ARABIALINK Daily News – SAUDI ARABIA – Excerpts from International Media Reports
[Links to full articles were active on the date posted here]
Saudi King Seeks Obama Action on Mideast Peace [Jun 28]
“Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah will press U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington this week to take a stronger stance with Israel over stalled peace talks with the Palestinians, analysts and diplomats said. The Saudi monarch will meet Obama on Tuesday after attending a G20 summit in Canada in the latest summit in the seven decades-old relationship between Washington and the world’s top oil exporter and a key regional ally.. ..”I think it’s time for the Saudis and all Arabs to tell the Americans that the situation cannot go on forever with the so-called peace process,” said Khaled al-Dakhil, a Saudi political analyst. Last year Obama revived a long-standing U.S. request for Saudi Arabia to make gestures towards normalising relations with Israel as an incentive to the Jewish state to take up serious negotiations over establishing a Palestinian state. But Saudi Arabia said it would not make concessions beyond the 2002 Arab peace plan originated by King Abdullah, which offers Israel recognition in return for returning occupied territories and allowing a Palestinian state alongside Israel..” [Complete Report]
U.S.-Saudi Relations Ahead of Abdullah-Obama Talks [Jun 28]
“Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah will meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on Tuesday to discuss Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking, the nuclear standoff with Iran, and economic cooperation. Here is some background on relations between the United States and the world’s largest oil exporter. Oil has always been at the heart of the political, diplomatic and economic links that tie Riyadh to its ally Washington.. .. Washington has relied on the world’s biggest oil exporter to play a moderating role in the OPEC cartel by countering demands by countries such as Iran or Venezuela for higher prices or the use of oil as a political weapon to pressure the West. But the strategic alliance was tested to the limit by the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States by mainly Saudi hijackers loyal to al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. Many U.S. officials then took a hostile line, arguing that Saudi Arabia’s lack of political freedom and its austere Islamic Wahhabi doctrine made it a breeding ground for militants..” [Complete Report]
No Financial Commitments Placed on KSA: Assaf [Jun 28]
“Ibrahim Al-Assaf, Minister of Finance, said Saturday that the G20 meeting in Toronto would see ‘no financial commitments placed on the Kingdom’, Al-Watan Arabic daily reported Sunday. Muhammad Al-Jasser, the governor of the Kingdom’s central bank SAMA, was meanwhile reported by Al-Watan as saying that Saudi Arabia was one of the ‘five most important and influential countries in the G20 group’. ‘There are no plans to buy European sovereign debt,’ Al-Jasser was quoted as saying on the sidelines of the G20 summit. Al-Jasser also said the Kingdom will not implement proposed new bank taxes..” [Complete Report]
Saudi Aramco Invites Bids for Wasit Gas Plant [Jun 28]
“State oil giant Saudi Aramco has invited companies to bid for the construction of the biggest gas plant in the kingdom, industry sources said on Sunday. After completing a crude oil capacity expansion plan last year, the world’s top oil exporter has focused on developing gas production to meet rapidly rising domestic demand. Aramco has given no cost estimate for the Wasit plant, but industry sources said it would cost between $6 billion and $8 billion. Twelve companies have passed Aramco’s qualification process and can bid for each of the four construction packages. The packages are for a gas unit, a cogeneration power plant, a sulfur recovery unit with utilities and the final package is for a natural gas liquids (NGL) fractionation plant. Bidding would close by Sept. 29, the sources said and the contract would probably be awarded in January..” [Complete Report]
Wedding Costs Force Saudis to Look For Brides Overseas [Jun 28]
“More than 2,100 Saudi men married non-Saudi women last year, the Ministry of Justice has revealed. The ministry said Yemenis topped the list of foreign women marrying Saudi men with 1,017 marriage contracts concluded at the Saudi Shariah courts in 2009. They are followed by Syrians (164), Pakistanis (145) and Palestinians (104). According to official statistics, 1,944 Saudi women married foreign men last year representing 1.4 per cent of the total number of marriage contracts concluded in the courts. Foreign men who were married to Saudi women consisted of: 419 Yemenis, 407 Kuwaitis, 193 Qataris and 176 Syrians.. ..The study said the reason for this was the refusal of fathers to marry their daughters on the basis of ‘tribal incompatibility’. It said some fathers would not allow their working daughters to marry because they want to have their salaries, a privilege which they may go in case their daughters get married. ‘The judicial system in Saudi Arabia does not support Saudi women to marry on their own,’ it said..” [Complete Report]
