EU rejects US plan
Riyadh backs Palestinians
KUWAIT CITY: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has contacted the Kuwaiti embassy in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to follow up on the issue of abuses ‘hurled’ at Kuwait by a Saudi citizen in a video clip posted on a social networking site so that necessary measures can be taken, reports Al-Rai daily quoting diplomatic sources.
On the issue of Saudi Arabia’s decision to prevent Kuwaitis from leaving without paying fines for traffic violations committed in the Kingdom, the sources emphasized that Kuwait does not interfere in the internal affairs and procedures of other countries.
KUWAIT CITY: The name Kuwait was mentioned in a court verdict in Britain looked into a suspicious contract involving the Airbus Company determined to know the truth about the alleged kickbacks, reports Al-Qabas quoting sources.
The court is said to have imposed a £3 billion fine on the company according to what the Guardian newspaper said recently. The countries in which bribes were received are Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Taiwan and Ghana ... between 2011 and 2015.
Other countries that are being investigated for the possibility of receiving kickbacks are China, Japan, Brazil, Turkey and Kuwait to win contracts for the supply of aircraft.
The Guardian stated there is a network of secret agents who pay huge bribes. Other sources confirmed that bribes are usually paid in some countries to politicians who urge national companies directly or indirectly to conclude contracts that they can benefit from in the form of commissions if the deal falls through.
On the domestic front, it was reported that in February 2014, the Kuwait Airways Corporation (KAC) signed a contract with Airbus for the purchase of 25 A350 and A320neo aircraft that began delivery in 2019, after the Kuwaiti government assumed an open financial guarantee to complete the deal.
BEIRUT: Lebanon’s only English-language newspaper announced on Tuesday that it was temporarily suspending its print edition because of financial challenges as the country passes through its worst economic crisis in decades.
The Daily Star said its website and social media platforms would continue work as usual “to offer first-rate news coverage and content from Lebanon, the Middle East and beyond.” (AP)
BEIRUT: A military investigative judge charged a Lebanese-American man with murder and torture of Lebanese citizens on Tuesday, crimes he allegedly committed during Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon, judicial officials said. The accusations could carry a death sentence.
Amer Fakhoury has confessed to working as a senior warden at Khiam Prison, which was run by an Israel-backed Lebanese militia. Fakhoury was detained after returning to his native Lebanon from the US in September. However, he’s undergoing cancer treatment, and it remains unclear if he’ll be able to stand trial. (AP)
BRUSSELS, Feb 4, (Agencies): The European Union on Tuesday rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal for securing peace in the Middle East and expressed concern about Israel’s plans to annex more Palestinian land.
Trump’s plan, which was unveiled last week, would foresee the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, but it falls far short of minimal Palestinian demands and would leave sizable chunks of the occupied West Bank in Israeli hands.
In a statement, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell underlined the bloc’s commitment to a two-state solution, based along the 1967 lines, with the possibility of mutually agreed landswaps, made up of the state of Israel and “an independent, democratic, contiguous, sovereign and viable state of Palestine.”
Borrell said the US initiative “departs from these internationally agreed parameters.”
“To build a just and lasting peace, the unresolved final status issues must be decided through direct negotiations between both parties,” Borrell said.
“This includes notably the issues related to borders, the status of Jerusalem, security and the refugee question,”
Trump’s plan was welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has dismissed it as “nonsense.” Gulf Arab states also rejected the White House plan as “biased.” While Israeli officials were present for its unveiling, no Palestinian representatives attended.
Netanyahu has said he wants to move forward with plans to annex West Bank territory.
“We are especially concerned by statements on the prospect of annexation of the Jordan Valley and other parts of the West Bank,” Borrell said.
He suggested that the EU might consider legal action by saying that any “steps towards annexation, if implemented, could not pass unchallenged.”
The Palestinians seek all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem – areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war – for an independent state and the removal of more than 700,000 Israeli settlers from these areas.
But the plan sides heavily with Netanyahu’s hard-line nationalist vision for the region and shunts aside many of the Palestinians’ core demands.
EU foreign ministers have discussed in recent months whether the bloc should modify its Middle East policy amid growing concern that settlement activity and US diplomatic moves like the recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, are undermining the chances of a twostate solution.
Ireland and Luxembourg are among a small group of countries that support a change of position but no heavyweight member country is backing them.
The Saudi cabinet Tuesday restated the Kingdom’s backing to ongoing efforts to find a just and total solution to the Palestinian cause.
The cabinet said during its customary weekly meeting that Saudi Arabia has exerted great efforts to back the Palestinian people at international gatherings, citing its 2002 peace initiative as a relevant unequivocal paradigm.