Foreign news
African Union’s Peace and Security Council voted on Thursday to suspend Sudan from all AU activities until a civilian government has been formed.
The council made the announcement after a meeting in Addis Ababa of member states of the pan-continental body.
The decision follows an upsurge in violence in Sudan this week as its ruling military council and opposition groups vye to take charge of the transition to democracy.
Reuters
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to build a "strong and inclusive" country as the charismatic but polarizing leader swept back to power in the world's largest democracy with an even bigger mandate than he won five years ago.
"Thank you India," the prime minister tweeted. "The faith placed in our alliance is humbling and gives us strength to work even harder to fulfill people's aspirations."
His Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, is on course to win about 300 seats, according to vote counting.
That puts the BJP well past the halfway mark in parliament and would make it the first political party in 35 years to secure a majority twice in a row. Along with its coalition partners, it will have a commanding majority in parliament, which has 543 elected seats.
At a meeting of party workers to celebrate the BJP victory, Modi received a hero's welcome. He flashed victory signs and said his mandate was to build a "new India" and a vote for the country's future.
The results are being seen as a massive vote of confidence in the leadership of Modi, who turned a parliamentary election into a presidential-style contest and defied expectations that rising unemployment and rural distress would erode his support.
Modi campaigned on a platform of strident nationalism after a brief military showdown with Pakistan in February. "He was the central issue of the 2019 election and people wanted to give him another term. Essentially people voted for the prime minister and Narendra Modi," according to independent political analyst Neerja Chowdhury.
The head of the main opposition Congress Party, Rahul Gandhi, conceded the election and congratulated Modi. "Our battle for a different ideological vision of India from the BJP would continue," he said at a brief press appearance. "Today I don't want to color the decision of the people of India and I fully respect it."
While supporters laud Modi's strong leadership and his vision of a more assertive India, his detractors worry that the Hindu nationalist leader has fanned social divisions in the Hindu majority country as Muslims face an increase in hate crimes blamed on fringe Hindu groups.
For electrician Raghubir Gaur in New Delhi, Modi's muscular leadership, his tough stand toward Pakistan and a slew of pro-poor programs made him the undisputed choice. "His vision is to take everybody ahead, whether it is a rickshaw puller, or a street vendor, he wants to create a more equal society."
A former professor at Delhi University, Nandini Guha, worries that "secularism appears to have taken a back seat" during the five-year rule of Modi, whose critics accuse him of divisive politics on the basis of religion. "The divisive factor is possibly the most worrying right now if we want our country to remain as united as it has been all these years."
Stock markets jumped in anticipation of a strong government, which has promised to focus on growing the economy.
As the scale of the BJP sweep became apparent, tweets by senior party leaders called it a "victory for India." Celebrations erupted outside party offices in the country as workers danced, waved flags, beat drums, set off fireworks and gave away candy.
The results show a remarkable turnaround from earlier this year, when losses in local polls in three Hindi heartland bastions raised concerns that perceptions the Modi government failed to deliver on its development promises would pose a challenge in the general elections.
But, it has shrugged aside those concerns and in the national polls the party held its grip on states like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan. It also beat back a powerful challenge from two regional parties in the key battleground state of Uttar Pradesh and made inroads in states in eastern India.
Political analysts said the failure of strong leadership from opposition parties also helped the re-emergence of Modi.
The results were a bitter disappointment for the once-dominant Congress Party, which had hoped for its political revival after it was reduced to a mere 44 seats in 2014.
The party has not fared much better this time around — it was securing victories in only 50-plus seats. That will reopen questions about the leadership of Rahul Gandhi, the sixth member of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty to lead the party. Gandhi also suffered a humiliating setback as he trailed a BJP minister in the Amethi parliamentary constituency, a bastion of the Nehru-Gandhi political dynasty, which he has represented since 2004.
"Essentially the Congress Party is no match for the Modi-led BJP today, whether it is in terms of the leadership, whether it is in terms of the organization, or strategy," said analyst Chowdhury. "They have to contend with a different element in politics today."
The 68-year-old Modi, who entered politics through a right-wing Hindu nationalist organization, emerged on the national stage five years ago after leading his home state of Gujarat for 13 years.
The mammoth election recorded the highest-ever voter turnout of more than 67 percent.
VOA News
A millionaire businessman is facing jail after he admitted to having sex with a schoolgirl while flying his private jet.
Stephen Bradley Mell put his plane on autopilot to engage in sex acts with the 15-year-old in the air, according to court documents.
The New Jersey bond trader had been approached by the victim’s mother to give the teenager flying lessons.
The 53-year-old faces at least five years in a federal prison after admitting charges of engaging in interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct and receiving child pornography.
He had a helipad at his home, owned several aircraft and ran a charitable foundation, Air Lifeline, which allowed families of children with medical problems to fly anywhere in the US for treatment.
The married father-of-three began communicating with the victim, then 15, through text messages and Snapchat in 2017, according to court documents obtained by the Bridgewater Courier News.
Their exchanges reportedly turned sexual when he asked her “if she knew how to perform oral sex”.
He later invited her to spent time at his home in Bedminster, an affluent town in Somerset County.
Mell “performed oral sex acts” on the girl in June 2017, according to the court papers.
He later messaged her to say: “Miss you so much.”
The next month he again performed sex acts on the girl and purchased an emergency contraceptive pill for her.
“If you are nervous it will hurt more,” Mell he told her in a text message. “When you are turned on is when it will feel OK.”
On 20 July 2017, he flew with the victim in his private plane from Somerset Airport to Barnstable, Massachusetts “for the purpose of engaging in illicit conduct, specifically, a sexual act with a person under the age of eighteen", court papers state.
On the flight back, he reportedly put the plane on autopilot to engage in sex acts.
During an August 2017 trip to New York City, Mell again had sex with the girl and took pictures of her naked. He later pressured her to "get the IUD", referring a form of birth control inserted into a woman's uterus.
Mell, whose face has filed for divorce, pleaded guilty to the charges in December last year. He is scheduled to be sentenced later this week.
He is also facing a multiple-year sentence in a state prison after admitting endangering the welfare of a child by engaging in sexual relations with a female victim under the age of 16.
He will be sentenced for that charge on 12 July.
Independent
Mum-of-two Janet Brown was born with a birth defect which means she doesn’t have hands.
The 31-year-old from North Carolina, U.S, manages to do everything by herself and even has a job where she has to constantly use her hands.
To provide for her family Janet has become an Uber and Lyft driver and works in the mornings while her two sons are in school or in daycare.
She said her passengers hardly notice how she uses her stump to steer the wheel and change gears.
Janet, who also doesn’t have most of her toes, said the only real struggle is that she can’t wear open-toed shoes.
But to make other disabled people feel less alone, Janet has started a non-profit organisation, Inspiring With Helping Hands, to motivate and educate the world about disabled people.
She wants others to see that those with differences don’t need to hide themselves away for fear of what people might say, and those that are able should still go about their lives.
Janet has said she has no name for the condition that meant she was born without some of her limbs.
‘There is no everyday task that I can’t do – my condition doesn’t stop me from doing anything,’ said Janet.
‘Most of my passengers say that I am an excellent driver and most of them want me to be their personal Uber driver.
‘The common misconception is that people with a disability need help. And that’s just not always the case.’
Janet added that though well-intentioned people try to help her, it can be annoying to feel like she can’t do anything for herself.
They also assume that her condition was caused by a tragic accident.
‘I don’t think that I am judged because I was born different but I think people think that I am helpless. I would prefer people to ask and not just assume or not just look. If you want to know just ask.’
She often tells her sons that though she looks different from other mums, she can do anything they can. In this way, and through her work with Helping Hands, she hopes she can help others.
metro.co.uk
United States of America (USA), yesterday, said it is actively involved with political happenings in the country, particularly regarding 2019 elections.
US Assistant Secretary of State, Bureau of African Affairs, Tibor Nagy, in a telephonic press briefing with journalists across Africa, yesterday, recalled efforts of the US Embassy in Abuja, under the headship of Mr Stuart Symington, and his team, to ensure peaceful polls in the country.
Nagy said in the pre-election period, in the election period and in the post-election period, they are providing phenomenal guidance to Washington on how the United States Government should and should not respond to the election-related matters.
“You probably remember I was there, previous to the election, meeting with a whole number of people and the electoral commissioner.
“So, just rest assured that the United States of America embassy and the Consulate in Lagos, are very, very actively involved and are doing just an absolutely superb job with the entire team there to monitor the events, to report only events and to provide guides on how Washington should react to whatever the events there are, with statements, with telephone calls.
“As you know, our secretary did make a telephone call,” Nagy said.
Prior to the presidential and National Assembly election, the United States Secretary of State, Mr Michael Pompeo, was reported to have placed a call across to the Presidential Candidate of People’s Democratic (PDP), Mr Atiku Abubakar, for a free, fair and credible election in the country.
Nagy added that like other African countries such as South Africa and Angola, the US is very involved with happenings in the country.
Sun
Facing almost certain defeat, British Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday postponed a vote in Parliament on her Brexit deal, saying she would go back to European Union leaders to seek changes to the divorce agreement.
May’s move threw Britain’s Brexit plans into disarray, intensified a domestic political crisis and battered the pound.
With EU officials adamant the withdrawal deal was not up for renegotiation, the country does not know on what terms it will leave — and whether May will still be Britain’s leader when it does.
In an emergency statement to House of Commons, May accepted that the divorce deal she struck last month with EU leaders was likely to be rejected “by a significant margin” if the vote were held Tuesday as planned.
May said she would defer the vote so she could seek “assurances” from EU and bring the deal back to Parliament.
She did not set a new date for the vote. The U.K.‘s departure is supposed to take place on March 29. Opposition lawmakers — and ones from May’s Conservative Party — were incredulous and angry.
Some accused her of trampling on parliamentary democracy. “The government has lost control of events and is in complete disarray,” Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn said.
Corbyn demanded, and was granted, an emergency debate Tuesday on the postponement. But Labour lawmaker Lloyd Russell-Moyle was expelled from Parliament for the day after he grabbed the House of Commons’ ceremonial mace as a sign of protest. The centuries-old gilded staff is the symbol of royal authority. Without it, the Commons can’t meet or pass laws.
Jacob Rees-Mogg, a leading pro-Brexit Conservative, expressed despair at the Brexit shambles. “It’s not really governing,” he said.
“It’s just an awful muddle.” Monday’s turmoil sent the pound to a 20-month low against the dollar of $1.2550.
It was a new blow for May, who became prime minister after Britain’s 2016 referendum decision to leave EU. She has been battling ever since — first to strike a divorce deal with the bloc, then to sell it to skeptical British lawmakers.
May insisted the agreement hammered out with EU after a year and a half of negotiations was “the best deal that is negotiable.”
But it has been scorned by lawmakers on all sides of Britain’s debate about Europe. Derisive laughter erupted in the House of Commons when May claimed there was “broad support” for many aspects of the deal.
Pro-Brexit lawmakers say the deal keeps Britain bound too closely to the EU, while pro-EU politicians say it erects barriers between the U.K. and its biggest trading partner and leaves many details of the future relationship undecided.
The main sticking point is a “backstop” provision that aims to guarantee an open border between EU member Ireland and the U.K.‘s Northern Ireland after Brexit.
The measure would keep Britain under EU customs rules, and is supposed to last until it is superseded by permanent new trade arrangements.
Critics say it could leave Britain tied to the EU indefinitely, unable to strike new trade deals around the world.
May said she would hold talks with EU leaders ahead of a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, seeking “further reassurances” over the backstop. “Nothing should be off the table,” she said.
EU leaders signaled they are prepared to help Britain, up to a point, but insisted the Brexit agreement could not be changed.
“The deal is the deal,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said. “It’s taken two years to put together. It’s a fair deal for both sides.”
European Council President Donald Tusk tweeted: “We will not renegotiate the deal, including the backstop, but we are ready to discuss how to facilitate U.K. ratification.”
A key member of the European parliament’s Brexit team, Green lawmaker Philippe Lamberts, predicted May’s shuttle diplomacy would fail to secure changes.
“The only net result of this round of capitals will be an additional amount of CO2 in the atmosphere,” he said.
Despite May’s dogged determination to press on, the tumult leaves her in a precarious position. Conservative rivals are preparing for a potential leadership challenge, and Labour has threatened call for a no-confidence motion in the government.
Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said her Scottish National Party would support an attempt to topple the government and trigger a new election.
“This shambles can’t go on — so how about it?”
Sturgeon tweeted at Corbyn. Corbyn stopped short of calling a no-confidence vote Monday, but said if May could not renegotiate with the EU, “then she must make way.”
Delays in approving the Brexit deal increase the chances of Britain crashing out of the EU with no agreement.
The government and the Bank of England have warned that could bring logjams to British ports and plunge the country into its deepest recession in decades.
May said the government would step up preparations for a no-deal Brexit in order to mitigate its worst effects. It has already stockpiled medicines and other key goods.
Carolyn Fairbairn, head of the Confederation of British Industry, said the delay was “yet another blow for companies desperate for clarity.”
“Investment plans have been paused for two-and-a-half years,” she said.
“Unless a deal is agreed quickly, the country risks sliding towards a national crisis.”
May has also warned that rejecting her deal could result in Britain not leaving EU at all. Some campaigners in the U.K. want just that. They got a boost Monday when EU’s top court ruled that Britain can change its mind over Brexit if it wants.
Britain invoked Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty in March 2017, triggering a two-year exit process.
A group of Scottish legislators had asked the European Court of Justice to rule on whether the U.K. could pull out of the withdrawal procedure on its own.
The court said Monday that when an EU member country has notified the bloc of its intent to leave, “that member state is free to revoke unilaterally that notification.”
May has repeatedly said the government will not seek to delay or reverse Brexit. She said Monday that Parliament had a duty to “get Brexit done and get it done right.
“ And she urged lawmakers to unite in a spirit of conciliation — a plea that has, so far, fallen on deaf ears.
“There will be no enduring and successful Brexit without some compromise on both sides of the debate,” May said.
AP
French President Emmanuel Macron tried to reassert control over a nation wracked by increasingly violent protests with offers of tax relief for struggling workers and pensioners — and an exceptional admission Monday that “I might have hurt people with my words.”
It may not be enough. Even as Macron broke his silence on the protests in a brief televised address, yellow-vested demonstrators vowed to keep up the pressure on a man they see as arrogant, out-of-touch and “president of the rich.”
“We are at a historic moment for our country,” the French leader said from the presidential Elysee Palace.
“We will not resume the normal course of our lives” after all that has happened.
Speaking with a soft voice and gentle tone, Macron pleaded for a return to calm after almost four weeks of protests that started in neglected provinces to oppose fuel tax increases and progressed to rioting in Paris and a plethora of broad demands.
It’s a turning point in Macron’s presidency, and a crucial moment for both France and Europe. Macron rode to the presidency last year on promises of rejuvenating France’s stagnant economy and salvaging European unity.
His credibility on both fronts is now deeply damaged, just as EU struggles with Britain’s chaotic exit and as France’s protests have prompted copycat movements beyond its borders.
French protesters spent days demanding that Macron speak publicly about their concerns. After he did, they dissected his promises.
“It doesn’t solve the problem,” protester Alain Bouche told BFM television from a yellow-vest roadblock southwest of Paris. He said fellow demonstrators want a national referendum, too.
At a similar barricade near France’s border with Switzerland, demonstrators argued. Two retirees watching the broadcast on a tablet in a makeshift shelter dismissed it as too little, too late. But another yellow-vested protester who gave only her first name, Milliau, said it had “a few reassuring elements. He took one first big step. He has many more to take.”
Some protest representatives have said more demonstrations will be held Saturday, following those in Paris that turned violent during the previous two weekends.
Meanwhile, students opposing changes in key high school tests called for a new round of protests Tuesday.
Macron declared an “economic and social state of emergency,” ordering the government and parliament to take immediate steps to change tax rules and other policies that hit the wallets of working class French people.
He responded to several of the protesters’ demands, promising measures that included: —A government-funded 100-euro increase in the minimum wage starting at the beginning of the new year.
—Abolition of taxes on overtime pay in 2019.
—Asking profit-making companies to give workers tax-free year-end bonuses.
—Slashing a tax hike on small pensions, acknowledging it was “unjust.”
One thing he didn’t do: Restore a special tax on households with assets above 1.3 million euros ($1.5 million) that he cut last year.
Yellow vest protesters decry the end of the tax and wanted it revived.
Overall, Macron unveiled no radical changes, and clung to his vision for transforming France. Yet his costly promises will make it even more difficult to boost growth – already being hammered by protests that have damaged holiday retail sales and worried tourists and foreign investors.
“It’s more of a budgetary adjustment than a change of political course,” said Benjamin Cauchy, a yellow vest protest representative.
“That doesn’t correspond to what the French want.” Some protesters just wanted one thing: Macron to announce “I quit.”
He showed no signs of giving in. Instead, he defended his political independence and described his devotion to serving France. No French presidential or parliamentary elections are scheduled until 2022. The most remarkable part of the speech may have been the moment an uncharacteristically unshaven Macron said: “I take my share of responsibility” for the anger gripping France. It was an unusual admission for a president whose leadership has appeared marked by a single-minded determination to push through reforms he promised in his 2017 campaign, regardless of the fallout.
“I might have hurt people with my words,” he said.
Indeed, he wounded many when he told a jobless man that he just had to “cross the street” to find work. Or when he told retirees with small pensions to stop complaining. Or when he suggested some French workers are “lazy.”
However, the centrist leader insisted Monday that the protesters’ “malaise” is as old as he is — 40 years — and coincides with France’s struggles in recent decades to keep up with globalization.
He also denounced the protest-associated violence that led to hundreds of injuries, more than 1,000 arrests and the ransacking of stores in some of Paris’ richest neighborhoods.
Authorities will show “no indulgence” to those behind the vandalism and rioting, Macron said, adding that “no anger justifies” attacking police or looting stores.
Political analyst Dominique Moisi said the important thing in Macron’s speech was not only “what he said but the way he said it.” Macron sought to establish his authority by declaring he wouldn’t tolerate violence, but also “gave the impression that he understood what is happening,” Moisi said.
Moisi predicted the protest movement could fizzle as the holidays approach and the government launches into the public dialogue Macron promised.
Fallout from the protests so far could cost France 0.1 percent of gross domestic product in the last quarter of the year, French Finance Minister Le Maire warned Monday.
“That means fewer jobs, it means less prosperity for the whole country,” he said.
The yellow vest protests began in November against a rise in fuel taxes – which Macron retreated from last week – but mushroomed into other, sometimes contradictory demands.
Before his TV speech, Macron met with local and national politicians and with union and business leaders to hear their concerns — but with no representatives of the scattered, leaderless protest movement.
AP
Protesters in Paris continued to spar with riot police, setting makeshift barricades on fire as police moved in with water canons and heavy gear.
Police and protesters also clashed in other French cities, notably Marseille, Toulouse and Bordeaux, and in neighboring Belgium. Some protesters took aim at the French border with Italy, creating a huge traffic backup near the town of Ventimiglia.
The French government’s plan was to prevent a repeat of the Dec. 2 rioting that damaged the Arc de Triomphe, devastated central Paris and tarnished the country’s global image. It did not succeed, even though it was better prepared.
Although Saturday’s protest in the French capital started out quietly, tear gas choked the Champs-Elysees Avenue by early evening. Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that 135 people had been injured and 974 taken into custody amid protests around the nation.
Paris police headquarters counted 71 injuries in the capital, seven of them police officers. An estimated 125,000 people demonstrated around France while 10,000 took their anger to the streets of Paris, double the number in the capital last week, the interior minister said.
Toughening security tactics, French authorities deployed 8,000 security officers in the capital alone, among the 89,000 who fanned out around the country.
A Starbucks near the Champs-Elysees was smashed wide open and people were seen stepping over broken glass and serving themselves to beverages.
The window of a nearby bank was smashed in with a wrought-iron decoration used to encircle city tree trunks. All of the city’s top tourist attractions — including the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre museum — shut down for the day, fearing the kind of damage that hit the Arc de Triomphe a week ago.
Christmas markets and soccer matches were cancelled. Subway stations in the city center closed and the U.S. embassy warned citizens to avoid all protest areas.
Yet in a sign of the financial disconnect that infuriates many of the protesters, a few blocks from the famed boulevard, people were sitting in Paris cafes, drinking cocktails and chatting.
Amid the melee, President Emmanuel Macron remained invisible and silent, as he has for the four weeks of a movement that started as a protest against a gas tax hike and metamorphosed into a rebellion against high taxes and eroding living standards.
The mayor of the city of Saint-Etienne, a town in southeast France hit by violence Saturday, castigated Macron for failing to speak out, saying it “feeds the resentment.”
“This silence becomes contempt for the nation,” the mayor, Gael Perdriau, of the opposition conservative party, said on BFMTV.
“He has a direct responsibility in what is happening. He can’t remain closed up in the Elysee.”
France’s yellow vest protesters have political stances ranging from the far right to the far left but the leaderless group is united in its sense that Macron and his government are out of touch.
“We are here to tell (Macron) our discontent. Me, I’m not here to break things because I have four children,” said protester Myriam Diaz.
“But I still want to be here to say ‘Stop, that’s enough.‘” Some protesters sang the French national anthem — “The Marseillaise” — as they confronted phalanxes of police in heavy riot gear.
One protester in Paris showed an Associated Press reporter a fresh wound on his jaw, saying a rubber bullet fired by charging police had glanced his face. “I was running with my hands up. They charged,” said Ludovic, a 38-year-old cabinetmaker from the eastern city of Colmar. He only gave his first name, saying he feared being tracked by security authorities. He said he was fleeing the Champs-Elysees, choked with tear gas, when police moved in.
Even as blue armored trucks rumbled over cobblestone streets in Paris, a larger environmental march took place peacefully Saturday toward the city’s Republique Plaza. A scattering of yellow vests, as well as women, children and retirees, were among the 17,000 people marching to demand action against climate change. One sign read
“No climate justice without fiscal and social justice.” Cyril, a 25-year-old garbage truck driver, came from Normandy with three others. He said he earns only 1,430 euros ($1,625) a month despite working 45 hours a week and has decided not to have children because doesn’t feel he can earn enough to raise them. This was his third weekend of protesting in Paris. “I’ve come to defend myself,” he said, adding that he thought Macron’s mistake was trying to reform the French economy too quickly.
“He’s done more in 18 months than the others in 30 years.” Macron on Wednesday agreed to abandon the fuel tax hike, which aimed to wean France off fossil fuels and uphold the Paris climate agreement.
Many economists and scientists say higher fuel taxes are essential to save the planet from worsening climate change, but that stance hasn’t defused the anger among France’s working class.
Late Saturday, after announcing that the violence in Paris had been “contained,” Castaner, the interior minister, took a victory stroll down the Champs-Elysees.
Tear gas had dissipated and a standoff was over. It had pitted a line of security forces, backed by two armored vehicles, against protesters, some lobbing objects and cherry bombs to taunt police. Protesters also blocked roads, traffic roundabouts and highway tollbooths elsewhere in France and offshoot movements emerged in Belgium and the Netherlands.
Belgian police fired tear gas and water cannon Saturday at yellow-vested protesters calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Charles Michel.
The protesters in Brussels threw paving stones, road signs, fireworks, flares and other objects at police and about 100 were detained. Across the ocean, U.S.
President Donald Trump seized the moment to once again criticize the 2015 Paris climate accord that he is abandoning.
“People do not want to pay large sums of money ... in order to maybe protect the environment,” he tweeted. AP
Riyadh and Tel Aviv have many areas where they could potentially cooperate, including the issue of counteracting Iran as a common enemy, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Friday.
Salman also said diplomatic relations cannot be established until the Palestinian issue is resolved,
“Well, it seems that [Saudi Arabia and Israel] have a common enemy, and it seems that we have a lot of potential areas to have economic cooperation.
“And we cannot have a relation with Israel before solving the peace issue, the Palestinians, because both of them they have the right to live and coexist,” the crown prince told Time magazine.
The crown prince added that Saudi Arabia would try to support a solution for peace, and when the Palestinian issue was resolved, Riyadh and Tel Aviv would establish diplomatic relations the “next day.”
Israel and Palestine are locked in a decades-long dispute over borders and sovereignty.
In 1948, after the UK’s mandate over Palestine ended, the Israelis announced the creation of their state on the disputed territories.
As a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, initiated by neighboring Arab states, Israel managed to seize territories initially intended for the Palestinians in accordance with a UN General Assembly resolution.
Saudi Arabia does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, but the two countries are reportedly involved in regular unofficial contacts on the political, military and economic levels.
(Sputnik/NAN)