Saudi fund chief receives UN official
RIYADH: Saudi Fund for Development CEO Sultan Al-Marshad received UN-Under Secretary-General Haoliang Xu and his accompanying delegation in Riyadh on Monday.
During the meeting, the two sides discussed ways to enhance development cooperation, the Saudi fund wrote in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Saudi Deputy Minister for International Multilateral Affairs Abdulrahman Al-Rassi met with Ambassador of Spain to Saudi Arabia Jorge Hevia and the UN Resident Coordinator in the Kingdom Mohamed Zarkani to discuss matters of mutual interest in Riyadh on Monday, the Foreign Ministry wrote on X.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab News
3 hours ago
- Arab News
Pakistan calls for international support for Arab League–OIC plan to reconstruct Gaza
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's UN Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad this week called on the international community to support the Arab League's and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) plan to reconstruct Gaza, saying it is essential to lay the foundations of lasting peace in the Middle East. In March, the Arab League ratified its plan to reconstruct Gaza, proposing to rebuild the Palestinian territory without displacing its 2.4 million residents at a cost of $53 billion. Days later the OIC endorsed the plan, which was a counterproposal to a controversial one by US President Donald Trump in which he suggested to take over Gaza and displace its residents. At a UN Security Council briefing on the Middle East, Ahmad urged the Security Council to "act with urgency and clarity" to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict. "We call for international support to the Arab League–OIC Plan for Recovery and Reconstruction in Gaza," Ahmad said. "This plan is essential not only for rebuilding Gaza but also for restoring hope and laying the foundation for lasting peace." The Pakistani envoy said Israel must immediately cease its military operations in Gaza and the West Bank, adding that a permanent ceasefire must be established without further delay. "Second, the blockade on humanitarian aid must be lifted fully and unconditionally," Ahmad said. "The UN and humanitarian organizations must be granted safe and unimpeded access." Ahmad demanded a "credible and irreversible political process" for the two-state solution in the Middle East, reiterating Pakistan's demand for a separate and independent Palestinian state based on the pre-June 1967 borders with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital. "We support the earliest resumption of the high-level international conference to advance this goal," he said. Israel's military has renewed its focus on Gaza after its 12-day conflict with Iran. The Jewish state's retaliatory military campaign against Hamas has killed at least 56,412 people in Gaza since October 2023. Most of the dead are civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory's health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable. Pakistan, which does not have diplomatic ties with Israel, has condemned its war on Gaza since it began in 2023 and has called on the international community to intervene to stop Palestinian civilians from getting killed.
Saudi Gazette
7 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
Pakistan to consider extending deadline for Afghan refugees facing mass deportation to leave
ISLAMABAD — Pakistan will consider extending the deadline for 1.4 million Afghan refugees living legally in the country to return home, officials said on Monday. Any extension approved by the government would be a relief for those who were previously ordered to return to Afghanistan by 30 June, according to government and security officials. A decision could come on Tuesday when the Cabinet is due to meet. In 2023, Pakistan launched a controversial crackdown on foreigners it said were in the country illegally, mostly Afghan nationals. Millions of Afghans have fled their homeland over the decades to escape war or poverty. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter, said the proposed extension was to allow the refugees more time to settle their personal affairs in Pakistan, such as selling property or wrapping up business activities, before returning to Afghanistan in an orderly and dignified way.A senior ministry official said the decision to submit the extension proposal was made last week. A summary regarding the fate of the Afghan refugees has been forwarded for inclusion in the Cabinet Interior Ministry, which has overseen the sweeping crackdown on Afghans, did not immediately was no comment either from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, which previously said it expected Afghan authorities to create "conducive conditions" so that those returning were fully integrated into Afghan this year, Pakistan said it wanted 3 million Afghans to leave the country, including 1.4 million people with Proof of Registration cards and some 800,000 with Afghan Citizen are a further 1 million Afghans in the country illegally because they have no paperwork, according to said Pakistan's Ministry of States and Frontier Regions submitted a proposal to the federal government recommending a six-month extension for Afghans with Proof of Registration expulsion campaign has drawn strong criticism from the UN and rights International Organisation for Migration (IOM) said on Monday that Afghanistan was not equipped to absorb such high numbers of returnees."Local systems are on the verge of collapse, threatening access to essential services for both returnees and host communities," the UN agency Rights Watch has accused authorities of arbitrarily detaining and forcibly deporting Afghans, many of whom they say, face harassment under the Taliban who seized power in Afghanistan in Saturday, the UN refugee agency said at least 1.2 million Afghans have been forced to return from Iran and Pakistan this warned that repatriations on a massive scale have the potential to destabilise the fragile situation in Afghanistan. — Euronews
Saudi Gazette
7 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
US skips global UN meeting in Spain aimed at raising trillions to combat poverty
SEVILLE — Many of the world's countries gathered in Spain on Monday, with the notable exception of the United States, in a bid to tackle the growing gap between rich and poor nations and try to drum up trillions of dollars needed to close it. "Financing is the engine of development. And right now, this engine is sputtering," United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in his opening comments at the four-day Financing for Development meeting in Seville. Many countries face escalating debt burdens, declining investments, decreasing international aid and growing trade barriers. Co-hosts the UN and Spain believe the four-day meeting is an opportunity to close the staggering $4 trillion (€3.4 trillion) annual financing gap to promote development, bring millions of people out of poverty and help achieve the UN's badly lagging Sustainable Development Goals for 2030. Even though the gathering comes amid global economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, there is hope that the world can address one of the most important global challenges: ensuring all people have access to food, healthcare, education and water. More than 70 world leaders attended, the UN said, along with representatives of international financial institutions, development banks, philanthropic organisations, the private sector and civil society. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez told the delegates that the summit is an opportunity "for us to raise our voice in the face of those who seek to convince us that rivalry and competition will set the tone for humanity and for its future." At the last preparatory meeting on 17 June, the United States rejected the outcome document that had been negotiated for months by the UN's 193 member nations and announced its withdrawal from the process and the Seville conference. The Seville Commitment document, approved by consensus, will be adopted by conference participants without changes. It says delegates have agreed to launch "an ambitious package of reforms and actions to close the financing gap with urgency." It calls for a minimum tax revenue of 15% of a country's gross domestic product to increase government resources, a tripling of lending by multilateral development banks and scaling up of private financing by providing incentives for investing in critical areas like infrastructure. It also calls for reforms to help countries deal with rising debt. UN trade chief Rebeca Grynspan recently said "development is going backward" and the global debt crisis has worsened. Last year, 3.3 billion people were living in countries that pay more interest on their debts than they spend on health or education and the number will increase to 3.4 billion people this year, according to Grynspan. And developing countries will pay $947 billion (€805 billion) to service debts this year, up from $847 billion (€720 billion) last year. Angolan President Joao Lourenco, speaking for the African Group at the conference, said debt payment 'consumes more resources than those allocated to health and education combined' for many countries. While US diplomat Jonathan Shrier told the 17 June meeting that "our commitment to international cooperation and long-term economic development remains steadfast," he said the text "crosses many of our red lines." He said those include interfering with the governance of international financial institutions, tripling the annual lending capacity of multilateral development banks and proposals envisioning a role for the UN in the global debt architecture. Shrier also objected to proposals on trade, tax and innovation that are not in line with US policy, as well as language on a UN framework convention on international tax cooperation. The United States was the world's largest single founder of foreign aid before the Trump administration dismantled its main aid agency, the US Agency for International Development (USAID). It drastically slashed foreign assistance funding, calling it wasteful and contrary to the Republican president's agenda. Other Western donors also have cut back international aid. UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed last week called the US withdrawal from the conference 'unfortunate,' adding that after Seville, "we will engage again with the US and hope that we can make the case that they be part of the success of pulling millions of people out of poverty." On Monday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reaffirmed the bloc's commitment to development financing, saying, "Our commitment is here to stay." — Euronews
