Saudi Arabia to host 2026 global congress on water desalination
Riyadh has a track record of technical innovations in facing water scarcity
Saudi Arabia was selected during the IDRA congress in Abu Dhabi
Updated 09 December 2024
Arab News
RIYADH: The International Desalination and Reuse Association selected Saudi Arabia on Monday to host a global conference to discuss water challenges and desalination projects.
Saudi Arabia will host the 2026 IDRA World Congress on Desalination and Water Reuse Solutions.
Riyadh was selected during the current IDRA 2026 congress in the UAE capital, Abu Dhabi.
It is held under the theme “Addressing water scarcity,” the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Saudi Arabia is a leading country in the water sector and the volume of desalinated water the Kingdom produces each day is equivalent to daily global oil production, according to the Saudi Water Authority.
The Kingdom has created various desalination water projects and has a track record of technical innovation in facing water scarcity and achieving renewable energy.
IDRA’s 2026 congress is an opportunity for Saudi water officials and experts to share the Kingdom’s experience in tackling water scarcity with international experts from 60 countries, the SPA reported.
The event will also serve as a platform for revealing the latest technical innovations and sustainable solutions in the water sector and for building strategic partnerships between various countries and organizations.
This week, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Jeddah launched the International Water Research Center, a groundbreaking initiative to achieve sustainable solutions amid the global climate crisis.
Saudi Arabia’s FM announces landmark visit to Lebanon
The one-day trip on Thursday will mark the first visit by a high-ranking Saudi official to Lebanon since 2015
Prince Faisal bin Farhan welcomed the potential formation of a new government but emphasized the need for real reforms
Updated 21 January 2025
DANIEL FOUNTAIN
DAVOS: Prince Faisal bin Farhan said on Tuesday in Davos he would visit Lebanon later this week, the first such trip by a Saudi foreign minister in more than a decade.
He made the announcement during a panel on diplomacy at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in the Swiss resort town.
The one-day trip on Thursday will mark the first visit by a high-ranking Saudi official to Lebanon since 2015, after years of strained relations due to Lebanon’s perceived alignment with Iran, its role in drug smuggling to Gulf countries, and ongoing instability.
Prince Faisal described the recent election of a president in Lebanon, following a prolonged political vacuum, as a highly positive development.
He said the Kingdom welcomed the potential formation of a government but emphasized the need for real reforms and a forward-looking approach to ensure sustainable progress.
He reiterated that the future of Lebanon rested in the hands of its people, urging them to make decisions that steer the country in a new direction.
A UN peacekeeper’s (UNIFIL) vehicle rides along a street in Marjaayoun, Southern Lebanon January 20, 2025. (AFP)
“We will need to see real action, real reform and we will need to see a commitment to a Lebanon that is looking to the future, not to the past,” said Prince Faisal.
“And based on what I hear there and what we see, I think that will inform the Kingdom’s approach, but I have to say what I’ve seen so far and the conversations that we’ve been hearing in Lebanon, all allow me to be very much optimistic.
“We’ve always said, it’s really up to the Lebanese to decide and to make the choices to take Lebanon in a different direction.”
Prince Faisal also said he is “cautiously optimistic” about Syria’s future, citing encouraging signs from the new administration in Damascus and the resilience of the Syrian people.
He emphasized the need for patience and engagement from both the regional and international communities to help rebuild the country’s broken institutions and create a better future for Syrians.
“I would certainly say I’m cautiously optimistic. I may even lean further because you have, first of all, an administration that is saying the right things in private and in public, doing a lot of the right things, but also you have a Syrian people that are incredibly capable and incredibly resourceful,” he said.
He urged collaboration to build on recent positive developments, underlining the collective responsibility to aid Syria’s recovery, especially considering the willingness of the new administration in Damascus to engage constructively with regional and global partners.
“The reality is that they have inherited a broken country with no real institutions and they are having to build all of that from scratch, and that’s not an easy thing,” he said.
“So it’s up to us, I feel in the region first but certainly the international community, to engage, to come and build on this positive development and help Syria and the Syrian people see a much better future.”
Prince Faisal highlighted the importance of lifting the heavy burden of sanctions imposed due to actions of the previous regime, noting some progress with waivers from the US and Europe.
A boy carrying stacks of bread on his head walks past a damaged school in Aleppo, Syria January 21, 2025. (Reuters)
Prince Faisal was also positive about the region as a whole, including the Kingdom.
“We are certainly in a region that is abundant with risk factors, but we are also in a region that has huge potential,” he told the panel.
“I would say that even with the very difficult year behind us, we have shown that we can be resilient as a region and we can actually look to the future, whether it’s the Kingdom, or the GCC countries, and their ability to stay on track with their economic agendas,” he added.
He stressed the importance of avoiding conflict, particularly in light of tensions between Iran and Israel, and expressed optimism regarding the new US administration under President Donald Trump.
“I don’t see the incoming US administration as contributory to the risk of war. On the contrary, I think President Trump has been quite clear that he does not favor conflict,” he said.
“I hope that the approach will also be met on the Iranian side by the addressing of the nuclear program, by being willing to engage with the incoming administration in a way that can help us stay on track with this positive momentum.”
Also on the panel was Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani, prime minister and foreign minister of Qatar, who expressed hope that the ceasefire in Gaza between Israel and Hamas would bring much needed relief to the Palestinian people.
Qatar’s PM Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani speaks with WEF President and CEO Borge Brende during the annual meeting in Davos on January 21, 2025. (AFP)
“Let’s be hopeful (about the ceasefire). It’s still a long way to go with what happened throughout the last 15 months negotiating this very difficult conflict,” he said.
“It showed us that everything can be resolved through talks and through engagement, through negotiations, and we started this week with good news.
“We have seen the humanitarian aid coming in, we have seen hostages going back and we hope that this will be a fair system toward stability now.”
Saudi deputy minister meets newly appointed Bangladesh ambassador
Al-Sati wished the ambassador success in his new role
Updated 21 January 2025
Arab News
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister for Political Affairs Saud Al-Sati met with the newly-appointed Ambassador of Bangladesh to the Kingdom Delwar Hossain in Riyadh on Tuesday.
Al-Sati wished the ambassador success in his new role, the Foreign Ministry posted on X.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister for International Multilateral Affairs Abdulrahman Al-Rassi received Ambassador of Ukraine to the Kingdom Anatolii Petrenko in Riyadh on Tuesday.
During the meeting they discussed bilateral relations and topics of common interest.
Saudi Shoura Council official receives Norwegian women’s rights ambassador
The pair discussed bilateral cooperation and explored several topics of mutual interest
Updated 22 January 2025
Arab News
RIYADH: Hanan Al-Ahmadi, assistant speaker of the Saudi Shoura Council, emphasized the positive impact of the Kingdom’s reform agenda in a meeting with Sidsel Bleken, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ ambassador for women’s rights, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Al-Ahmadi, who provided an overview of the council’s legislative and oversight functions to the visiting diplomat, lauded the achievements of Saudi women across various sectors in the Kingdom.
The pair also discussed bilateral cooperation and explored several topics of mutual interest.
Unified database of official government policies on Arabic language launched
Project aims to offer valuable resource for academics, policymakers
Launch ceremony attended by distinguished experts from across region
Updated 21 January 2025
Hebshi Alshammari
RIYADH: A new unified database of official government policies on the Arabic language from 22 countries was launched on Monday.
Saudi Arabia’s King Salman International Academy for the Arabic Language, in partnership with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization, launched the Language Policy System Project in Arab States at ALECSO’s headquarters in Tunis.
The system has gathered language policy data from 22 Arab states, aiming to provide a resource that enables decision-makers, researchers, scholars and experts to undertake strategic linguistic work.
The project was developed in coordination with the Saudi National Commission for Education, Culture and Science.
The launch ceremony attracted a broad range of linguistic experts, institutions and specialists in language planning.
It was also attended by representatives of Arab states in the organization and secretaries of national committees, with more than 50 attendees in total.
The collaboration between KSGAAL and ALECSO plays a key role in advancing initiatives to promote the Arabic language, safeguard its purity and underscore its profound cultural significance, according to Mahmoud Al-Mahmoud, head of the Planning and Language Policy Sector at KSGAAL.
A standout feature of the project is its compilation of more than 1,800 language policies from 22 Arab countries.
Furthermore, the project links these policies to various fields of language planning, greatly enhancing the overall value of the initiative, Al-Mahmoud added.
KSGAAL will provide access to the extensive dataset for researchers, enabling them to leverage the information in a wide range of studies focused on language planning across Arab countries, Al-Mahmoud told Arab News.
The project stems from the academy’s belief in the value of language planning, aiming to achieve its objectives through conducting and publishing studies and research, as well as issuing periodic reports on the state of the Arabic language and its indicators, Al-Mahmoud said.
“The project is distinguished by its strategic significance in influencing language decisions, internationally and regionally, as well as its leadership in terms of both scope and quality,” he added.
Saudi book club brings together readers and writers from around the globe
Al Jalees Book Club was founded in 2014 and has a presence in Riyadh and Jeddah
American poets, novelists and academics from the University of Iowa attended talk
Updated 21 January 2025
Tamara Aboalsaud
RIYADH: Bookworms and aspiring writers alike were given space to explore their creative talent and learn from seasoned authors at Al Jalees Book Club’s “Writing Across Nations” dialogue session in Riyadh this week.
The club was founded in 2014 by Rana Hajjar, a Jeddah native who wanted to create a productive and welcoming community for local readers and writers.
“Al Jalees is my passion project, I started it because I wanted a space to fit in, a community that understands my interest,” she said.
Hajjar said that although the literary community has very much always been alive in Saudi Arabia, it was very difficult to find each other. So the main goal of the club was for her and others to feel less alone.
Elizabeth Willis, professor of poetry at the University of Iowa at Al Jalees Book Club “Writing Across Nations” dialogue session in Riyadh. (Supplied, Al Jalees Book Club)
Al Jalees has an English department, run by Hajjar in Riyadh, and an Arabic department, run by her sister Rabab, in Jeddah.
Hosted in collaboration with the US Embassy, writers from a wide range of genres and diverse backgrounds were encouraged to attend the “Writing Across Nations” discussion to listen to and engage with American poets, novelists, and academics eager to share the toolkits they have developed to hone their craft.
According to Tom Sleigh, a poet, dramatist and essayist with 11 books of poetry in his arsenal, a common mistake up-and-coming writers commit is comparing their style with that of other authors and trying to live up to those standards, when true talent and audience intrigue comes from the uniqueness one offers in one’s work.
“The idiosyncrasy with which each person approaches their relationship to language meant that there was a kind of utterly unapologetic relationship to writing differently than each other,” he said.
Echoing Sleigh’s words, Cate Dicharry, director of the Writing and Humanities Program at the University of Iowa, said that although she has always been an avid reader, writing seemed unachievable, partly because many of the writers she admired had passed on, creating an enigmatic image of the published author that seemed impossible to emulate.
Al Jalees Book Club hosts “Writing Across Nations” dialogue session in Riyadh. (Supplied, Al Jalees Book Club)
Dicharry also said that young, ambitious students are “reading really good work that is in its final form,” and getting very discouraged when their first drafts do not sound as advanced, creating a fearful cycle that dims potential rather than develops it.
Toxic comparisons aside, all panelists agreed that the key to becoming a great writer is to be a great reader.
Christpher Merril, director of the International Writing Program at the University of Iowa, said that new writers will “fall in love” with a poet and begin imitating them, and if they are lucky enough, they will bore themselves and look for another poet to be encapsulated by.
“Bit by bit you fall in love with different poems (and poets) and then you find your way to writing your own poem,” he said.
In an interview with Arab News, Hajjar said that one non-fiction book everyone should read is “Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway” by Susan Jeffers, a self-help book Hajjar uses to advocate for breast and ovarian cancer awareness and prevention.
The fiction book she recommends is “East of Eden” by John Steinbeck, a multi-generational novel that explores the struggle between good and evil through the interconnected lives of two families in California’s Salinas Valley.
Recalling his time covering the war in former Yugoslavia, in preparation for writing his book: “Only the Nails Remain: Scenes from the Balkan Wars”, Merril spoke about how writing first begins with observing, whether that means observing people’s behaviors or the settings around you.
“Part of your job as a writer is you are paying attention, you’re taking notes, and you’re trying to think: how is he doing that?”
Through writing comes understanding; even if situations seem unclear at first, write them down first and examine the chaos later, Merril said.
Al Jalees Book Club hosts “Writing Across Nations” dialogue session in Riyadh. (Supplied, Al Jalees Book Club)
Responding to a question from Arab News, Merril said: “I am not going to imagine that I am writing from a place of knowledge about myself, I am writing from a place of vast ignorance, with the hope that some lights might go off along the way.”
Elizabeth Willis, professor of poetry at the University of Iowa, emphasized that writing fiction or other literary forms and understanding yourself as a person are both lifelong practices, so do not make your craft wait for you or it will be waiting forever.
Sleigh said that the quiet that comes with writing inadvertently gives you the space and freedom to work through matters in your own life, mirroring Merril’s “through writing comes understanding external concept internally.
Al Jalees hosts large events every month and over the years they have accumulated more than 120 speakers to join their sessions in over 700 events.
Moving Al Jalees online during the COVID pandemic helped open it up to the rest of the world
“When a book club turns into a culture club, turns into a club where everybody intellectual is all around it, it is a very positive impact for you, for your children, for your family, for your friends, and then you make friends through the thousands of people that you meet,” Hajjar said.
Readers and writers of all levels and backgrounds, as well as those simply interested in the community, are welcome to join their events, she said.
“Language is not just words; it is a lifestyle.”
Al Jalees hopes to expand its Jeddah-based Arabic chapter to Riyadh in the upcoming months, as well as to expand the English chapter to biweekly events.
