Foreign firms to design GCC train project

Source: Arab News (Read full story)

The Saudi Railway Organization (SRO) will issue tenders for the design of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) train project in the Kingdom in February. Mohammed Al-Suwaiket, president of the SRO, said that every individual GCC state would be responsible for the design and implementation of their part of the project. Al-Suwaiket was speaking recently on the sidelines of the fourth Saudi Arabia International Transportation, Materials Handling, Warehousing and Logistics Exhibition and Conference (Saudi TRANSTEC), at the Dhahran International Exhibitions Center in Dammam.

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Oman’s stand on Gulf Union ‘will not hurt key projects’

Source: Arab News (Read full story)

Oman’s reluctance to join the proposed GCC Union will not affect the joint economic projects between the six Gulf states, says a Gulf official. His remarks follows a recent statement by the Omani Foreign Minister.
The official said the details of a project to create a GCC Clearing Organization (financial organization for a unified financial clearing of GCC member countries) will be discussed soon by the committee of the financial and banking sector of the Federation of Gulf Chambers of Commerce.  Abdullah Al-Shibli, GCC assistant secretary general for economic affairs at the General Secretariat of GCC, said a meeting will be held between the secretariat, represented by the economic affairs department and the financial sector of the Federation of Gulf Chambers to discuss the final details of the project to create a GCC Clearing Organization.

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GCC Summit Kicks off in Kuwait tomorrow

Source: Bahrain News Agency (Read full story)

The 34th session of the Supreme Council for the leaders of GCC states kicks off tomorrow Tuesday, where Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) stated that the GCC leaders would discuss a number of issues concerned with achieving the aspirations of the Gulf nations in the political, security, and economic areas. The GCC leaders would also discuss vital issues such as human rights, environment, education, combating infectious diseases, cultural and media affairs, and unified Gulf currency, in addition to what has been achieved in regard of Customs Union between GCC countries. During the summit, GCC leaders will discuss the obstacles to trade exchange, in a way to standarise systems, customs, financial, and administrative procedures, as well as the flow of goods between GCC countries without customs restrictions, and treatment of goods produced in any GCC country as a national product.

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Qatar slams terror attack in Yemen

Source: The Peninsula (Read full story)

Qatar strongly condemned the explosion that targeted the Yemeni defence ministry in Sana’a and killed 52 people, including foreign medical staff, yesterday.  An official source at the Qatari Foreign Ministry told Qatar News Agency that this criminal act was contrary to all human values.  The source renewed Qatar’s firm stance denouncing violence in all its forms and manifestations, whatever its source. … The GCC member countries are fully behind Yemeni President  Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi and the government in their bid to maintain stability and security in Yemen, [GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif] Al Zayani added.

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Saudi Arabia, Russia in push for Syria solution

Source: Arab News (Read full story)

Saudi intelligence chief has held a new meeting in Russia with President Vladimir Putin on the Syrian conflict, the second closed-door encounter this year.  The Kremlin said in a statement that Prince Bandar bin Sultan discussed with Putin at the president’s suburban Moscow residence the situation in the Middle East and preparations for a Syria peace conference planned in January. … Lina Sobonina, a Russian political analyst and researcher, told Al Arabiya News Channel that the discussion could address President Bashar Assad’s future role in Syria. Russia might also invite Saudi Arabia to attend the Geneva II conference.  “Russia believes that the participation of all regional powers would be useful and necessary, including Iran and Saudi Arabia,” Sobonina said.

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Kuwait calls for eradicating landmines worldwide

Source: Kuwait News Agency (Read full story)

Kuwait called on the international community to implement measures that would rid the world from landmines, said a Kuwaiti diplomat here Tuesday. In his speech to the meeting of members’ states in the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines, Kuwait’s permanent representative at the UN and international organizations Ambassador Jamal Al-Ghunaim said that his country was in support of the international community efforts to ban landmines on a worldwide scale.

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Iran: Together with KSA, we can achieve regional stability

Source: Arab News (Read full story)

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appealed on Monday to Saudi Arabia to work together with his government toward achieving regional “stability,” as he pressed a tour seeking rapprochement with GCC states. … “I believe that our relations with Saudi Arabia should expand as we consider Saudi Arabia as an extremely important country in the region and the Islamic world,” Zarif told AFP. “We believe that Iran and Saudi Arabia should work together in order to promote peace and stability in the region.”

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Iran’s diplomatic surge extends to Gulf

Source: Al-Monitor (Read full story)

Years of tension between Iran and its Arab neighbors on the other side of the Gulf seem to be easing less than a week after the signing of a deal between Iran and the UN Security Council in the path to a comprehensive solution.  UAE Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed was the first of his Gulf counterparts to visit Tehran to show his country’s support, calling for stronger ties between Iran and the UAE — “ties beyond the normal relations between neighbors and partners.”  The Emirati official stressed the importance of cooperating with Tehran to find solutions for the “crises in the region, mainly in Syria and Afghanistan [and] especially terrorism and sectarian strife, through politics.”

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