TUNIS, 31 January 2007 — Saudi Arabia yesterday received the Golden Shield for 2006 from the International Road Safety Organization (IRSO) for its commendable efforts in ensuring road safety for millions of pilgrims during the Haj season.
Interior Minister Prince Naif, who is chairman of the Supreme Haj Committee, received the award from Jose Miguel Trigoso, president of the organization. Trigoso commended Naif for his personal role in organizing the mammoth Haj gathering.
“We have presented this shield to Saudi Arabia in appreciation of its efforts to ensure safe transportation of nearly three million pilgrims ... with utmost efficiency,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted Trigoso as saying.
The shield was presented during a ceremony in the Tunisian capital attended by Tunisian Interior and Local Development Minister Rafeek Balhaj, Dr. Abdul Aziz Al-Ghamdi, president of Naif Arab University of Security Sciences, and Dr. Muhammad Kuman, secretary-general of the Arab Interior Ministers Council.
“This award is given to express IRSO’s appreciation of the tremendous efforts being made by the Saudi Interior Ministry and the Supreme Haj Committee in providing safety and security to more than three million pilgrims from 187 countries,” the organization’s president said.
The International Road Safety Organization was founded in 1959 to promote cooperation among national institutions dealing with road safety. It has a consultative status at the United Nations and the European Conference of Ministers of Transport. It works closely with the European Commission in Brussels, the World Health Organization and other international and global bodies concerned with the improvement of traffic safety.
Earlier, addressing a meeting of the Arab Interior Ministers in Tunis, Prince Naif emphasized the need for combating deviant thoughts and ideas that promote violence and crimes in Arab countries. “We have to set out a strategy to ensure intellectual security in our countries,” he said.
Speaking to reporters on arrival in Tunis on Monday, Prince Naif said the call of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah for an emergency meeting of feuding Palestinian factions in Makkah was aimed at achieving Palestinian unity. He hoped that Palestinian leaders would reach an agreement for the good of the Palestinian people.
He called for joint efforts by Arab countries to root out terrorism, its sources and reasons. He urged Islamic scholars, intellectuals and media persons to play their roles in this respect. “We should have a joint strategy to fight terrorism.” He said he believed that the deviant groups in Muslim countries were probably enticed by enemies of Arabs and Muslims.
Prince Naif said Arab countries had made 90 percent success in their efforts to combat terrorism.
“Arab interior ministers will do their best in the way of fighting terrorism and drugs,” he said and called for greater security cooperation among Arab countries.
“Our meeting will deal with all security issues, especially terrorism,” he said.
In his speech, Kuman said the meeting was held while Arab countries are going through a delicate and sensitive situation. “We have to mobilize all our resources to confront this situation.”
He lamented the infighting among Arabs for silly reasons and called for immediate efforts to reconcile warring groups.
