Saudi King Salman’s move spurs progress, stability

February 10, 2015

Jeddah, Feb 10: The two new councils set up by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman last month have been given stringent mandates to formulate and implement the country’s political, security and economic policies, the Cabinet announced on Monday.

The Council of Political and Security Affairs and the Council of Economic and Development Affairs would “identify various trends, visions and goals” and “follow up their implementation and coordination,” the Minister of Culture and Information Adel Al-Toraifi said in a statement.

At its weekly meeting on Monday chaired by King Salman, the Cabinet decided that each council would have a secretariat supported by advisers and experts. They would also have offices for project management to verify whether parties are committed to implementing strategies and plans.

King Salman had announced in January that the Council for Political and Security Affairs would have nine members and be chaired by Prince Mohammed bin Naif, second deputy premier and interior minister. The 22-member Council for Economic and Development Affairs would be chaired by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the defense minister, the king had ordered.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet expressed its concern at developments in Yemen, which it said is a threat to the security of that country and the region. The Cabinet said that the action was a coup and contrary to international resolutions related to Yemen, the Gulf Initiative adopted by the international community, and the Yemeni national dialogue.

The Cabinet reiterated the Kingdom’s stand against “all extremist ideologies and terror organizations” and “condemnation of the savageries” committed by the Islamic State group, particularly the murders of a Jordanian pilot and two Japanese hostages, Al-Toraifi said in a statement to the Saudi Press Agency following the meeting.

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Israel orders 100,000 Palestinians to evacuate eastern Rafah ahead of ground invasion

News Network

May 6,2024

The Israeli regime is forcibly evacuating Palestinians from the eastern part of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip amid the prospect of its widely-discouraged ground invasion.

“The estimate is around 100,000 people,” an Israeli military spokesman told journalists on Monday when asked how many people were being evacuated.

International organizations, including the United Nations, have repeatedly warned the regime against invading the city, citing its hosting around 1.5 million Palestinian refugees.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said a ground assault on Rafah would “put the final nail in the coffin” for humanitarian aid operations in the Gaza Strip.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs also said, “Any ground operation would mean more suffering and death,” with an official saying “It could be a slaughter of civilians.”

Multiple aid agencies, including the Norwegian Refugee Council, have likewise warned against a Rafah offensive.

The NRC said such an invasion “would profoundly exacerbate the already catastrophic levels of need and the humanitarian emergency for millions of civilians with nowhere left to go.”

The official alleged Hamas had killed three Israeli forces on Sunday, attacking them from Rafah.

The evacuation order came a sat least 22 people lost their lives in the regime’s airstrikes killed in Rafah earlier on Monday.

Rafah’s evacuation “is part of our plans to dismantle Hamas,” the Israeli spokesman added, referring to the Palestinian resistance movement that has been defending Gaza in the face of the war.

The Palestinians have fled there from the ravages of a war that the regime began waging against Gaza on October 7, following a retaliatory operation by the coastal sliver’s resistance groups.

At least 34,683 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have been killed and 78,018 others injured so far during the brutal military onslaught.

On Friday, Hossam Badran, a member of Hamas’ Political Bureau, said Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on carrying out a ground invasion of Rafah was a key stumbling block in negotiations aimed at a truce agreement.

The Israeli premier has said the regime would go ahead with invading the city “with or without” a truce.

Hamas has, however, asserted that the regime has failed to defeat the resistance during the war.

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