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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Forces mobilized as mortars from Iraq land at KSA border

Source: Arab News (Read full story)

The government has mobilized its security forces after six mortar bombs landed near a remote Saudi border post close to neighboring Iraq and Kuwait on Wednesday. Nobody was hurt in the bombardment.
The mortar rounds hit a desert area on the far northwestern fringes of the Kingdom’s oil-producing region and several hundred kilometers from the major fields operated by the world’s largest oil exporter.
There was no word on who was behind the barrage, which occurred two days after twin suicide bombings killed 25 people near Iran’s Embassy in Beirut. Saudi Arabia has condemned the Beirut bombings.
Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki, Interior Ministry spokesman, said Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were investigating the mortar fire. Baghdad said it was not involved.

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World powers, Iran in new bid for deal

Source: Khaleej Times (Read full story)

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Policymakers from the [P5+1] have since said that an interim accord on confidence-building steps could finally be within reach, despite warnings from diplomats that differences remain and could still prevent an agreement.  British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the remaining differences are narrow and a historic deal is within reach.  “It is the best chance for a long time to make progress on one of the gravest problems in foreign policy,” Hague told a news conference during a visit to Istanbul. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier: “We hope the efforts that are being made will be crowned with success at the meeting that opens today in Geneva.”

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Issues between Iraq, Kuwait solved by commitment – Iraqi FM

Source: Kuwait News Agency (Read full story)

All of Iraq’s outstanding issues with Kuwait have been resolved as result of the commitment[s] of both and it will carry out all of its commitments in 2015, Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said on Monday. … These commitments include POWs, missing individuals, compensations or borders, he added.  Through joint committees, both sides reached MoUs and agreements that have been presented to the United Nations due to Iraq’s commitment to international legitimacy, he said.  An agreement to jointly administer Khor Abdullah waterway has been signed, and this is an important achievement, along with the demarcation of land borders, while Iraq’s exit out of Chapter VII of the UN Charter and the shift of the humanitarian issue (POWs, missing individuals and archives) from Chapter VII to Chapter VI are two of the most important steps in cooperation.

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EU-GCC automotive conference focuses on technology transfer

Source: Arab News (Read full story)

The EU-GCC Invest Project held its first automotive conference attended by some 100 local industry leaders and decision-makers at the capital’s Al-Khozama Hotel on Sunday.  “We hope that the local automotive industry benefits from this conference. European Union (EU) companies have a worldwide reputation as technology providers,” Andreas Hergenroether, AHK Saudi Arabia delegate, said as he welcomed the participants. AHK Saudi Arabia organized the conference … Hergenroether added that despite the decrease in foreign direct investments (FDI) to the GCC, Saudi Arabia is still the biggest recipient of FDIs in the MENA region in 2012 according to the 2013 World Investment Report by UNCTAD.  “This underlines Saudi Arabia as a global investment destination and testifies to the foreign companies’ trust in the economic growth and stability of the Kingdom,” he said.  He noted that the main EU investors in the Kingdom were France with an FDI volume of $3.821 billion, followed by Germany $2,138 billion and the UK $1,575 billion.

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