KT 18-5-2017.Qxp Layout 1
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
SUBSCRIPTION THURSDAY, MAY 18, 2017 SHABAN 22, 1438 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Kuwait Vision WikiLeaks source Arab Fashion Curry shines 2035 includes Manning freed Week brings as Warriors effective mgmt, after 7 years in unisex minimalism crush Spurs, ratings 5boost military 7prison to37 Dubai lead20 series 2-0 Trump to promote business, Min 26º reassure allies on Saudi trip Max 45º High Tide 05:33 & 15:33 Low Tide US president to talk tough on radicalism • Bashir to attend summit 10:20 & 23:14 40 PAGES NO: 17231 150 FILS WASHINGTON/RIYADH: When US President Donald conspiracy theories Trump meets Saudi leaders in Riyadh on Saturday, he can expect a warmer welcome than the one given a year ago to his predecessor Barack Obama, who Riyadh Hypocrisy considered soft on arch foe Iran and cool toward a bilat- eral relationship that is a mainstay of the Middle East’s security balance. Beneath the pomp, Riyadh will be looking for assurances that the Trump administration will continue its notably harsher tone toward Iran and keep up pressure, through both rhetoric and action, to stop what Saudi Arabia sees as Tehran’s destabilizing By Badrya Darwish activities in the region. The US-Saudi alliance has experienced turbulence since Riyadh faulted what it saw as Obama’s withdrawal from the region, a perceived tilt toward Iran since the [email protected] 2011 Arab uprisings and a lack of direct action against Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, an Iranian ally. Saudi Arabia will also want to showcase high-profile invest- ven our best writers are starting to follow the ment deals with American companies to show progress current. In the last few years, and especially on its ambitious “Vision 2030” economic and social Ethe past few months, we have heard nothing reform agenda, while Washington says US arms sales from parliamentarians and officials except for a worth tens of billions of dollars are in the pipeline. propaganda war against expats. Expat this. Expat Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia is the first stop on his that. Without even thinking, wherever they see a maiden international trip since taking office in January. weakness in services in the country - blame it on US and Saudi officials are eager to highlight the power- the expats. Without studying it. Without admitting ful symbolism of an American president choosing to vis- the real problems. Push the expat button - it’s the it the birthplace of Islam as his first stop rather than to right button. neighbors Canada or Mexico. Besides meeting with Imagine a well-known respected writer suggest- Saudi officials, Trump will also meet with leaders of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and have ing to get rid of porters at the airport to adjust the RIYADH: (From left) Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah, Qatar’s Foreign Minister demographic imbalance in Kuwait! He also sug- lunch with leaders of more than 50 Muslim countries. Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, Oman’s Foreign Minister Yusuf bin Alawi, Saudi Arabia’s Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir will also attend gested removing expats from the roles of imams Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmed Al-Khalifa, UAE Minister of State and muezzins because they are exhausting the the gathering in Saudi Arabia on Saturday, but has for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash and GCC Secretary General Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani pose for a group received no indication whether he will meet Trump budget of the ministry of awqaf and Islamic affairs. picture during a meeting of Gulf foreign ministers in the Saudi capital yesterday. — AFP May I ask how many imams and muezzins we have Continued on Page 13 in the mosques? Is this really a number which will reverse the demographic imbalance and open tens of thousands of jobs for our kids? KPC projects 47% rise in profits And we should give valet parking and hospital cleaning jobs to bedoons, according to his idea. So we are not going to give it to our kids but to anoth- er stratum of expats. Excuse me! Why are you dis- Assembly likely to hold weekly sessions in Ramadan criminating between bedoons and other expats? If you haven’t given them nationality, this means they By B Izzak current fiscal year. He called for taking deci- are considered expats, I’m sorry. sive measures to deal with such losses. Of course I agree 100 percent that there is a hor- KUWAIT: Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) net Abdulsamad said that although KPC has Dubai firm eyeing iceberg rible demographic imbalance. But not only in profits are projected to reach KD 544 mil- cut its development projects from 70 to 38, Kuwait. It is a problem which the whole Gulf is fac- lion in the current fiscal year, up 47 percent costing an estimated KD 18 billion, spend- harvesting for freshwater ing since we discovered and started selling petrol on last year’s profits due to an increase in ing was only 27 percent or KD 5 billion. The and became rich nations, giving citizens the option the price of oil, head of the National lawmaker said the committee called for tak- DUBAI: A Dubai firm’s dream of towing reserve in the southern Indian Ocean, to select the jobs they like. Because none of us in Assembly’s budgets committee said yester- ing the necessary measures to deal with icebergs from the Antarctic to the where they would steer between mas- the Gulf will opt to be a valet, cleaner, servant, tai- day. MP Adnan Abdulsamad said KPC has delays in oil projects, saying that the Audit Arabian Peninsula could face some titan- sive icebergs the size of cities in search lor, builder, plumber, driver, maid, etc. Our wealth is calculated the price of oil at $45 a barrel Bureau has noted delays in 144 projects out ic obstacles. Where many see the crum- of truck-sized chunks known as a gift from God and it allowed us to build our coun- and is projecting to post revenues amount- of 291 ongoing ventures. For example, the bling polar ice caps as a distressing sign growlers. Workers would then secure tries, so we need workers. Nothing wrong with that. ing to over KD 10 billion. percentage of execution of the clean fuel of global warming, the National Advisor them to the boats with nets and embark But people have taken advantage and abused the But the lawmaker said that KPC’s net project reached 50 percent in the latest final Bureau Limited sees it as a source of on a yearlong cruise to the United Arab system big time to make money through human profits were coming from non-operating accounts, while the target was 61 percent, profit, and a way of offsetting the effects Emirates. The company believes that, as trafficking and visa trading in the millions, especial- revenues and not from its core business. adding that 17,000 workers were operating of climate change in the increasingly most of the icebergs’ mass is underwa- ly in Kuwait. Abdulsamad said KPC is projecting non- on the project, down from the estimated sweltering Gulf. The firm has drawn up ter, they would not melt significantly So let’s talk about what’s the real problem. Let’s operating profits in the 2017/2018 fiscal 40,000 employees, Abdulsamad said. plans to harvest icebergs in the southern during the voyage. Shehi said each ice- not start running after airport porters or hospital year representing interest and investments The committee called on KPC and its Indian Ocean and tow them 9,200 km berg would hold around 20 billion gal- janitors. Let’s talk about the millions of visas traded at KD 939 million. He said certain activities subsidiaries to exert more efforts to achieve away to the Gulf, where they could be lons of fresh water that could be har- melted down for freshwater and market- vested without costly desalinization, and hundreds of millions in dinars going into the of KPC subsidiaries have been making yearly its strategy of boosting crude oil production ed as a tourist attraction. which currently provides nearly all of the pockets of influential people. losses, citing the example of national refiner to 4.0 million barrels per day in 2020, adding “The icebergs are just floating in the Gulf region’s water. Thank you very much. That’s enough for today. Kuwait National Petroleum Co (KNPC), that the shortage from the target in the last Indian Ocean. They are up for grabs to Masdar, a government-backed clean I’m sick of this topic and the hypocrisy of society. which is expected to post losses worth KD final account reached 810,000 barrels. whoever can take them,” managing direc- energy firm in the United Arab 405 million from refining operations in the Continued on Page 13 tor Abdullah Al-Shehi told AP in his Dubai Emirates, is exploring new technologies office. He hopes to begin harvesting to meet the country’s water needs. The them by 2019. It is perhaps no surprise United Arab Emirates’ Energy Ministry Experts: Another that the idea would originate in Dubai, issued a statement this week denying which is already famous for its indoor ski “reports” that an iceberg was in the large-scale cyber slope, artificial islands and the world’s process of being imported, without tallest building. But the plan to harvest specifying the reports to which it attack underway icebergs faces a wide array of legal, finan- referred.