OIC Rejects Trump Plan; Kuwait Says Palestine Cause Top Priority
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JUMADA ALTHANI 10, 1441 AH TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2020 28 Pages Max 20º Min 05º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18052 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Diplomat: Kuwait, Philippines Protest camps splinter over ‘1917’ wins big at Baftas to ‘Comeback Kings’ Kansas City 5 want deal on domestic workers 7 Sadr’s backing of new PM 20 take pole position for Oscars 28 end 50-yr Super Bowl drought OIC rejects Trump plan; Kuwait says Palestine cause top priority Netanyahu talks ‘normalization’ with Sudan • Uganda ‘studying’ embassy in Jerusalem JEDDAH: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation yes- and the other Arab territories occupied since (the) June terday rejected US President Donald Trump’s peace plan 1967 (Middle East war)”. for the Middle East, calling on its 57 member states not Kuwait highly appreciates the international communi- to help implement it. The pan-Islamic body, which repre- ty’s efforts to find a solution to the Middle East conflict, sents more than 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide, “rejects the Kuwaiti foreign minister said yesterday, describing this US-Israeli plan as it does not meet the minimum the “Palestinian cause” as the Muslim world’s chief con- aspirations and legitimate rights of the Palestinian people cern. The misery the Palestinians have had to withstand and contradicts the terms of reference of the peace amid a conflict that has raged on for more than half a process”, it said in a statement. century is unspeakable, Sheikh Ahmad Nasser Al-Sabah A meeting of foreign ministers at OIC headquarters in told the OIC meeting. After similar talks involving the the Saudi city of Jeddah called on “all member states not foreign ministers of Arab League member states last (to) deal with this plan or cooperate with the US admin- week, he lamented the fact that an end to the plight of istration efforts to enforce it in any way or form”. Under the Palestinians remains elusive, emphasizing that an the US plan unveiled last week, Israel would retain con- independent state of Palestine with Jerusalem as its capi- trol of the disputed city of Jerusalem as its “undivided tal remains the ultimate goal. capital” and annex settlements on Palestinian lands. Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Trump’s plan suggests that Israel would retain control of Netanyahu met Sudan’s leader yesterday to discuss the contested city of Jerusalem as its “undivided capital” “normalization” between the two states, his office said. but Palestinians would be allowed to declare a capital Netanyahu met Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan, chairman of adjacent to Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. Sudan’s ruling sovereign council, and “agreed to start The OIC reiterated its support for east Jerusalem as cooperation leading to normalization of the relationship capital of a future Palestinian state, stressing its “Arab between the two countries,” a statement from his office and Islamic character”. It said peace would “only be said. Israel and Sudan are technically at war. “History,” achieved with the end of the Israeli occupation, the full Netanyahu said in a tweet announcing the meeting. The JEDDAH: Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki (right) delivers a speech during an emergency ministerial meeting of withdrawal from the territory of the State of Palestine in statement from Netanyahu’s office said the prime the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) yesterday to address US President Donald Trump’s Middle East plan. — AFP particular the holy city of Al-Quds Al-Sharif (Jerusalem) Continued on Page 24 offered rare criticism of Russia last News in brief Turkey, Syria in week, accusing it of “not honoring” agreements to prevent a regime offen- sive on rebel-held Idlib. China admits virus ‘shortcomings’ deadly flare-up The overnight clash began with regime shelling of Turkish positions in BEIJING: China’s top leadership yesterday admitted BEIRUT: Turkish and Syrian troops Idlib, hours after a Turkish military con- “shortcomings and difficulties” in its response to the traded fire in northwest Syria yesterday, voy of at least 240 vehicles entered coronavirus outbreak and the government said it with more than 20 reported dead, further northwest Syria, according to the Syrian “urgently” needed medical supplies to battle the out- raising tension between Ankara and Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain- break which has killed more than 360 people. The regime backer Moscow over the war- based war monitor. The attack killed five comments came as 57 new deaths were confirmed torn Idlib rebel enclave. Russian air soldiers and three Turkish civilians yesterday - the single-biggest daily increase since strikes also killed 14 civilians in the same despite previous coordination on where the virus was detected late last year in the central city area, where a government offensive has Ankara’s forces would be in the region, of Wuhan, where it is believed to have jumped from caused one of the worst displacement Turkey’s defense ministry said. animals at a market into humans. The government also waves of the nine-year-old Syrian con- The Russian defense ministry said said it “urgently” needed medical equipment and sur- flict, a monitoring group said. Ankara had failed to give prior warning gical masks, protective suits, and safety goggles as it The tit-for-tat shelling between of its troop movements at the time of the battles to control the outbreak. — AFP (See Page 24) Turkish and Russian-backed Syrian forces was the deadliest since Turkey incident. Retaliatory rocket attacks by deployed troops in Syria in 2016 and Ankara on regime positions later killed URUM AL-KUBRA, Syria: Members of the Syrian White Helmets prepare the bodies escalated tensions between the conflict’s at least 13 Syrian government troops and UAE discovers huge gas reserves of children killed in a Russian air strike for burial in this village in rebel-held north- two top foreign protagonists. Turkish wounded 20 others in Idlib and ern Aleppo province yesterday. — AFP ABU DHABI: The United Arab Emirates, a leading President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had Continued on Page 24 OPEC producer, announced yesterday the discov- ery of huge gas reserves, saying the find would help the Gulf state achieve self-sufficiency. Abu Dhabi National Oil Co (ADNOC) said about 80 Gold and Bentleys: Slovenia’s first trillion cubic feet (2.2 trillion cu m) of shallow gas resources were discovered between the emirates Lebanese spend big mosque opens of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the largest of the seven- member UAE. Leaders of Abu Dhabi and Dubai witnessed the signing of an agreement between to salvage savings after 50 years ADNOC and Dubai Supply Authority for the exploration and development of the gas resources. BEIRUT: Companies are closing and restaurants are LJUBLJANA, Slovenia: Slovenia’s first mosque opened The produced gas will be supplied to Dubai which half empty but in the gloom of Lebanon’s worst eco- in the capital Ljubljana yesterday after surmounting currently imports most of its gas needs from neigh- nomic crisis in decades, luxury jewelers, supercar deal- financial hurdles and right-wing opposition, 50 years boring Qatar. — AFP erships and art galleries are doing brisk business. after the initial request to build was made. Opponents of Worried that their life savings might vanish with a col- the project - including those who criticized its Qatari lapse of the banking sector, some Lebanese are financing - have repeatedly tried to halt it, and pig heads Denmark arrests 3 Ahvaz ‘spies’ syphoning cash from their accounts and buying the DBAYEH, Lebanon: A picture taken on Jan 28, 2020 shows and blood have also been left on the site. most expensive goods they can get their hands on. a billboard advertising real estate north of Beirut. — AFP Islamic community head Mufti Nedzad Grabus said COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s intelligence service Banks have slapped restrictions on withdrawals and the mosque’s opening was “a turning point in our lives”. arrested and charged three members of an Iranian overseas transfers, leading some depositors to use The Lebanese pound has been officially pegged to “Slovenia is the last former Yugoslav state to get a separatist group with spying on behalf of Saudi cashier’s checks to spend savings they fear would oth- the dollar since 1997 but it has lost a third of its value mosque, making Ljubljana a capital rather than a Arabia in Denmark, it said yesterday. The Danish erwise be depleted by a haircut or a devaluation. “Our on the parallel market recently. With the prospect that provincial town on the edge of the world,” he told a Security and Intelligence Service (PET) said it sales have trebled since November,” said Karl Kenaan, Lebanon might restructure or default on its debt after press conference. arrested three leading members of the ASMLA, a Beirut-based real estate broker. “There’s a huge years of economic mismanagement and corruption, Muslims in the predominantly Catholic Alpine country demand.” Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of many Lebanese fear that an official devaluation of the first filed a request to build a mosque in the late 1960s Companies encouraging Lebanese to offload their while Slovenia was still part of the former Communist Ahwaz. The three “have carried out espionage pound will slash their savings. The loss of confidence in savings by investing in property have launched adver- a banking sector that was once a source of national Yugoslavia. The community finally received permission activities on behalf of a Saudi intelligence service tising campaigns on billboards and on social media. pride is such that deposits in Lebanon have slumped by 15 years ago, but ran into opposition from rightwing from 2012 to 2018”, Finn Borch Andersen, head of “People want to diversify their investments as a pre- $12 billion over the first 11 months of 2019.