RIYADH, 6 January 2003 — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, received James Morris, executive director of the World Food Program (WFP), at Al-Yamamah Palace here yesterday.
Crown Prince Abdullah commended the excellent service offered by the food organization to the poor and hungry people of the world.
On his part, Morris thanked the Saudi government for its continuous support and donations to the organization, which has surpassed the $400 million mark, according to the Saudi Press Agency. Saudi aid to WFP began in 1963.
In an interview with a sister publication of Arab News, Asharq Al-Awsat, on Saturday, Morris said the program is fully geared up to meet any humanitarian or food needs in Iraq in the event of the outbreak of war.
His talks with the Saudi authorities focused on the situation in Iraq, Morris said. However, he did not go into the details of the emergency plan prepared by WFP.
“We discussed the situation in Iraq. We hope that there will be no war and a peaceful solution will be found. We also discussed our role in organizing ‘the food-for-oil’ scheme. We are directly supplying food to three million Kurds in the north of the country in addition to closely following the implementation of the scheme in other parts of the country,” Morris explained in the interview.
The World Food Program is the largest humanitarian organization in the world, providing relief to the people suffering from wars and other calamities.
The Saudi government has a special interest in the operations of the program because a large number of the people in the affected regions are Muslims, Morris pointed out.
The program needs an additional $1 billion for the projects it has agreed to undertake in crisis-ridden areas of the world. The official expressed hope that the program would help bring down the number of hungry people in Afghanistan.
“The program has undertaken a huge project to feed millions of Afghans in the war-ravaged country. It will also offer help to half a million Palestinians. We also work in Bangladesh, Chechnya and several parts of Africa,” Morris said.
