Arabic press review: Saudi appoints first female in senior government post

Saudi Arabia appoints first woman to senior government post

Saudi authorities appointed a woman to a senior government post for the first time, reported Algerian newspaper al-Khabar on Wednesday.

The news came shortly after a ban on women drivers was lifted as the kingdom takes steps to modernise its image.

Eman Al-Ghamidi was given the post "as part of plan to boost the number of females in leadership positions in line with Vision 2030", the Center for International Communication at the Ministry of Culture and Information said in a statement.

Number of arrests in Saudi Arabia higher than announced

The number of people detained in a recent wave of arrests across Saudi Arabia is much higher than officially announced, an anonymous Saudi source told Arabi21.

According to the source, more than 150 people have been subjected to arbitrary arrests in Saudi Arabia, which is far more than the kingdom has announced to the media.

The source claimed that the documented cases of arrests are low because families of the detainees are afraid to speak out.

He also claimed that the arrests had been carried out following central orders and had not been done through coordination with local police forces.

Jordan decreases imports from Israel

The import of fruits and vegetables into Jordan from Israel “is in clear decline” reported  Jordanian newspaper Al-Ghad after an anonymous source claimed that the Jordanian ministry of agriculture was “tightening its control” over purchases from Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

Salah Al-Tarawneh, an officer in the Jordanian ministry of agriculture, declared that the amount of imported Israeli fruits and vegetables “is still decreasing,” while agricultural workers and trade unionists said that “the majority of Jordanians refuse to buy Israeli goods, including fruits and vegetables.”

Israeli fruits and vegetables exported to Jordan over the period between January and August amounted to 196 tons, according to a report from the ministry of agriculture, reported Al-Ghad.

Hadi to restore state’s main authorities in Yemen

Yemeni president Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi declared that his government was close to restoring the state’s three main authorities, according to an interview with the Saudi newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat.

In his interview, Hadi said that since his arrival in Aden, he has sought to “activate and protect the constitutional institutions, mainly the presidency” and then to restore the government.

“We have recently completed the activation of judicial institution, and soon we will finalise the regulation of the three authorities with the holding of Parliament sessions in Aden,” he said.

The UN-recognized government of president Hadi has made the southern city of Aden as Yemen’s temporary capital after the combined forces of the Iran-backed Houthi militias and loyalists of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh seized Sanaa in 2014.