UAE backs Saudi decision on Lebanese products

ABU DHABI: The UAE has expressed its support for Saudi Arabia’s decision to ban agricultural products coming from Lebanon after it was proven that they were used to smuggle drugs into the Kingdom.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MOFAIC) in a statement on Sunday affirmed its support for measures taken by the Kingdom to protect society from the scourge of drugs, and any steps it takes to combat the organised crime of drug trafficking as part of its right to preserve safety in society.

The Ministry called for developing and using technologies to curb drug trafficking, calling it a dangerous scourge that threatens the safety of societies and harms their interests.

A Lebanon-made electric car made its debut on Saturday, the first time the Mediterranean country has manufactured an automobile, despite struggling amid a dire economic crisis with frequent power cuts.

The red sports car — named “Quds Rise,” using the Arabic name of Jerusalem — is the project of Lebanese-born Palestinian businessman Jihad Mohammad.

It’s the “first automobile to be made locally,” Mohammad told reporters, at the unveiling in a parking lot south of Beirut.

It was built in Lebanon “from start to finish,” he said of the prototype, emblazoned at the front with a golden logo of the Dome of the Rock, the shrine in occupied Jerusalem’s Al Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site. The car is to cost $30,000 (Dhs110,000).