Riyadh wants NAM to reassess its peace role

June 3, 2014

Jeddah, June 3: The Cabinet has called on the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) to assess whether it is playing an effective role in the promotion of security and stability in the world.

The call was made at a Cabinet meeting chaired by Deputy Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques Prince Salman at Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah on Monday.

The Kingdom had stressed this view at the Ministerial Conference of the 17th NAM meeting held in Algiers, said Culture and Information Minister Abdul Aziz Khoja.

The NAM constitutes two thirds of the UN General Assembly membership. It is a group of states that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. As of 2012, the movement has 120 members and 17 observer countries.

The Cabinet condemned the Israeli plan to establish a synagogue in East Jerusalem and build 50 housing units in the Mount Abu Ghneim settlement.

The Cabinet commended the signing of an MoU between the King Abdullah International Center for Inter-Religious and Inter-Cultural Dialogue and the Unesco to promote the culture of dialogue to settle differences, Khoja said.

Prince Salman briefed the Cabinet on the discussions held by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah with King Mohammed VI of Morocco on greater cooperation between the two countries and the latest regional and international developments, Khoja said.

The Cabinet authorized Prince Salman to conclude a memorandum of understanding for defense cooperation with the Republic of Comoros.

The Cabinet also approved a general agreement of cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Gabon, signed in Riyadh on Jan. 14, 2013, aimed at the promotion of economic, trade and investment cooperation between the two countries including the private sector.

The Cabinet authorized the Minister of Transport to discuss and sign with South Korea a draft agreement on cooperation in the field of maritime transport.

The Cabinet also ratified the appointments of Abdul Aziz Al-Quwaiz, Khaled Al-Rajhi and Saeed Garman as private sector members in the Communications and Information Technology Commission (CITC) for a period of three years.

The other appointments approved by the Cabinet include Siraj Bakhurji as director general of water at the Ministry of Water and Electricity in the Eastern Province, Mansour Al-Suwaidan as management consultant at the Ministry of National Guard, and Ali Al-Salman as assistant undersecretary for central services at the Ministry of Finance.

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UN condemns Israeli regime’s ‘organized torture’ against Palestinians

News Network

November 30,2025

The United Nations Committee against Torture (CAT) has condemned the Israeli regime for enforcing a policy of “organized torture” against Palestinians.

In a report published on Friday, CAT stated that the occupying regime enforces a deliberate policy of “organized and widespread torture and ill-treatment” against Palestinian abductees, particularly since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its genocidal war on Gaza.

The committee expressed “deep concern over repeated severe beatings, dog attacks, electrocution, water-boarding, use of prolonged stress positions [and] sexual violence” inflicted on Palestinians.

Palestinian prisoners were degraded by “being made to act like animals or being urinated on,” systematically denied medical care, and subjected to excessive restraints, “in some cases resulting in amputation,” the report added.

CAT also condemned the routine application of “unlawful combatants law” to justify the prolonged detention without trial of thousands of Palestinian men, women, and children.

More than 10,000 Palestinians, including women and children, are currently held in Israeli prisons, according to Palestinian and international human rights groups, with 3,474 Palestinians in “administrative detention,” meaning they are imprisoned without trial for indefinite periods.

The report highlighted the “high proportion of children who are currently detained without charge or on remand,” noting that while Israel sets the age of criminal responsibility at 12, even younger children have been abducted.

Children designated as security prisoners face severe restrictions on family contact, may be subjected to solitary confinement, and are denied access to education, in clear violation of international law.

The committee further suggested that Israel’s policies across the Occupied Territories constitute collective torture against the Palestinian population.

“A range of policies adopted by Israel in the course of its continued unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory amounts to cruel, inhuman or degrading living conditions for the Palestinian population,” the report said.

On Thursday, the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas condemned the systematic killing and torture of Palestinian abductees in Israeli prisons, urging international action to halt these abuses.

Citing human rights data, Hamas stated that 94 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli prisons since the start of Tel Aviv’s genocidal war on Gaza.

“This reflects an organized criminal approach that has turned these prisons into direct killing grounds to eliminate our people,” the resistance movement said.

Hamas called on the international community, the UN, and human rights organizations to immediately pressure Israel to end crimes against prisoners and uphold their rights as guaranteed by all international conventions and norms.

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