Saudi to give bar codes to Air India, Jet crew, not retain their passports

The Saudi Arabian government has decided not to retain the passport of the Indian airline crew members on arrival in the country and issue a bar code instead, an Air India spokesperson confirmed.

The move comes as a big relief to the crew of Air India and Jet Airways, the two Indian airlines who fly to that country. Indian authorities had taken up the issue with the Saudi authorities and the decision not to retain the passport of the crews of Indian airlines came into effect from mid-February this year, the Air Indian spokesperson said.

The bar code given to the crew members will have a limited validity.

The development also comes against the backdrop of Saudi Arabia allowing a newly introduced Air India flight from New Delhi to Tel Aviv fly over its airspace, seen as a major diplomatic development in West Asia.

Arab states' sanctions boost food prices, hurt real estate in Qatar in July

Sanctions imposed by other Arab states are continuing to push up food prices in Qatar while hurting the real estate market, but not to the point of damaging the economy severely, according to inflation figures released by the government on Tuesday.

The annual inflation rate fell back sharply to 0.2 per cent in July. It had spiked to 0.8 per cent in June from 0.1 per cent in May after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic and transport ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of supporting terrorism, which Doha denies.

By closing Qatar's land border with Saudi Arabia and disrupting maritime shipping routes, the sanctions slashed Qatari imports by more than a third in June, pushed up prices of some basic goods and hurt business sentiment in Doha.

There were fresh signs of that damage in the July inflation numbers. Food and beverage prices climbed 4.5 per cent from a year earlier - their fastest rate of increase since at least 2014, and accelerating from a rise of 2.4 per cent in June.
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Get terrorists out of your mosques & communities, Donald Trump tells Saudis

US President Donald Trump called on Middle Eastern leaders to combat a "crisis of Islamic extremism" emanating from the region, casting the fight against terrorism as a "battle between good and evil," not a clash between the West and Islam.

Trump's address today was the centrepiece of his two-day visit to Saudi Arabia, his first stop overseas as president.

During a meeting of more than 50 Arab and Muslim leaders, he sought to chart a new course for America's role in the region, one aimed squarely on rooting out terrorism, with less focus on promoting human rights and democratic reforms.

"We are not here to lecture - we are not here to tell other people how to live, what to do, who to be, or how to worship," Trump said, speaking in an ornate, multi- chandeliered room. "Instead, we are here to offer partnership - based on shared interests and values - to pursue a better future for us all."

Even as the president pledged to work alongside Middle Eastern nations, he put the onus for combating terrorism on the region. Bellowing into the microphone, he implored Muslim leaders to aggressively fight extremists: "Drive them out of your places of worship. Drive them out of your communities."

The president has been enthusiastically embraced in Riyadh, where the ruling royal family has welcomed his tougher stance on Iran, its regional foe.

Trump slammed Iran for spreading "destruction and chaos" throughout the region. His comments were echoed by Saudi King Salman, who declared, "The Iranian regime has been the spearhead of global terrorism."

For Trump, the visit has been a welcome escape from the crush of controversies that have consumed his administration in recent weeks. He's been besieged by a series of revelations about the ongoing federal investigation into his campaign's possible ties to Russia and his decision to fire FBI Director James Comey, who had been overseeing the Russia probe.

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