https://arab.news/2fchr
RIYADH: Saudi Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Waleed bin Abdulkarim Al-Khuraiji met his Indonesian counterpart Pahala Nugraha Mansury in Jakarta on Wednesday, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The two sides reviewed ways to strengthen bilateral ties and discussed issues of mutual interest.
RIYADH: A five-day cultural forum organized by Fenaa Alawwal in Riyadh’s Diplomatic Quarter, and co-curated by Afikra, is exploring the theme “Introspection: the role of contemporary art practices in a time of change.”
The inaugural Muntada Forum of Contemporary Art Practices opened on Sunday night and will have five panel discussions during its run until Sept. 19.
There are 24 creatives exploring a diverse range of topics, which includes the role of Saudi Arabia’s artists in shaping the Kingdom’s global image.
There will be discussions on Saudi Arabia’s youth culture involving music, street art and fashion; the role of art professionals: navigating creativity in a structural setup; cultural hubs: the emergence of urban art districts; and the intersection of food and art.
The bumper-to-bumper traffic in Riyadh was not a deterrent for art enthusiasts, curators and interested locals from attending the opening at the building built in 1988.
The venue was designed by Omrania architecture company, as a part of Alawwal Bank’s Riyadh branch in the landmark Diplomatic Quarter.
Every seat was occupied during the first panel which was titled “Soft power: Saudi artists’ role in shaping the Kingdom’s global image.”
It was moderated by curator Sara Al-Mutlaq with speakers, Ahmed Mater, a doctor-turned-artist, and Alia Al-Senussi, a cultural strategist, art patron and academic.
Al-Senussi told Arab News after the talk: “What we have really been able to embrace is the idea, (as) Ahmed Mater said, that it’s up to the artist to remove the power from the conversation.
• The inaugural Muntada Forum of Contemporary Art Practices opened on Sunday night and will have five panel discussions during its run until Sept. 19.
• Muntada will conclude with a performance by culinary storyteller and social media sensation Nadir Nahdi.
• The first panel was titled ‘Soft power: Saudi artists’ role in shaping the Kingdom’s global image.’
“And soft power, in its kind of whole and holistic way, is really about translating who people are to the rest of the world.”
Mater, who is working on a new book slated for publication later this year, discussed how events over the past 45 years, starting with 1979 — his birth year — changed the course of the world, a topic which he will explore in his latest work.
He explained that each decade since 1979 has had events with major ramifications on the local and international fronts, which included the revolution in Iran and the seizure of Makkah.
He also referred to events from the 1980s up to the present day, which include the Gulf War, 9/11, the Arab Spring and the rise of social media, as well as the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There was a big change happening in Saudi Arabia during these decades. I spoke about art as a mirror for sociopolitical events and the culture of changing and that’s what shapes our narrative, our story, our strength — by telling our story that shapes our life and our memory,” Mater told Arab News.
On opening night, curator Maya El-Khalil and Saudi Arabia artist Moath Alofi offered their insights in their keynote speeches.
Other speakers to come include Hala Al-Hedeithy from the Music Commission, Gigi Arabia, the founding director of Heavy Arabia; Nada Al-Helabi from MDLBEAST; and Mikey Muhanna, the founder and executive director of Afikra.
Other participants include Lulwah Al-Homoud, curator and artist; Oliver Farrell from Misk Art; Mayada Badr, CEO of the Culinary Arts Commission; and Sybel Vazquez from the Diriyah Biennale Foundation.
There will also be a kitchen lab dedicated to speaking about and celebrating all things food, hosted by celebrity chef Joe Barza.
Muntada will conclude with a performance by culinary storyteller and social media sensation Nadir Nahdi.
NEW YORK CITY: The continued lack of effective protections for civilians in Gaza is “unconscionable,” a senior UN official said on Monday.
It came as Sigrid Kaag, the UN’s humanitarian and reconstruction coordinator for Gaza, briefed the Security Council on the “sober and somber” situation on the ground in the territory.
She said time is “slipping away” to address a human-made humanitarian crisis that has “turned Gaza into the abyss.” An immediate ceasefire is required, she added, along with the unconditional release of all hostages and sustained efforts to deliver aid at scale.
“The infrastructure that civilians rely on must be protected and their essential needs met,” said Kaag. “As the secretary-general has reiterated, all parties must refrain from using schools, shelters or the areas around them for military purposes.
“All parties to the conflict must comply with international humanitarian law at all times. Equally, humanitarian workers need an enabling environment to ensure unimpeded and safe access to people in need. Tragically, in Gaza, nowhere is truly safe.
“Diseases, like the polio virus, that had been consigned to history in the Gaza Strip have now reappeared due to the collapse of essential services.”
She said that her team has negotiated and strengthened supply systems and additional delivery routes from or via Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, the occupied West Bank and Israel to “facilitate, accelerate and expedite a sustained and transparent flow of supplies into Gaza.”
The supply of humanitarian aid to Gaza is managed through a mechanism operated by the UN’s Office for Project Services, and its executive director, Jorge Moreira da Silva, provided council members with details of the numbers involved in aid deliveries.
Since the mechanism was introduced, he said, clearance has been requested for 229 consignments of humanitarian aid, of which 175 were approved, 101 have been delivered, 17 are pending clearance and 37 were rejected. The result is more than 22,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid has been delivered to Gaza so far, he added.
Da Silva thanked the member states that have contributed financially to his office’s operations in Gaza, and singled out the Egyptian route in particular as what he described as a “vital lifeline” for Palestinians in the territory.
“We cannot overemphasize the challenges of delivering the humanitarian response in Gaza right now,” he said.
The effective delivery of aid at the required scale will not be possible without the political will, security guarantees and a more-enabling environment, he added as he praised “the critical and irreplaceable role that the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees plays in Gaza, as the key implementer of our collective will.”
Russia’s permanent representative to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, criticized Western countries for their double standards in relation to continuing civilian deaths caused by Israeli strikes, which he said are being carried out with impunity as a result of backing from Washington and its allies.
“Such arrogance emanates from the unconditional support for any of its (Israel’s) actions by the United States, which has for nearly a year now been blocking any hint of a substantive reaction,” he added.
Conditions in Gaza are “horrific” and if Israel’s relentless bombardment of the territory is not stopped, more than 2 million Palestinians face the “real prospect” of a cessation of UN operations in the territory, Nebenzya said. The international community cannot allow this to happen, he warned.
The Slovenian representative to the UN, Samuel Zbogar, who holds the presidency of the Security Council this month, reiterated the need to prevent breaches of international law with respect to the protection of civilian lives, and to hold responsible those responsible for such transgressions.
“We have to dispel this sense of impunity for the lack of respect of international humanitarian law, as if civilians can be subjected to killing, maiming, bombing, torturing, displacement, under the eyes of the international community and the Security Council, this is unacceptable,” he said.
While the need to reach a ceasefire agreement in Gaza is of the utmost importance and will require strong political will, Zbogar said, in the meantime it is incumbent on Israel, as the occupying power, to ensure that food and medical supplies reach the civilian population.
“Obligations under international law, including international humanitarian law and human rights law, must be fulfilled,” he added. “Just as the release of hostages should not be conditional, neither should humanitarian aid to civilians.
“We are approaching Oct. 7, a year of this tragic conflict. This is not an opportunity but a duty for the Security Council to show political will and determination to help end it.”
The council unanimously condemned the targeting of UN staff and humanitarian workers during the conflict, and the US envoy to the UN, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, reiterated Washington’s “unequivocal” rejection of any actions that endanger aid workers and their facilities.
“There is no basis, absolutely none, for Israel’s forces to be opening fire on clearly marked UN vehicles, as recently occurred on numerous occasions,” she said.
She called on the leadership of the Israeli army to implement “fundamental changes” in the way its forces operate, including their rules of engagement.
WARSAW: Nobody outside of Prison Colony Number Four in the Belarusian city of Gomel has seen or heard from Maria Kolesnikova, imprisoned for leading huge 2020 protests against President Alexander Lukashenko since February last year.
An orchestra flute player, Kolesnikova was the star of a street movement that shook the Minsk regime four years ago — she then famously ripped up her passport while the KGB tried to forcibly deport her.
The 42-year-old is now serving an 11-year sentence in Gomel, one of over 1,000 political prisoners in the country. She has been barred from contact with the outside world for 19 months.
Minsk announced a new wave of pardons on Monday, with 37 political prisoners freed, but it was not yet known if Kolesnikova was included.
Two ex-prisoners released from the same colony told AFP Kolesnikova spends months in the harshest “PKT” type of punishment cell, held in isolation from other inmates, who are banned from talking to her.
“I am worried for her life,” her sister Tatiana Khomich, who lives abroad, told AFP.
She has been told Kolesnikova’s weight has severely dropped.
Kolesnikova had lost weight after abdominal surgery in November 2022, but has now lost “even more,” unable to recover in harsh conditions and denied an appropriate diet, her sister said.
According to Khomich, she has a limited allowance of around 20 euros in the prison shop per month.
“She’s basically starving,” Khomich said.
The world last saw a glimpse of Kolesnikova after the surgery, when she was allowed to see her father, with authorities releasing a fuzzy picture.
Then, the letters stopped: the last one was dated February 15, 2023. Contact was also lost with other key imprisoned opposition figures.
Khomich knows that Kolesnikova spends most of her time in the PKT, which ex-convicts describe as a “prison inside a prison.” PKT is an acronym for “cell-type space.”
Darya Afanasyeva, a feminist activist who served a 2.5-year sentence in Gomel, said information on Kolesnikova trickled down to women in the prison if someone was sent to a punishment cell and heard her through a wall.
Released this spring and now living in Poland, she described the level to which Kolesnikova was kept out of sight.
When a medical van came into the prison, likely headed for Kolesnikova, Afanasyeva said authorities put the colony “on some kind of martial law.”
“Everyone was put in one room and you are not allowed to go to the windows,” the 29-year-old said.
“We saw it was headed to the PKT and we understood it was for Masha.”
Before Kolesnikova was sent to the PKT, Afanasyeva said she appeared “very thin.”
Afanasyeva said Kolesnikova’s isolation in the Gomel prison — which started filling up with political prisoners after the protests — started as soon as the protest leader arrived there in June 2022.
Women with political cases were singled out with a yellow triangle on their uniforms, ex-prisoners said.
Prison officials were quick to cut Kolesnikova off.
She was the only political prisoner placed in a “brigade” with no other women with political cases.
Afanasyeva described the level of surveillance around Kolesnikova when she was still working at the prison sewing factory.
“They put special cameras to watch her, she worked on a machine and these two cameras were right above her table,” the activist, who had a yellow triangle tattooed on her forearm, said.
“Everything to do with Masha was made into a secret,” said Kristina Cherenkova, another former political prisoner, arrested for social media posts against the war in Ukraine in her town near the Ukraine border.
“Practically the whole year and one month that I was in the Gomel prison, she was in the PKT,” Cherenkova, now also in Poland, said.
She relayed what women sent to solitary confinement had told her.
“At first, the girls said her voice was strong and that she sang in there,” Cherenkova said.
“But in the last months of me being there, they would say you could not hear her as much.”
When news broke of a major swap between Russia — on whom Belarus relies — and the West, Khomich had hoped her sister would be among prisoners released.
But while let down by an absence of Belarusian dissidents in the swap, it gave her a boost that “talks are possible, even in times of war.”
A fresh wave of pardons this summer has offered new hope to relatives of political prisoners.
Analyst Artyom Shraibman said Kolesnikova was getting “special treatment” in prison, with the regime driven by “revenge for the trauma of 2020.”
He struggled to imagine a free Kolesnikova, saying “Lukashenko mainly lets people go who would leave prison soon anyway.”
“Or who would die in prison soon,” he added.
RAMALLAH, Palestinian Territories: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will travel Tuesday to Madrid, an official in his office said Monday, after the first Palestinian ambassador to Spain presented his credentials to Spanish King Felipe VI.
Abbas is due to meet King Felipe and Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, whose government formally recognised a Palestinian state in May, before heading to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, the official told AFP.
King Felipe on Monday welcomed Housni Abdel Wahed to the royal palace in Madrid for the traditional ceremony for newly appointed foreign ambassadors to Spain, according to images published by the royal palace on social network X.
Wahed had headed the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Madrid since 2022 and enjoyed a status similar to that of an ambassador, but he officially changed rank after Spain along with Ireland and Norway formally recognised a Palestinian state comprising the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
The three countries said at the time they hoped their decision would spur other European countries to follow suit and accelerate efforts towards securing a ceasefire in Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.
Israel condemned their decision, saying it bolsters Hamas, the militant Islamist group that led the October 7 attack on Israel that triggered the war in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip.
Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz at the time accused Sanchez of "participating in the incitement to commit genocide and war crimes against the Jewish people".
Spain has repeatedly criticised Israel over its war against Hamas.
The October 7 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,205 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized 251 hostages, 97 of whom are still held in Gaza, including 33 the Israeli military says are dead.
Israel's retaliatory military offensive has so far killed at least 41,226 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.
LONDON: MBC Media Solutions has partnered with the Etihad Etisalat Company, which is widely known as Mobily, to sponsor live broadcasts of the 2024-25 Roshn Saudi League season.
Mobily will advertise through SSC channels and the Shahid platform, both official broadcast partners of the league across the Middle East and North Africa.
Noura Al-Shiha, senior vice president of brand and corporate communications at Mobily, said: “Our partnership with MMS to sponsor the broadcasting of Saudi Roshn League matches embodies our firm commitment to contributing to the development of the sports sector in the Kingdom.”
Al-Shiha added that the partnership aligned with the company’s strategic goal of “supporting and developing vital sectors” in Saudi Arabia, highlighting Mobily’s role as a “national digital enabler.”
Ahmed Al-Sahhaf, the CEO of MMS, said the partnership aimed to build on the growing popularity of the Roshn Saudi League.
He said: “The Saudi league has today become an attraction for major companies both locally and globally, and to keep pace with this development we have worked through (MMS Sports) to develop a package of advertising and investment solutions that caters to the sports viewer’s journey and contributes to generating returns for our partners.
“We are fully confident that the partnership signed with one of the largest telecommunications companies, Mobily, will benefit the brand and contribute to the business growth of all partners.”
Mobily joins the list of sponsors backing Saudi Arabia’s top football league. PepsiCo earlier this year signed a multi-brand partnership with the league, which runs to the end of the 2024-25 season, while, since 2022, real estate company Roshn, a division of the Public Investment Fund, has been the league’s title sponsor.
