Israel minister welcomes Jordan meeting with Palestinians

Agence France-Presse

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JERUSALEM // Israeli and Palestinian negotiators headed to Jordan yesterday for their first face-to-face meeting in nearly 16 months, although both sides stressed it did not mark a renewal of talks.

Israel's chief negotiator, Yitzhak Molcho, and his Palestinian counterpart, Saeb Erakat, were due to sit down together today on the shores of the Dead Sea.

They were invited by the Jordanian foreign minister, Nasser Judeh.

Tony Blair, the Quartet on the Middle East envoy, was also to attend the session, along with other officials of the diplomatic grouping, which represents the European Union, Russia, the UN and the US.

"This is a positive development," said Dan Meridor, an Israeli cabinet minister. "It is the first time in a long while that the Palestinians have been prepared to come and talk to us directly, without preconditions."

Mr Meridor, who holds the intelligence portfolio and is the deputy prime minister, said the meeting did not constitute a return to direct talks, but he hoped it would be a springboard that would "allow the Palestinians to return to negotiations".

Mr Erakat made the same point in an interview with Voice of Palestine radio. "This meeting will be devoted to discussing the possibility of making a breakthrough that could lead to the resumption of negotiations. Therefore, it will not mark the resumption of negotiations," he said.

In Ramallah, Mr Erakat urged Israel not to waste the rare opportunity of a face-to-face meeting.

"This is a valuable opportunity for peace and Israel shouldn't waste it and once again be the reason for the failure of efforts by the international community, by the Quartet and by Jordan, to resume the negotiations," he said.

Should today's meeting end without progress, a committee of officials from the Palestinian leadership would look into the available options and "present its recommendations to President [Mahmoud] Abbas within the next few days," he said. "If the Israeli premier [Benjamin Netanyahu] thinks that by continuing to build settlements and destroying any prospect of implementing the two-state solution, that he can stop our efforts, then he is wrong."

News that the two sides would meet sparked anger among Gaza's Hamas rulers, who are trying to push through a reconciliation deal with Mr Abbas's Fatah movement.

"We demand a boycott of this meeting," said a Hamas spokesman, Sami Abu Zuhri. "Going to such a meeting is only betting on failure."

The leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine also denounced the move as a "fatal error" that would force the Palestinians back into another pointless waiting game.

"The occupation and the Quartet are the only beneficiaries from the Amman meeting that is, in fact, a negotiations meeting that drains the Palestinian national account," the group said.

Mr Meridor said the initiative to get the two sides talking after a hiatus of nearly 16 months had come from Jordan, in what he described as a "positive change". "Jordan is a neighbour and we have important relations with it ... its involvement in any solution to the Palestinian problem is" crucial, he said.

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Air Arabia Welcomes Onboard 20 Millionth Passenger

 Air Arabia’s first flight took off from Sharjah, UAE, to Manama, Bahrain, on October 28, 2003, marking the introduction of the LCC concept to the Middle East. At the time, the carrier served five regional destinations. By the end of its first 12 months of operations, the pioneering airline carried 500,000 passengers to 16 different destinations.

Twenty million passengers later, the airline has expanded its reach to serve 66 destinations from three hubs in the UAE, Morocco and Egypt, winning countless accolades along the way. The airline served nearly 4.5 million passengers last year alone, and currently operates a global fleet of 27 new Airbus A320 aircraft.

Averaging 2.5 million passengers annually, 20 million passengers would fill 123,000 Air Arabia aircraft. Lined up nose to tail, those aircraft would stretch nearly 5,000 kilometres.

"Eight years ago - when our first flight took off from Sharjah International Airport, at a time when the low-cost model was just introduced to the region - few of us could have imagined the day when we would cross the 20-million passenger mark," said Adel Ali, Group Chief Executive Officer, Air Arabia.

"The tremendous growth of Air Arabia since then is testament to our single-minded focus on providing our passengers with a growing range of destinations, great service and value-for-money fares. Today, despite serving over 20 million passengers, we remain a young company committed to further expanding our horizons," he said. "On behalf of everyone at Air Arabia, I would like to thank the 20 million people who have chosen to fly with us - and I look forward to welcoming onboard the next 20 million in the years to come," he concluded.

Entering its eighth successful year of operations, Air Arabia’s legacy has shaped the philosophy of air travel in the region and redefined the way residents and visitors travel in the Middle East, while creating a niche market for intra-regional air transport.

Air travel today is a commercial commodity, driven by low fares, convenience and destinations of choice. 

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Bee’ah Welcomes Visit From The Dubai Municipality

Bee’ah – the Middle East’s leading and award-winning integrated environmental and waste management company – welcomed Mr. Naji Al Radi, Head of the Waste Management Department at the Dubai Municipality and the accompanying delegation, at the Bee’ah Waste Management Complex in Al Saj’ah where they met with Mr. Khaled Al Huraimel, Chief Executive Officer of Bee’ah, Bee’ah’s senior management team alongside Mr. Marwan Al Husan, Head of Solid Waste Department at the Sharjah Municipality. The delegates were given a presentation of the state-of-the-art technologies adopted by Bee’ah for the first time in the Middle East.

The visit was set to enhance the cooperation between Bee’ah and the Dubai Municipality, strengthen their collaborative efforts to improve the environment of the U.A.E., and exchange knowledge and experience around potential areas of legislation, regulations, joint efforts and development of environmental awareness programmes.

“We are very proud to show representatives from our neighbouring Emirate the substantial progress that we, at Bee’ah, have achieved in the last four years to become a leading example of environmental change.” said Al Huraimel. “We are very keen to work together with the Dubai Municipality and explore ways to benefit the entire U.A.E., by strengthening our spirit of cooperation and becoming the partner of choice towards a greener future.”

Bee’ah was awarded the prestigious Facilities Management Award for ‘Best Waste Management Company of the Year’ in the Middle East; for its achievements in environmental protection and advanced waste management infrastructure put into place since 2007. Bee’ah and the Sharjah City Municipality, as a strategic partner, have successfully transformed the landfill at the Waste Management Complex (WMC) in Al Saj’ah into a safe disposal site that was re-engineered using state-of-the-art technology, best practices and processes to ensure the highest available standards of safety and efficiency.

Bee’ah’s WMC represents an entirely new approach, in the region, to managing waste and includes a number of industrial, commercial and residential waste diversion operations and facilities. The WMC houses the Material Recovery Facility, the Construction and Demolition Waste Recycling Facility, the Tyre Recycling Facility, the compost plant, and other recycling facilities.

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Radisson Blu Resort Sharjah Welcomes New Rooms Division Manager And Executive Sous Chef

The Radisson Blu Resort Sharjah is proud to welcome Mr. Ahmed Freiwan as the new Rooms Division Manager and Mr. Murat Kalkandelen as the new Executive Sous Chef.
Ahmed, a Jordanian National with a solid background in Rooms’ Division Operations, started his career with the Rezidor group in the year 1998 in Aqaba, Jordan and then moved to Radisson Blu Hotel Muscat in 2000 as Night Manager. He then joined the opening team of Radisson Blu Dubai Media City in 2005 as Front Office Manager. After two years with the hotel, he moved to Radisson Blu Dubai Marina Residence and joined the opening team as Operations Manager.
In 2009, he moved to Radisson Blu Al Mahary Hotel in Tripoli joining the team as Rooms Division Manager. Ahmed is also holding a Bachelor’s Degree in Modern Languages from Yarmuk University in Jordan.
Murat, a Turkish national, has more than 14 years of extensive international experience in the hospitality industry which includes assignments in Kempinski and Hyatt Hotels in many different locations such as UAE, Turkey, Italy and France.
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