United Nations                                                                                                                                                                                   12 Sept 2017                                                                                                                                                                                   (UN News Centre)

The United Nations General Assembly today opened its 72nd session, with an emphasis on striving for peace and a decent life for all on a sustainable planet.

“The UN was created for people,” Miroslav Lajčák said in his first address as President of the General Assembly.

“The people who need the UN the most are not sitting in this hall today. They are not involved in the negotiation of resolutions. They do not take the floor at high-level events. It is one of the tasks of the General Assembly to make sure that their voices can still be heard.”

Ahead of today’s opening, the career diplomat from Slovakia spoke to UN News about his hopes for his one-year tenure, and said that conflict prevention and migration would top his agenda.

In today’s address, he noted that while it was “impossible” to select one priority for the UN to focus on this year, his aim will be to strive for balance, so that all points of view are represented.

He also stressed quality and transparency in his future work.

Lajčák takes the reins one week before the start of the high-level General Assembly debate, and said he hoped the 193 UN Member States participating would treat each other with diplomacy and mutual respect.

Speaking to reporters later in the day, Lajčák reiterated the importance of using the world body to assist people around the world.

Addressing the opening of the General Assembly, Secretary-General António Guterres also emphasized the importance of focusing on people in the UN’s work and underscored his proposed reforms to streamline the Organization.

“People around the world are rightly demanding change and looking for governments and institutions to deliver,” he said.

“We all agree that the United Nations must do even more to adapt and deliver. That is the aim of the reform proposals that this Assembly will consider.”

He added that one key change within and beyond the UN must be the empowerment of women and girls around the world, and highlighted his own road map for achieving gender parity.

Cairo                                                                                                                                                                                                   12 Sept 2017                                                                                                                                                                          (MOFA-Information Office)

The State of Qatar participated in the 148th Session of the Arab League Council at the level of Foreign Ministers, held Tuesday at the headquarters of the General Secretariat of the Arab League.

Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Qatar headed  Qatar's delegation to the session.

Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi participated earlier in the consultative meeting of the Arab foreign ministers, which was held Tuesday at the Arab League prior of the meeting of the Arab League Council at the ministerial level.

The draft agenda of the Arab League Council included 28 items, including the report of the Secretary-General of the Arab League on the activities of the Secretariat and the procedures for implementing the resolutions of the Council between the two sessions (147-148), and the semi-annual report of the follow-up committee on implementation of resolutions and commitments of the Amman 2017 Summit.

The items also include the Palestine issue, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the developments in the situation in Syria, Libya and Yemen.

The draft agenda also included items on the support for peace and development in the Republic of the Sudan, support for the Federal Republic of Somalia and support for internally displaced persons in the Arab countries and the displaced Iraqis in particular.

The items also include the dangers of Israeli armaments to the Arab national security and peace, the committee of arms control and non-proliferation, international terrorism and ways to combat it, the maintenance of Arab national security and the fight against terrorism and the international relations with international communities

13 Sept 2017                                                                                                                                                                                   AlJazeera News

Flights departing and arriving at the Qatari capital of Doha continue to be disrupted by the diplomatic rift between Qatar and its Gulf neighbours. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt all closed their airspace to Qatar Airways flights on June 5, 2017.

Since then, Qatar Airways has resumed flights over the reopened international airspace over Bahrain and the UAE.

Source: Al Jazeera News

Saudi Arabia                                                                                                                                                                                         13 Sept 2017                                                                                                                                                                                   (AlJazeera News)

Saudi Arabia has detained more preachers and scholars, activists said, two days after the reported arrest of more than 20 individuals, including prominent Saudi intellectuals.

The reports come as Saudi state news agency SPA said authortities were uncovering "intelligence activities for the benefit of foreign parties" by an unamed group of people. It did not comment on the reported arrests.

On Sunday, online activists said up to 20 influential Saudi preachers and religious scholars had been arrested, including some of the kingdom's most influential preachers.

Activists dedicated to monitoring and documenting what they describe as "prisoners of conscience" reported on social media on Tuesday that at least eight prominent figures, including clerics, academics, television anchors and a poet, had been "confirmed" detained since Monday.

ALQST, a London-based Saudi rights group, also reported more arrests, including several of the same people, although it gave no specific figure.

"[Salman] Al-Awdah, [Awad] al-Qarni, Farhan al-Malki and Mostafa Hassan [are confirmed]," said Yahya al-Assiri, ALQST head, referring to four of those reported to have been arrested.

"The rest are also correct, but I don't have any specific information," he added.

Saudi officials could not be reached for comment.

A Saudi security source told Reuters news agency the suspects were accused of "espionage activities and having contacts with external entities including the Muslim Brotherhood", which Riyadh has classified as a "terrorist" organisation.

The Doha-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) condemned the initial reported arrests late on Monday.

The group linked them to the Gulf crisis and urged Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz to order their release.

Among those reportedly arrested was Salman al-Audah, a prominent Muslim preachers and member of the IUMS' board of trustees.

IUMS said the scholars "should not be used as pawns in political disputes", referring to the crisis between Qatar and four other Arab states - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt.

"In regards to the crisis [with] the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states, Audah has done nothing but call for unity between these brotherly countries," the statement read, noting that his last tweet urged GCC members to "come together for the sake of their people".

The IUMS is an organisation of Islamic theologians and is headquartered in Qatar.

About 90,000 Muslim scholars are connected through the union, which claims to bring together Sunni and Shia Muslims.

Cairo, Egypt                                                                                                                                                                                       12 Sept 2017                                                                                                                                                                                   (AlJazeera News)

Diplomats from Qatar and the four states blockading the Gulf nation have exchanged heated words at an Arab League meeting in Cairo.

Tuesday's row, which erupted on live television, is the latest chapter in the three-month-old Gulf crisis in which Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Egypt and Bahrain are blockading Qatar.

The coalition cut diplomatic and trade links with Qatar on June 5, suspending air and shipping routes to their Gulf neighbour.

The four Arab states have accused Doha of financing "terrorism". Qatar has rejected the allegation as "baseless".

The blockading states also have accused Doha of supporting regional rival, Iran.

Kuwait has been trying to mediate the dispute.

Heated exchange

During his opening speech, Qatar's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Soltan bin Saad al-Muraikhi referred to Iran as an "honourable country" and said ties had warmed with its neighbour since the blockade.

In response, Ahmed al-Kattan, Saudi Arabia's envoy to the Arab League, said: "Congratulations to Iran and soon, God willing, you will regret it.

"If the brethren in Qatar think they may have a benefit in their rapprochement with Iran, I'd like to say that they have this evaluation wrong in every way. The Qataris will be held responsible for such a decision."

He added that in "the coming days will prove them wrong because we know that the Qatari people will never accept the Iranians to play a role in Qatar".

"Their direction needs to change, and we will continue our policies until Qatar changes its policies of aggression against the four boycotting countries, as long as Doha supports and funds terrorism and intervenes in the Middle East countries' internal affairs," Gargash said.

Muraikhi responded by saying that the crisis started when Qatar News Agency (QNA) was hacked by UAE-backed perpetrators who attributed false statement to the emir of Qatar.

"Then we saw this vicious media campaign against Qatar, waged by rabid dogs backed by some regimes," Muraikhi said, adding, "Mr Anwar [Gargash] forgot to mention that the four blockading countries tried a military action against my country in 1996."

'All threats'

The Qatari diplomat lamented Kattan's tone in the exchange, saying: "[It] is all threats and I don't think he has the authority to threaten and speak like this."

The exchange then descended into a row between Kattan and Muraikhi, with each telling the other to be quiet.

Muraikhi said Saudi Arabia was looking to depose the emir of Qatar and replace him with Sheikh Abdullah bin Ali Al Thani, a little-known Qatari sheikh who has been thrust into the limelight by the Saudi-led bloc.

"This is an improper thing to say because the kingdom of Saudi Arabia will never resort to such cheap methods and we don't want to change the regime, but you must also know that the kingdom can do anything it wants, God willing," Kattan said.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said Muraikhi's comments were unacceptable.

"We know very well Qatar's long history in supporting terrorism and that they have provided weapons and funds in Syria, Libya, Yemen even inside Egypt that killed so many," Shoukry said.

Qatar backed a democratically-elected Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt before it was overthrown by the military in 2013.

The Arab states have demanded that Qatar sever any links with the Brotherhood and other groups they deem to be "terrorists".

Qatar                                                                                                                                                                                                  13 Sept. 2017                                                                                                                                                                                      (AlJazeera News)

A lawyer for three Qatari men who claim to have been tortured and falsely imprisoned by the UAE has asked the UK's Metropolitan police to investigate the accusations.

Human Rights lawyer Rodney Dixon said his clients were beaten, hung upside down, and electrocuted during their detention and later made to sign false confessions of spying by UAE officials.

He submitted the allegations against the unnamed officials to British police at their Scotland Yard headquarters in London on Wednesday morning.

Under British law, foreign officials can be investigated and charged for abuses such as torture, war crimes, and hostage taking.

Arrests can be made by British authorities the moment the accused enter UK territory.

The three men pursuing the case are Mahmoud Abdel Rahman al-Jaidah, Hamad Ali al-Hammadi and Yousef Abdul Samad al-Mulla.

Dixon told Al Jazeera that the accusations were "related to events in respect to three victims from 2013 until 2015."

"In the case of one of them, he was held for 27 months in detention where he was tortured," he said.
Hammadi was arrested in 2013 after he arrived at Dubai airport, while Mulla and Jaidah were arrested while driving to the Saudi border from the UAE.

According to their lawyer, the men had decided not to publicise their ordeal after their release in 2015 but changed their minds when UAE television broadcast footage of their confessions, which they said was fake.
The videos, which Dixon said were extracted under torture and pre-scripted, were included in anti-Qatar documentaries broadcast after the start of the ongoing GCC crisis in June this year.

Dixon said the men were determined to "clear their reputations" and wanted compensation from the UAE government for their experiences. The UAE embassy in London has been contacted by Al Jazeera for a response but at the time of publication there had not been a response.

Joe Odell of the London-based International Campaign for Freedom in the UAE, called on British authorities to thoroughly investigate the accusations. "This latest case is reflective of a much broader trend whereby foreign nationals are increasingly vulnerable to mistreatment and abuse at the behest of the Emirati authorities," he said.

"Scotland Yard should not only conduct a thorough investigation into these latest allegations, but also numerous others which have involved the mistreatment and torture of British nationals in the UAE.

"It is imperative that the British state's close relationship with the UAE should be conditional on the adherence to international human rights legislation

Doha                                                                                                                                                                                                   12 Sept 2017

Geneva                                                                                                                                                                                                   12 Sept 2017                                                                                                                                                                           (MOFA-Information Office)

The State of Qatar called on the United Nations Human Rights Council to take an urgent action to stop the violations resulting from the unilateral coercive measures and the unjust siege imposed by a number of countries on the State of Qatar, and to end the ongoing and increasing suffering of those affected by siege.

Ali Khalfan Al Mansouri, Qatar's permanent representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva made the remarks during his address at the 36th session of the Human Rights Council being held from Sept. 11 to 29, noting that the council's failure to take swift and serious action to stop the violations undermines its credibility, objectivity and mechanisms.

The ambassador also said the State of Qatar condemns the continuous Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as well as forced evictions, the continuous killing and detentions, the storming of Al Aqsa Mosque by the Israeli occupation authorities and extremist groups, and the strict measures imposed to prevent Palestinians from entering. Such flagrant violations of international resolutions constitute an obstacle to international efforts towards achieving a fair and comprehensive solution for the Palestinian issue.

Regarding the Syrian cause, Ambassador Al Mansouri expressed the State of Qatar's condemnation of the Syrian regime's excessive and serious violations against its people and the recent use of chemicals in Khan Sheikhoun. He stressed the humanitarian and legal responsibility compels the international community to take serious and responsible measures that ensure the cessation of these violations and crimes, and help in holding accountable everyone responsible for them.

Al Mansouri also expressed Qatar's strong condemnation of the violent attacks against the Rohingya Muslims in Rakhine State in Myanmar, which resulted in the deaths of dozens of civilians and the fleeing of thousands from their homes. He expressed Doha's deep concern about reports of abuses and violations against the minority, stressing the need for the Myanmar government to abide by international law to protect civilians and achieve reconciliation.

In his closing statement, the ambassador welcomed the remarks made by the high commissioner for human rights regarding the decline in hostilities in Darfur, voicing hope that the Human Rights Council would support the efforts of the Sudanese government and the relevant parties to sustain and consolidate the peace achieved in the region under the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur.

Doha                                                                                                                                                                                                   12 Sept 2017

The Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has issued a humanitarian appeal to raise US $3 million for Rohingya people taken refuge in Bangladesh fled from genocide in their home country Burma.

Ali Hassan Al-Hammadi, Secretary General, QRCS announced in a press conference today in presence of Issa Mohamed Al-Ishaq, Director Communication QRCS and Ahmed Ali AlKhulaifi, Head of Financial Resource Mobilisation.

Al Hammadi told that in first phase of intervention, around 5,000 families (appx. 25,000 persons) will benefit from the much needed aid. QRCS plans to operate two mobile clinics, provide 5,000 shelter kits, provide 5,000 hygiene kits, build 250 sanitation facilities and distribute 5,000 food packages.

“We are particularly worried by the violations against innocent Rohingya civilians. As an internationally recognised humanitarian organisation, we believe in the basic tenets of protection of civilians under the
Geneva Conventions and relevant instruments,”

He said 'We cite the ideals and values preached by all religions in relation to mercifulness, nonaggression, tolerance, and peaceful coexistence.'

To a question, AlHammadi told that QRCS has been serving in Maynamar since opening of it's representation offices in 2012 and providing support in areas like education, healthcare, environmental sanitation, productive,
and other development projects to improve living standards of Maynamar needy people.

QRCS Secretary General stressed on the international community 'to take every possible diplomatic and humanitarian measure to ensure stability in the region. Government and people of Qatar have stood up to their humanitarian and ethical responsibility, showing sympathy with and support for the affected
population.

AlHammadi hoped that Qatari nationals as well as residents will support generously in the initiative taken by QRCS on it's life-saving relief efforts. 'Thousands of Rohingya refugees are expecting a cold winter with nowhere to go and nothing to eat, he warned.

He said Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) has donated $500,000 towards cause.

“It is new evidence of our bilateral strategic partnership for the service of vulnerable people everywhere”.
Al-Hammadi thanked ambassador of Qatar stationed in Bangladesh, Ahmed M Al-Dehaimi for ensuring support and facilitating QRCS’ relief delegation currently in Bangladesh.

Ahmed Ali Al-Khulaifi said institutions and individuals can donate online :(http://qrcs.org.qa/Arabic/Donatenow/Pages/DonateForm.aspx?CountryTitle=Burma) OR via
QRCS account at Barwa Bank (IBAN:QA37BRWA000000000200000094340).

Donors can also call or visit the QRCS Headquarters Tel. 44027700, Al Khor Branch Tel. 44027883, or may contribute to it's desks at malls and shopping centres.

QRCS Hotlines: 6666 6364, 6664 4822, and 16002

Lahore                                                                                                                                                                                                 11 Sept 2017                                                                                                                                                                                         (Media)

The 14-member team barring, West Indies Samuel Badree arrived mid-night today at Allama Iqbal Airport, Lahore in Pakistan on board Emirates Airlines private flight EK 622 from Dubai. World Cricket heroes upon arrival were welcomed by Punjab Minister for Sports Jahangir Khanzada, Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) Chairman Najam Sethi, Chief Operating Officer, Subhan Ahmad and Director Domestic Cricket, Haroon Rasheed.  14th member of World XI Samuel Badree will be arriving today in Pakistan.

Andy Flower, the World XI coach and former Zimbabwe captain said "It's great to be here."  "We are looking forward to seeing a lot of you watching the great cricket that we are going to put on show and we had a warm welcome already."

"I hope international players will take back good memories from Pakistan," he said.

Flower further mentioned that he is honoured for being nominated as coach of World XI. He also mentioned that during early days of Zimbabwe cricket, Pakistan helped a lot which helped Zimbabwe cricket to grow.

World XI captain Faf du-Plessis said that it is an honour for him to play in Pakistan. "I am thankful to Pakistani cricket fans and people for so much love and respect," he added.  "It is a moment of pride for me to captain World XI," he added.

Captain Faf du Plessis led team will be playing three T20 matches with Pakistan Cricket team in Pakistan, all in Lahore's Qaddafi Stadium on Tuesday September 12, 13 and 15th.

Pakistanis celebrated the return of international cricket at home with the arrival of players from seven countries for a tournament, following a long pause over security concerns.

From airport, World XI team members were taken to hotel under tight security.

Since 2009, when Sri Lankan team was attacked by terrorists in Lahore, its only Zimbabwe team which toured since then. Pakistan sources blame Indian intelligence agency involvement in terror attacks in Pakistan.

Both the federal and Punjab provincial governments have deployed thousands of security officials to guard the teams on the routes from their hotel to the Gaddafi Stadium hosting the matches on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday.

"This series could not have been better timed," said Pakistani former test captain and fast bowler Waqar Younis. "Pakistan produced a superb performance by winning the ICC Champions Trophy and the players deserve the opportunity to display their class at home venues."

Pakistan's 16-member squad includes  Sarfraz Ahmad (captain/wicketkeeper), Fakhar Zaman, Ahmed Shehzad, Baber Azam, Shoaib Malik, Umer Amin, Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Muhammad Nawaz,Faheem Ashraf, Hassan Ali, Amir Yamin, Muhammad Amir, Ruman Raees, Usman Shinwari and Sohail Khan.

World XI, eight countries top players included  Faf du Plessis,Captain, (South Africa), Hashim Amla (South Africa), Samuel Badree (Windies), George Bailey (Australia), Paul Collingwood (England), Ben Cutting (Australia), Grant Elliott (New Zealand), Tamim Iqbal (Bangladesh), David Miller (South Africa), Morne Morkel (South Africa), Tim Paine (Wicket keeper). (Australia),  Thisara Perera (Sri Lanka),Darren Sammy (Windies) and Imran Tahir (South Africa).