RIYADH: Sheikh Muhammad Sayed Tantawi, a prominent voice of the Islamic world and head of Al-Azhar, the highest religious authority in Egypt, died here on Wednesday at the age of 81 following a heart attack. Sheikh Tantawi had arrived in Riyadh on Tuesday to participate in the award-giving ceremony of the King Faisal International Prize. A revered figure among a large section of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims, Tantawi had been associated with Saudi Arabia and the Arab world for the last several decades. He carries a legacy of exemplary services to Islam.
RAMALLAH: US Vice President Joe Biden publicly scolded Israel on Wednesday over a Jewish settlement plan, saying it was undermining peace efforts after Palestinians agreed to US-mediated talks. “It is incumbent on both parties to build an atmosphere of support for negotiations and not to complicate them,” Biden said in a media statement alongside Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
RIYADH: Foreign ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) called on Israel on Wednesday to refrain from provocative gestures and strongly condemned the incursion of Israeli forces’ into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and their clashes with Palestinian worshippers. The GCC foreign ministers, meeting in Riyadh, also condemned Tel Aviv for the deliberate inclusion of several Islamic monuments, including Al-Ibrahim Mosque in Al-Khalil, (Hebron) and Bilal Mosque in Bethlehem, among its Jewish heritage and culture sites.