JEDDAH: Monteja, a charitable society for families working in the cottage industry in the Makkah region, has launched the Sales Outlets initiative to support producer families in Historic Jeddah.

The initiative provides equipped booths as outlets to showcase products, a major step toward self-sufficiency and establishing a sustainable source of income, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

Essam Al-Basrawi, the society’s chairman, said that the first phase of the initiative includes 20 families, with future expansion phases planned to increase the number of outlets and locations within Jeddah governorate.

Maram Hameed Al-Deen, the society’s executive director, praised the support provided by the Ministry of Culture and the Historic Jeddah District Program, which enabled the launch of the initiative.

She added that Monteja aims to reach a larger segment of its registered members, totaling more than 7,000 families working in the cottage industry in Jeddah.
 

LONDON: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammed Mustafa held talks on Tuesday on coordination of diplomatic efforts to end Israel’s war in Gaza, and address the resultant starvation that is affecting nearly 2 million Palestinians in the territory.

They met at the UN’s headquarters in New York on the closing day of a two-day, high-level international conference on a two-state solution to the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

Mustafa commended the Kingdom for its consistent stance on the Palestinian issue, and its ongoing efforts to address the issue through the Arab Contact Group and the Global Alliance for the Implementation of the Two-State Solution, the Wafa News Agency reported.

The conference in New York was co-chaired by Saudi Arabia and France in an effort to gather support for the formal establishment of an internationally recognized Palestinian state, and advance efforts to achieve a two-state solution in which Israel and Palestine can live in peace, side by side.

On Tuesday, the UK government said it would officially recognize a Palestinian state during the UN General Assembly in September, unless Israel takes action to end the war in Gaza and halts its annexation policies in the West Bank. This followed a recent pledge by President Emmanuel Macron that France will recognize Palestinian statehood during the General Assembly.

Mustafa said that this week’s UN conference was the result of Saudi diplomacy, with the aim of achieving a peaceful settlement of the Palestinian issue. He stressed the need to take concrete steps, and establish a clear timeline, toward the implementation of a two-state solution.