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Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Ban Ki-moon Discuss Means to Ease U.N. ‘Report Crisis’ | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman greets U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at the U.N. headquarters in New York, U.S., June 22, 2016. Reuters


New York- Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman met with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday.

The talks focused on regional issues, in particular the situation in Yemen, Iraq and Syria.

U.N. Secretary General spokesman Stephane Dujarric told Asharq al-Awsat newspaper that the meeting lasted 45 minutes and was very positive and constructive.

Meanwhile, sources from the Saudi delegation to the U.N. said that the two officials discussed the recent report issued by the U.N. on children and armed conflict, which blacklisted the Saudi-led coalition for allegedly causing harm to children. The coalition was later removed from the blacklist.

An official U.N. statement said Ban and Prince Mohammed discussed “putting into place concrete measures that could improve the situation on the ground” to better protect children and civilians in Yemen.

“The Secretary-General expressed hope that by the time he presents the Children and Armed Conflict report to the Security Council in August, he could point to progress on the protection of children and civilians in Yemen,” it said.

On Syria, the Secretary-General said he looked to Saudi Arabia to encourage all parties to support cease-fire efforts on the ground and to engage positively with his Special Envoy for Syria. He also expressed his concern about the impact of the Syrian conflict on Lebanon.

Regarding Libya, Ban Ki-moon and Prince Mohammed agreed on the need to unify efforts to end the crisis. On the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, the Secretary-General informed the Deputy Crown Prince that talks were underway to deploy more efforts in order to accelerate the process.

On Yemen, the Secretary-General thanked Saudi Arabia for supporting the political work of his Special Envoy, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed, and stressed the urgency of ending the conflict.

Meanwhile, the Deputy Crown is expected to meet on Thursday with chiefs of Wall Street’s top financial institutions, who have expressed great interest to meet with the Prince to discuss the public offering of Saudi giant Aramco, which is planned for 2017.

Saudi Arabian Oil Co., as it is formally known, is one of the largest enterprises on earth.
The company is currently valued at roughly $3 trillion.

The Financial Times reported the company produced an average of 10.2 million barrels per day in 2015. That made up more than 10% of last year’s global daily output of 91.7 million barrels.

It added that “the company holds oil reserves of roughly 261.1 billion barrels and natural gas reserves of roughly 297.6 trillion cubic feet. Those compare to Exxon Mobil Corp.’s 24.8 billion barrels of oil reserves and British Petroleum’s 44.2 billion cubic feet of natural gas reserves.”

The Deputy Crown Prince plans to offer 5 percent of Aramco to the public within the framework of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030.

According to Energy Strategist at Aramco Services Dr. Kent Moors, Saudi Arabia’s sale of the company will be unlike anything the country’s done before.

“The Aramco IPO signals a big change in the kingdom’s strategy,” Moors said.

The Wall Street Journal said earlier this month that the “planned initial public offering of oil colossus Saudi Aramco has kicked off a scramble among banks,” describing the move as the “biggest event in Wall Street history.”