Saudi Ambassador, Lebanon's Finance Minister Discuss Reforms, Regional Developments
Saudi Ambassador to Lebanon Waleed Bukhari held talks in Beirut on Tuesday with Lebanese Finance Minister Yassine Jaber.
The meeting focused on the latest developments in Lebanon and the region.
The officials also tackled the reforms the Finance Ministry is adopting to revive Lebanon's economy and stimulate growth. They discussed means to boost investment between their countries in various fields.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
an hour ago
- Al Arabiya
Trump vowed to remake aid. Is Gaza the future?
President Donald Trump has slashed US aid and vowed a major rethink on helping the world. A controversial effort to bring food to Gaza may offer clues on what's to come. Administered by contracted US security with Israeli troops at the perimeter, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is distributing food through several hubs in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. An officially private effort with opaque funding, the GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for over two months, sparking warnings of mass famine. The organization said it had distributed 2.1 million meals as of Friday. The initiative excludes the UN, which has long coordinated aid distribution in the war-ravaged territory and has infrastructure and systems in place to deliver assistance on a large scale. The UN and other major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, saying it violates basic humanitarian principles and appears crafted to cater to Israeli military objectives. 'What we have seen is chaotic, it's tragic and it's resulted in hundreds of thousands of people scrambling in an incredibly undignified and unsafe way to access a tiny trickle of aid,' said Ciaran Donnelly, senior vice president of international programs at the International Rescue Committee (IRC). Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said his aid group stopped work in Gaza in 2015 when Hamas militants invaded its office, and that it refused to cooperate in Syria when former strongman Bashar al-Assad was pressuring opposition-held areas by withholding food. 'Why on earth would we be willing to let the Israeli military decide how, where and to whom we give our aid as part of their military strategy to herd people around Gaza?' said Egeland. 'It's a violation of everything we stand for. It is the biggest and reddest line there is that we cannot cross.' The UN said that 47 people were injured Tuesday when hungry and desperate crowds rushed a GHF site—most of them by Israeli gunfire—while a Palestinian medical source said at least one person had died. The Israeli military denied its soldiers fired on civilians, and the GHF denied any injuries or deaths. Israel has relentlessly attacked Gaza since Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on October 7, 2023. Israel has vowed to sideline the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, accusing it of bias and of harboring Hamas militants. UNRWA said that nine out of thousands of staff may have been involved in the October 7 attack and dismissed them, but accuses Israel of trying to throw a distraction. John Hannah, a former senior US policymaker who led a study last year that gave birth to the concepts behind the GHF, said the UN seemed to be 'completely lacking in self-reflection' on the need for a new approach to aid after Hamas built a 'terror kingdom.' 'I fear that people could be on the brink of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good instead of figuring out how do we take part in this effort, improve it, make it better, scale it up,' said Hannah, who is not involved in implementing the GHF. Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, defended the use of private contractors, saying that many had extensive Middle East experience from the US-led 'war on terror.' 'We would have been happy if there were volunteers from (other) capable and trusted national forces... but the fact is, nobody's volunteering,' he said. He said he would rather that aid workers coordinate with Israel than Hamas. 'Inevitably, any humanitarian effort in a war zone has to make some compromises with a ruling authority that carries the guns,' he said. Hannah's study had discouraged a major Israeli role in humanitarian work in Gaza, urging instead involvement by Arab states to bring greater legitimacy. Arab states have balked at supporting US efforts as Israel pounds Gaza and after Trump mused about forcibly displacing the whole Gaza population and constructing luxury hotels. Israel and Hamas are negotiating a new Gaza ceasefire that could see a resumption of UN-backed efforts. Aid groups say they have vast amounts of aid ready for Gaza that remain blocked. Donnelly said the IRC had 27 tons of supplies waiting to enter Gaza, faulting the GHF for distributing items like pasta and tinned fish that require cooking supplies—not therapeutic food and treatment for malnourished children. He called for distributing relief in communities where people need it, instead of through militarized hubs. 'If anyone really cares about distributing aid in a transparent, accountable, effective way, the way to do that is to use the expertise and infrastructure of aid organizations that have been doing this for decades,' Donnelly said.
Arab News
4 hours ago
- Arab News
Trump vowed to remake aid. Is Gaza the future?
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has slashed US aid and vowed a major rethink on helping the world. A controversial effort to bring food to Gaza may offer clues on what's to come. Administered by contracted US security with Israeli troops at the perimeter, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation is distributing food through several hubs in the war-ravaged Gaza Strip. An officially private effort with opaque funding, the GHF began operations on May 26 after Israel completely cut off supplies into Gaza for over two months, sparking warnings of mass famine. The organization said it had distributed 2.1 million meals as of Friday. The initiative excludes the UN, which has long coordinated aid distribution in the war-ravaged territory and has infrastructure and systems in place to deliver assistance on a large scale. The UN and other major aid groups have refused to cooperate with GHF, saying it violates basic humanitarian principles, and appears crafted to cater to Israeli military objectives. 'What we have seen is chaotic, it's tragic and it's resulted in hundreds of thousands of people scrambling in an incredibly undignified and unsafe way to access a tiny trickle of aid,' said Ciaran Donnelly, senior vice president of international programs at the International Rescue Committee . Jan Egeland, head of the Norwegian Refugee Council, said his aid group stopped work in Gaza in 2015 when Hamas militants invaded its office and that it refused to cooperate in Syria when former strongman Bashar Assad was pressuring opposition-held areas by withholding food. 'Why on earth would we be willing to let the Israeli military decide how, where and to whom we give our aid as part of their military strategy to herd people around Gaza?' said Egeland. 'It's a violation of everything we stand for. It is the biggest and reddest line there is that we cannot cross.' The UN said that 47 people were injured Tuesday when hungry and desperate crowds rushed a GHF site — most of them by Israeli gunfire — while a Palestinian medical source said at least one person had died. The Israeli military denied its soldiers fired on civilians and the GHF denied any injuries or deaths. Israel has relentlessly attacked Gaza since Hamas's unprecedented attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. Israel has vowed to sideline the UN agency for Palestinian refugees UNRWA, accusing it of bias and of harboring Hamas militants. UNRWA said that nine out of thousands of staff may have been involved in the October 7 attack and dismissed them, but accuses Israel of trying to throw a distraction. John Hannah, a former senior US policymaker who led a study last year that gave birth to the concepts behind the GHF, said the UN seemed to be 'completely lacking in self-reflection' on the need for a new approach to aid after Hamas built a 'terror kingdom.' 'I fear that people could be on the brink of letting the perfect be the enemy of the good instead of figuring out how do we take part in this effort, improve it, make it better, scale it up,' said Hannah, who is not involved in implementing the GHF. Hannah, a senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, defended the use of private contractors, saying that many had extensive Middle East experience from the US-led 'war on terror.' 'We would have been happy if there were volunteers from capable and trusted national forces... but the fact is, nobody's volunteering,' he said. He said he would rather that aid workers coordinate with Israel than Hamas. 'Inevitably, any humanitarian effort in a war zone has to make some compromises with a ruling authority that carries the guns,' he said. Hannah's study had discouraged a major Israeli role in humanitarian work in Gaza, urging instead involvement by Arab states to bring greater legitimacy. Arab states have balked at supporting US efforts as Israel pounds Gaza and after Trump mused about forcibly displacing the whole Gaza population and constructing luxury hotels. Israel and Hamas are negotiating a new Gaza ceasefire that could see a resumption of UN-backed efforts. Aid groups say they have vast amounts of aid ready for Gaza that remain blocked. Donnelly said the IRC had 27 tons of supplies waiting to enter Gaza, faulting the GHF for distributing items like pasta and tinned fish that require cooking supplies — not therapeutic food and treatment for malnourished children. He called for distributing relief in communities where people need it, instead of through militarized hubs. 'If anyone really cares about distributing aid in a transparent, accountable, effective way, the way to do that is to use the expertise and infrastructure of aid organizations that have been doing this for decades,' Donnelly said.
Arab News
10 hours ago
- Arab News
Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed leads Saudi Sports for All delegation at London investment forum
LONDON: Prince Khaled bin Alwaleed led a high-level Saudi delegation at this week's Middle East Sports Investment Forum 2025 in London, where he highlighted the Kingdom's push to promote inclusive, community-based sports as part of its Vision 2030 reform agenda. For the latest updates, follow us @ArabNewsSport The Saudi Sports for All Federation, represented by Prince Khaled in his capacity as president and Managing Director Shaima Saleh Al-Husseini, joined more than 300 delegates at the event held at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on May 27-28. Organized with the backing of the Saudi Ministry of Investment and in partnership with the Saudi Ministry of Sports, MESIF 2025 brought together investors, policymakers and sports leaders from across the MENA region to explore opportunities in the rapidly growing sports sector. Prince Khaled praised the forum's organizers and sponsors for convening a cross-regional dialogue, highlighting the value of engaging both core and adjacent sectors in driving the future of sport across the Gulf and beyond. Speaking on a panel, Al-Husseini said the SFA remained committed to measuring its social impact using a data-led approach. 'Our metrics are aligned with the World Health Organization's Global Action Plan and are informed by national surveys, digital platforms and direct community feedback,' she said. Al-Husseini added that Saudi Arabia had already seen tangible improvements in public participation and gender equity, and that the SFA's long-term strategy centers on behavioral change, community ownership and evidence-based infrastructure development. Discussions at MESIF 2025 covered a wide range of topics, including sports finance, innovation and technology, fan engagement, stadium infrastructure and the role of tourism in sports development.
