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Saudi Arabia Mobilizes Resources to Serve Pilgrims

Saudi security men monitoring all corners of the Grand Mosque. (Mohammed Al-Manea)
Saudi security men monitoring all corners of the Grand Mosque. (Mohammed Al-Manea)
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Saudi Arabia Mobilizes Resources to Serve Pilgrims

Saudi security men monitoring all corners of the Grand Mosque. (Mohammed Al-Manea)
Saudi security men monitoring all corners of the Grand Mosque. (Mohammed Al-Manea)

Saudi Arabia has deployed all its human and technological resources to serve Umrah pilgrims and visitors. Approximately 36 million pilgrims were transported to the holy city of Makkah during this year’s holy month of Ramadan.

With the influx of pilgrims and visitors increasing, the Kingdom’s security agencies are placing numerous advanced smart cameras with advanced recognition capabilities to cover all areas and courtyards of the Grand Mosque.

The Command and Control Center for Umrah Security and the Operations Center for the Grand Mosque manage this system, ensuring the comfort and safety of the visitors of the holy Kaaba, enabling them to perform their rituals in peace and security.

Moreover, there is a trend to expand the use of technology inside the Grand Mosque and its courtyards, Asharq Al-Awsat learned from informed sources.

The Operations Center confirmed that the Grand Mosque is on the verge of integrating major technological advancements.

This includes smart cameras capable of crowd counting and alerting authorities of high traffic density. The cameras are also capable of identifying which way heavy crowds can be diverted.

Technology is present in every aspect of life in the Kingdom, from the “Absher” app, for services provided by the Interior Ministry, to the “Tawakkalna” app, provided by the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SADAI).

Many other apps and services are offered by various entities in the Kingdom.

Upon arriving at the Grand Mosque in Makkah, visitors can immediately sense the technological activity and its results. As they step onto its outer courtyards, pilgrims realize that every step they take is part of a great effort.

They feel that there are watchful eyes, caring hearts, and helpful hands that work to ensure their comfort, allowing them to focus on worship without any disturbances.

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Varieties

Firm Has No Plans to Salvage More Titanic Artifacts, Snuffing Out Legal Fight

The Titanic leaves Southampton, England, April 10, 1912, on her maiden voyage. (AP)
The Titanic leaves Southampton, England, April 10, 1912, on her maiden voyage. (AP)
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Firm Has No Plans to Salvage More Titanic Artifacts, Snuffing Out Legal Fight

The Titanic leaves Southampton, England, April 10, 1912, on her maiden voyage. (AP)
The Titanic leaves Southampton, England, April 10, 1912, on her maiden voyage. (AP)

The US government has scrapped its litigation against the company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic, noting that the firm no longer has expedition plans to the shipwreck that could break federal law.

The scuttling of the government's latest legal battle isn't necessarily the end of RMS Titanic Inc.'s attempts to enter the rapidly deteriorating ocean liner or to fetch more historic objects. The company said last month that it's still considering the implications of future expeditions.

But the US on Friday withdrew its motion to intervene in a federal admiralty court in Virginia, which oversees salvage matters for the world's most famous shipwreck. The withdrawal concluded the second of two legal battles in five years that the US has waged against RMS Titanic Inc, the company that has retrieved and exhibited the ship's artifacts.

The US filed its latest legal challenge in 2023 when RMST was planning to take images inside the ship's hull and pluck items from the surrounding debris field. RMST also said it would possibly recover freestanding objects from the room where the ocean liner broadcast its distress calls.

The US argued that entering the hull — or disturbing the wreck — would violate a 2017 federal law and a corresponding agreement with Great Britain. Both regard the site as a hallowed memorial to the more than 1,500 people who died when the ship struck an iceberg in 1912.

RMST ultimately scaled back its dive plans, stating that it would only take external images. The change followed the 2023 implosion of the Titan submersible, which killed RMST’s director of underwater research Paul-Henri Nargeolet and four others onboard.

The experimental Titan craft was operated by a separate company, OceanGate, to which Nargeolet was lending his expertise. He was supposed to lead the RMST expedition.

After RMST revised its dive plans, the US stopped trying to block that particular expedition, which produced detailed images of the wreck in September. But the government told the federal court in Norfolk last year that it wanted to leave the door open to challenging subsequent expeditions.

RMST, however, told the court in December that it won’t visit the wreck in 2025 and hasn't settled on any plans for future expeditions. The company said it will continue to “diligently consider the strategic, legal, and financial implications of conducting future salvage operations at the site.”

In response, the US withdrew its motion to intervene.

“Should future circumstances warrant, the United States will file a new motion to intervene based on the facts then existing,” the government wrote in a filing on Friday.

RMST has been the court-recognized steward of Titanic artifacts since it won salvage rights to the ship in 1994. The firm has recovered and conserved thousands of items, from silverware to a piece of the ship’s hull, which millions of people have seen through exhibits.

The company's last expedition to recover artifacts was in 2010, before the federal law and international agreement took effect.

The first federal enforcement was in 2020, when RMST wanted to retrieve and exhibit the radio that broadcast the Titanic’s distress calls.

US District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith, who presides over Titanic salvage matters, gave RMST permission. But the US government swiftly challenged the plan. The legal battle never played out because RMST indefinitely delayed the expedition in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

Smith noted during a court hearing in March that time may be running out for expeditions inside the Titanic. The ship is rapidly deteriorating on the North Atlantic seabed.