A decisive year
The Kingdom is celebrating completion of the first year of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman’s rule.
This year saw a number of changes in the Kingdom’s domestic and foreign policies, thank to King Salman. He is undoubtedly the King of Decisiveness and Determination.
His decision to appoint Prince Mohammed bin Naif as the crown prince and Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the deputy crown prince has gained enormous support from the Board of Allegiance and all segments of the Saudi society.
This was a major development at the domestic level. It is a decision with far-reaching consequences for the Kingdom. The king’s decision is important for the future of Saudi Arabia.
Yet another key step taken during King Salman’s first year on the throne is the formation of first Islamic coalition to fight terrorism and unrest in the region.
In this context, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman announced the “Operation Decisive Storm” through the Kingdom-led Arab-Islamic coalition due to which the legitimate government of Yemen led by President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi returned to Aden in preparation for clearance of Sanaa from Houthi militia and supporters of the deposed President Saleh.
This courageous stance from the king has regained Arab world its dignity and, meanwhile, exposed Iran’s expansionist policies.
In addition to that, when Iran tried to interfere in the internal affairs of the Kingdom by protesting execution of some terrorists, the king firmly ordered severance of relations with Iran at a time when it was trying to heave a sigh of relief after signing the deal with western countries on its nuclear program.
It was a year full of works at the local, Arab, regional, and international levels when the Kingdom reaffirmed its permanent presence in the international system.
It was also a year of decisiveness, construction, diversifying sources of income and strong stance against terrorism.
Challenges and achievements
The first year of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman’s accession to throne was full of decisive actions to achieve security and to push forward economic reforms.
King Salman’s decisions during the first year of his rule have helped Saudi Arabia achieve a stronger position amid the comity of nations.
The regional conflicts were signs of evil targeting our country and us but the king skillfully managed all domestic, regional and foreign issues and thwarted attempts to destabilize the Kingdom.
It was a year during which our country acted as a center of meetings for world leaders, a busy year of events at security and economic levels, which were dealt with wisdom, patience and decisiveness.
The past year was full of optimism for a prosperous future at all levels because we have taken steps in the right direction.
— By Ali Mohammed Al-Hassoun
Hezbollah envoy at Arab League!
Arab countries unanimously voted on the Arab League’s decision denouncing attacks on Saudi diplomatic mission in Iran and asked it to end interference in the internal affairs of Arabs directly or through its proxies.
Lebanon was the sole Arab country to have voted abstention over the decision. Its envoy justified his country’s position saying it was not against denouncing Iran’s attacks on Saudi missions but, rather, on reference to Hezbollah.
Lebanon’s envoy never minded to see himself changed into Hezbollah’s representative at the Arab League rejecting its classification as an Iranian arm on the ground that it has been recognized as a legal party and has representatives in the Lebanese Parliament.
If so, the envoy should be asked: Does that party (Hezbollah) recognize legitimacy of Lebanon and its sovereignty to make its own decisions away from Hezbollah’s hegemony on Lebanon? Has it (Lebanon) the power to neutralize its decisions from being linked to Tehran’s approval (or rejection)?
Before refusing to vote on a decision that would have reinforced its Arabism in the face of the Iran’s expansion, Lebanon, likewise, abstained from voting in the Security Council on the Syrian issue and, thus, found itself completely biased in favor of the Assad regime whose men, led by Hezbollah and directed by Tehran, are involved in the Syrian bloodshed.
Lebanon, which has distanced itself from voting against Iranian interference, knew that it did so because it no longer has the power to take its own decisions.
Additionally, nobody is to blame Lebanon as long as it remains powerless over a year to choose its president. So, what decisions or legitimacy we are talking about for a country living without a “head” for the whole year.
— By Sa’id Al-Siraihi
Fighting unemployment
Some government agencies have extensively stated that they were combating unemployment and contributing to employ sons and daughters of our country.
We used to hear this statement with our ears and see with our eyes in media and social networking sites from those officials thus sending tranquility into our hearts indicating that the unemployment problem is about to end and is under control.
However, it seems that statement is inaccurate or, otherwise, how do you explain news carried by local media that some government agencies got more than 4,100 work visas in one year for (male and female) foreigners to work in educational and health sectors!
This move contributes to the unemployment of Saudis; it revives the unemployment. These government agencies are usually blamed for that but the Ministry of Labor has to share the burden of this blame for issuing big numbers of visas, which are harmful to us.
— By Talal Al-Qashqari
Iran be exposed
Time has come to expose certain things to set the record straight. Our media should step up its efforts to counter negative propaganda. We have to admit that Iran is a Khomeinist, revolutionary and expansionist state and although its true vision is undeclared, its aim is to resurrect the Persian Empire.
We all know this, but we, however, still call Iran an Islamic country.
Hezbollah (of Lebanon), which is Iran’s proxy in the region, does not appear to be satisfied with the number of deaths in Syria.
Houthi militia Ansarullah in Yemen is imposing a similar siege and applying the same technique of Hezbollah on Taiz to starve people to death.
Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman gave an advice to the British media through his interview with The Economist when he said, “Say what you believe.” However, this media keeps mum on “Madaya” and “Taiz” sieges and wages campaigns against us.
“Islamic Iran”, Daesh, Hezbollah, and Ansarullah are all attributed to Allah and Islam and at the same time we see them spilling blood of innocent Muslims, which compels us to say that Iran is only deceiving the entire world.
By Ghanim Al-Hamar
Culture of accountability
It was not surprising for the Ministry of Health to discover the volume of negligence, which led to the disastrous fire incident in Jazan Hospital.
This time, the new thing is that the authorities have promised to carry out investigation into the incident and openly admitted the negligence as follows:
That the number of deaths could have been lessened if the evacuation process had been implemented properly, the Ministry of Health is responsible for the fire because it received an incomplete facility and that the incident would not have happened if the facility were designed with due safety standards.w
We are not accustomed to this new culture. It is a promising thing that will raise our ambitions to be at the level of the advanced communities, which admit errors when they occur.
What matters the most, in the long run, is how to promote the culture of recognition of errors because the recognition of mistakes is the first step to remedy them.
Perhaps the Jazan hospital fire incident, despite its horrible results, is hoped to be a starting point for a new methodology to deal with and correct errors.
By Abdulwahid Al-Hamid
