King Charles III: A friend of the Arab world

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Updated 06 May 2023
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King Charles III: A friend of the Arab world

  • New monarch’s engagement with the Middle East ensures continuity of friendship forged by the late queen
  • As Prince of Wales, Charles showed a lifelong commitment to building bridges between faiths and cultures

LONDON: In November, the Prince of Wales and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, embarked on the first overseas tour by any member of the British royal family since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which had brought a temporary halt to such trips two years earlier.

To those familiar with the interests closest to the prince’s heart, the choice of the Middle East as the destination came as no surprise.

Visiting Jordan and Egypt, the prince was honoring his lifelong commitment to the building of bridges between different faiths and cultures, and exercising his fascination with, and love of, a region with which he has always been deeply engaged.

On his visit to Jordan, the prince was keen to express his admiration for the work being done in the country on behalf of refugees, many of whom had been displaced by the war in Syria.




Prince Charles plays with children during his visit to the King Abdullah Park for Syrian Refugees at Ramtha city, north of Amman, on March 13, 2013. (AFP)

He has been particularly concerned with the plight of refugees throughout the region. In January 2020 he was announced as the first UK patron of the International Rescue Committee, the organization working in 40 countries “to help people to survive, recover, and gain control of their futures.”

In Jordan, he met and spoke to some of the 750,000 people being hosted by the country, many of whom rely on support from donor countries, including the UK and Saudi Arabia.

The prince’s sense of the history of the region, which in many cases is linked inextricably with that of his own country, is keen. While in Jordan, he planted a tree to symbolize the UK-Jordanian partnership, and to mark the centenary of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan — a product of the allied defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, and which was finally granted independence from the British mandate in 1946.

In Cairo, the prince and the duchess were welcomed by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi. It was the prince’s second trip to Egypt. He had visited previously in 2006, as part of a tour that also included Saudi Arabia and which had been carried out to promote better understanding and tolerance between religions, and in support of environmental initiatives and the promotion of sustainable job opportunities and training for young people.




Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb (C-L), Grand Imam of al-Azhar, receives Prince Charles and his wife Camilla upon their arrival at the mosque in Cairo on Nov.18, 2021. (AFP)

After visiting Cairo’s Al-Azhar mosque, the prince underlined his commitment to interfaith harmony in a speech at Al-Azhar University.

He said: “I believe with all my heart, that responsible men and women should work to restore mutual respect between religions, and we must do everything in our power to overcome the mistrust that poisons the lives of many people.”

Similar to his mother, who passed away on Thursday, Charles has always been devoted to ecumenism and the promotion of harmony between faiths.

As King Charles III, he now inherits Queen Elizabeth II’s role as Supreme Governor of the Church of England, and the title Defender of the Faith — and, like her before him, he has always made clear that he sees this role as being better defined as defender of all faiths.

During a BBC interview in 2015, he said: “It has always seemed to me that, while at the same time being Defender of the Faith, you can also be protector of faiths.

“The Church has a duty to protect the free practice of all faiths in this country.”

With more than 3 million Muslims in the UK, Islam is the second-largest religion in the country, and Charles’ interest in the religion is well known.




Prince Charles starts a basketball training match at the Saudi Sports Federation for Special Needs complex on the outskirts of Riyadh on February 10, 2004. (AFP)

In 2015, during a Middle East tour that took him to Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the UAE, it emerged that the prince had spent the previous six months learning Arabic with a private tutor, in order to be able to read the Qur’an in its original language, and to be better able to decipher inscriptions in museums and other institutions during his many trips to the region.

A royal aide revealed that the prince was “enormously interested in the region.”

Known for his passion for Islamic history, art, and culture — at the University of Cambridge in the 1960s, the prince read archaeology, anthropology, and history at Trinity College — Charles has always taken a close interest in the heritage of the Middle East.

In particular, he has followed closely and several times has visited the extensive archaeological work taking place in and around AlUla and the ancient Nabataean city of Hegra, inscribed in 2008 as a UNESCO World Heritage site.




Prince Charles, accompanied by then Saudi tourism chief Prince Sultan bin Salman, tour the historical town of AlUla in Madinah province on Feb. 11, 2015. (AFP)

On a visit to Saudi Arabia in 2013, he enjoyed a tour of the Wadi Hanifa and watched with great interest a presentation on the Diriyah project, which is transforming the historic Wadi into a destination for global cultural tourism, with the preserved ruins of Diriyah, capital of the First Saudi State and birthplace of Saudi Arabia, at its heart.

Charles is a keen artist, and that interest is reflected on his personal website, princeofwales.gov.uk — in the throes of being updated to reflect his new standing — on which four watercolors he painted in the Middle East are showcased.

The earliest, dated 1986, is of a ship in Port Suez, Egypt. Two others are landscapes painted in Saudi Arabia — a view of Wadi Arkam in the remote southwest Asir province in 1999, and a study of a historic palace in Diriyah, painted in 2001.

Since his investiture as Prince of Wales in 1969, Charles has made innumerable visits to countries in the region, formally and informally. Private visits aside, as Prince of Wales Charles made five official visits to Jordan, six to Qatar, seven to both Kuwait and the UAE, and 12 to Saudi Arabia.

It was a tradition that began in 1986 when he embarked on a nine-day tour of the Middle East, during which he visited Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia with his then wife, Diana, Princess of Wales, from whom he would separate in 1992.

Just how seriously Charles takes his and Britain’s links with the region is underlined by the number of meetings he has had at home and abroad, with members of Middle Eastern royal families — more than 200 in the past decade, including with those of Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the UAE.

As Prince of Wales, it was part of Charles’ job to promote the mutual interests of Britain and its allies, and in pursuit of that duty he paid many formal and informal visits to Saudi Arabia, the UK’s most influential ally in the region.

The prince’s role as a bridge between his country and all the nations of the Gulf, in particular, has always been mutually beneficial. For example, the day after a visit to Riyadh in February 2014, during which the prince gamely accepted an invitation to don traditional Arab dress and take part in a sword dance, it was announced that British aerospace company BAE had completed a deal for the sale to the Kingdom of 72 Typhoon fighter jets.

As the Prince of Wales, Charles has had many charitable interests, but perhaps none has been as global in its outlook as The Prince’s Foundation, dedicated to “realizing the Prince of Wales’ vision of creating communities for a more sustainable world.”

Focused on education, appreciation of heritage, and the creation of equal opportunities for young people, at home and abroad, the foundation has run satellite programs in more than 20 countries, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where it operates permanent centers.

In Saudi Arabia, the foundation established a building arts and crafts vocational training program in Jeddah’s old city, Al-Balad, giving students the opportunity to become involved in the Ministry of Culture’s restoration projects in the city.

During the Winter at Tantora festival, held in AlUla from Jan. 10 to March 21, 2020, the foundation staged an exhibition titled “Cosmos, Color and Craft: The Art of the Order of Nature in AlUla,” and ran a series of hands-on workshops in conjunction with the Royal Commission for AlUla.

In the UAE, since 2009 the foundation has been working with the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation to deliver traditional arts workshops in the capital.

On his visit to Egypt last year, the prince met young craftspeople from the Egyptian Heritage Rescue Foundation and The Jameel School. Supported by The Prince’s Foundation, the school teaches young Egyptians classes in traditional Islamic geometry, drawing, color harmony, and arabesque studies.

Unsurprisingly, the foundation has attracted donations from many influential friends in the region. As the Prince of Wales, Charles’ bonds with the royal families of the region have always been deeper than the necessary ties demanded by wise diplomacy.

For example, he considered King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia as a personal friend and, after the monarch passed away in January 2015, flew to Riyadh to pay his final respects and express his condolences to his successor, King Salman, in person.

In Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Thursday, the Middle East and its peoples had a lifelong friend, close to its leaders and committed to building and maintaining bridges between faiths and cultures.

In King Charles III, that precious friendship clearly is destined to continue unbroken.


Kemi Badenoch says she refuses to speak to women in burqas at constituency surgeries

Updated 08 June 2025
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Kemi Badenoch says she refuses to speak to women in burqas at constituency surgeries

  • ‘I’m not talking to people who are not going to show me their face,’ UK Conservative Party leader tells interviewer
  • Badenoch links issue to concerns over integration, pointing to Shariah courts and cousin marriages as ‘more insidious’ challenges

LONDON: The leader of the UK’s Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch has said she asks women to remove face coverings, including burqas, before speaking with them at constituency surgeries, and believes employers should be allowed to ban staff from wearing the garment.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Badenoch said she supported the right of individuals to wear what they liked, but drew a line at face coverings in certain settings.

“If you come into my constituency surgery, you have to remove your face covering, whether it’s a burqa or a balaclava,” she said. “I’m not talking to people who are not going to show me their face.”

Her comments follow renewed debate over the issue after Reform UK’s new member of Parliament, Sarah Pochin, urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to consider a burqa ban similar to those in countries such as France.

Party leader Nigel Farage also backed the call, prompting a backlash from Muslim groups and some within his own party.

Reform’s chairman, Zia Yusuf, briefly resigned after the row, citing exhaustion and racist abuse, but has since returned.

He told The Sunday Times he might support a ban in principle, but said other issues were more urgent.

Yusuf is expected to take on a number of roles within the party, including overseeing local council spending.

Badenoch linked the issue of face coverings to broader concerns over integration, pointing to Shariah courts and cousin marriages as “more insidious” challenges.

“People should be allowed to wear whatever they want, not what their husband or community tells them to wear,” she said.

She also backed the right of organizations to set their own dress codes, saying: “It shouldn’t be something that people should be able to override.”

While employers can impose dress policies, they must meet legal tests of proportionality and legitimacy under equality and human rights law.

Restrictions may be justified on grounds such as health and safety, or the need for clear communication.

The debate echoes comments made in 2006 by then-Labour home secretary Jack Straw, who said he asked women visiting his surgery to remove the burqa to enable more meaningful conversation.


Restive Indian state orders curfew after fresh violence

Updated 08 June 2025
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Restive Indian state orders curfew after fresh violence

  • Manipur in India’s northeast has been rocked by periodic clashes between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community
  • The latest violence was triggered Saturday after reports of the arrest of five members, including a commander, of Arambai Tenggol, a radical Meitei group

IMPHAL, India: An Indian state riven by ethnic tensions imposed an Internet shutdown and curfew after protesters clashed with security forces over the arrest of some members of a radical group, police said Sunday.

Manipur in India’s northeast has been rocked by periodic clashes for more than two years between the predominantly Hindu Meitei majority and the mainly Christian Kuki community that have killed more than 250 people.

The latest violence was triggered Saturday after reports of the arrest of five members, including a commander, of Arambai Tenggol, a radical Meitei group.

Incensed mobs demanding their release stormed a police post, set fire to a bus and blocked roads in parts of the state capital Imphal.

Manipur police announced a curfew in five districts, including Imphal West and Bishnupur, due to the “developing law and order situation.”

“Prohibitory orders have been issued by District Magistrates. Citizens are requested to cooperate with the orders,” the police said in a statement.

Arambai Tenggol, which is alleged to have orchestrated the violence against the Kuki community, has also announced a 10-day shutdown in the valley districts.

The state’s home ministry has ordered all Internet and mobile data services in volatile districts to be shut off for five days in order to bring the latest unrest under control.

Internet services were shut down for months in Manipur during the initial outbreak of violence in 2023, which displaced around 60,000 people from their homes according to government figures.

Thousands of the state’s residents are still unable to return home owing to ongoing tensions.

Long-standing tensions between the Meitei and Kuki communities revolve around competition for land and public jobs.

Rights activists have accused local leaders of exacerbating ethnic divisions for political gain.


Indian FM starts week-long EU trip in new cooperation push

Updated 08 June 2025
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Indian FM starts week-long EU trip in new cooperation push

  • Jaishankar will inaugurate the first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille
  • India and EU are negotiating a free trade deal, which is expected to be finalized this year

NEW DELHI: India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has embarked on Sunday a week-long trip for talks with the top diplomats of the EU, France and Belgium in a new push for cooperation with Europe, his office said.

Jaishankar is set to meet his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot, and “will be holding a Strategic Dialogue with the EU High Representative and Vice President Ms. Kaja Kallas, and will engage with the senior leadership from the European Commission and the European Parliament,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

“The visit of EAM is expected to further deepen India’s friendly relations with the European Union, France and Belgium and give renewed momentum to ongoing cooperation in diverse areas.”

The foreign minister will also inaugurate the first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille.

The Raisina Dialogue is a premier multilateral conference on geopolitics and geo-economics held annually in New Delhi and organized by the Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs.

The dialogue in Marseille “is a new initiative involving both government and non-government officials from both from India and various parts of the world to converge and talk about issues pertaining to the Mediterranean,” Prof. Harsh V. Pant, vice president of the Observer Research Foundation, told Arab News.

During EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s New Delhi visit in February, India and the EU committed to conclude negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement in December.

During last week’s talks in Paris, nearly half the agenda — covering areas like customs, trade facilitation, rules of origin, and intellectual property — has been agreed on.

“The partnership between India and France, and India and the EU continues to evolve dramatically,” Pant said, adding that Jaishankar’s trip is also about conveying “how India feels about the changing strategic realities, as well as what has happened with Pakistan.”

Last month, India and Pakistan engaged days-long cross-border fire. Indian forces launched a series of strikes across the Line of Control — the de facto border that separates the Indian-controlled and Pakistani-controlled parts of the disputed Kashmir territory. They also hit other sites on the Pakistani mainland, targeting what New Delhi claimed were militant positions.

Pakistan retaliated with strikes on Indian military targets before a US-brokered ceasefire took effect on May 10. According to the Pakistani military, its forces had downed six Indian warplanes, including several French aircraft Rafale and a Mirage 2000.

The escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbors took place as India blamed Pakistan for a deadly militant attack, in which 26 tourists were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir — Islamabad denied any involvement.


Indian FM begins week-long EU trip in new cooperation push

Updated 08 June 2025
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Indian FM begins week-long EU trip in new cooperation push

  • Jaishankar will inaugurate first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille
  • India, EU negotiating free trade deal, which is expected to be finalized this year

NEW DELHI: India’s External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar set out on Sunday to begin a week of talks with leading diplomats of the EU, France, and Belgium in a new push for cooperation with Europe.

Jaishankar is due to meet his French counterpart, Jean-Noel Barrot, and Belgian Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot during the trip. He will also hold “a strategic dialogue with the EU High Representative and Vice President Ms. Kaja Kallas, and will engage with the senior leadership from the European Commission and the European Parliament,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.

The visit is expected to “further deepen India’s friendly relations with the EU, France, and Belgium and give renewed momentum to ongoing cooperation in diverse areas,” the ministry added.

Jaishankar will also inaugurate the first edition of the Mediterranean Raisina Dialogue in Marseille.

The Raisina Dialogue is a multilateral conference on geopolitics and geo-economics held annually in New Delhi and organized by the Observer Research Foundation in collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs.

The dialogue in Marseille “is a new initiative involving both government and nongovernment officials from both from India and various parts of the world to converge and talk about issues pertaining to the Mediterranean,” Prof. Harsh V. Pant, vice president of the Observer Research Foundation, told Arab News.

During EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s New Delhi visit in February, India and the EU agreed to finalize negotiations on a comprehensive free trade agreement in December.

Talks in Paris last week resulted in agreement on almost half the agenda, covering areas such as customs, trade facilitation, rules of origin, and intellectual property.


Tens of thousands join anti-government protest in Madrid

Updated 08 June 2025
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Tens of thousands join anti-government protest in Madrid

MADRID: Tens of thousands of people rallied Sunday in an opposition-organized demonstration in Madrid accusing the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez of corruption.

Protesters, many waving red and yellow Spanish flags, massed in the Plaza de Espana, a large square in the center of the Spanish capital, and chanted “Perdo Sanchez, resign!.”

The Popular Party (PP) called the rally after leaked audio recordings allegedly documented a member of the Socialist party, Leire Diez, waging a smear campaign against a police unit that investigated graft allegations against Sanchez’s wife, brother, and his former right-hand man.

Diez has denied the allegations, telling reporters on Wednesday that she was conducting research for a book and was not working on behalf of the party or Sanchez. She also resigned from Sanchez’s Socialist party.

PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo has accused the government of “mafia practices” over the affair, and said Sanchez is “at the center” of multiple corruption scandals.

“This government has stained everything — politics, state institutions, the separation of powers,” he told the rally, going on to urge Sanchez to call early elections.

The PP estimated that more than 100,000 people attended the rally, held under the slogan “Mafia or Democracy.”

The central government’s representative in Madrid put the turnout between 45,000 and 50,000.

“The expiry date on this government passed a long time ago. It’s getting tiring,” Blanca Requejo, a 46-year-old store manager who wore a Spanish flag drapped over her back, told AFP at the rally.

Sanchez has dismissed the probes against members of his inner circle as part of a “smear campaign” carried out by the right wing to undermine his government.

He came to power in June 2018 after ousting his PP predecessor, Mariano Rajoy, in a no-confidence vote over a corruption scandal affecting involving the conservative party.

Recent polls show the PP holding only a slim lead over the Socialists. The next general election is expected in 2027.