nabawi, or Mosque of the Prophet, in Medina.
Health officials urged people taking part to maintain personal hygiene standards, use a tissue when sneezing and coughing, and have the necessary vaccinations.
The MERS (Middle East respiratory-syndrome) coronavirus emerged in the Arabian Peninsula in September 2012 and is part of a large family of viruses, which includes the common cold and Sars (severe acute respiratory syndrome).
The World Health Organization has so far confirmed of a total of 80 cases of infection, including 44 deaths worldwide.
Saudi Arabia introduced requirements for polio immunisation certificates in 2003 after fears of the virus resurgence.