The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud chaired the Cabinet s session at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh on Monday. At the outset of the session, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques briefed the Cabinet on his phone call with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Republic of Turkey; the phone call received from President Vladimir Putin of Russian Federation; the message received from President Joko Widodo of the Republic of Indonesia; and the outcomes of his meetings with Member of the British parliament from the conservative Party Rehman Chishti and members of the British parliament, former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the Secretary General of Gulf cooperation Council for Arab States Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, and the heads of agencies responsible for protection of integrity and anti-corruption of the Council. The Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Adel bin Zaid Altoraifi said in a statement to Saudi Press Agency following the session that the Cabinet stressed what was expressed by an official source on halting Kingdom s aid for arming the Lebanese army and Internal Security Forces, confirming that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been consistently and throughout its history providing support for Arab and Islamic countries, and the Lebanese Republic has had a substantial share of this support and assistance, and it has stood by Lebanon in its all difficult stages and supported it without distinguishing between its sects and groups, emanating from its keenness on what achieves Lebanon s security and stability and maintains its sovereignty. The Cabinet confirmed that despite these honorable positions, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been met with Lebanese positions against it at Arab, regional and international platforms in light of the so-called Lebanese Hezbollah s confiscation of the will of the State, as it happened in the Council of the Arab League and Islamic Cooperation Organization of non-condemnation of the flagrant attacks on the Kingdom s Embassy in Tehran and Consulate General in Mashhad which contradict international laws and diplomatic norms, in addition to the political and media positions led by the so-called (Hezbollah in Lebanon) against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah s practices of terrorism against Arab and Islamic nations. The Kingdom sees that these deplorable and unjustified positions are inconsistent with the fraternal relations between the two countries, do not take into consideration their interests, and ignore Kingdom s all historical positions supportive of Lebanon during the crises faced by it economically and politically. The Cabinet pointed out that the Kingdom, which has done everything in its power to prevent the arrival of matters to this level, emphasizes its standing by the brotherly Lebanese people with all their sects, it will not give them up and will continue to support them, and it is confident that these positions do not represent the Lebanese people, appreciating the positions issued by some Lebanese officials and personalities including Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam, in which they expressed their standing and solidarity with the Kingdom, expressing its pride of distinguished relations binding the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the brotherly Lebanese people, which the Kingdom has been always keen on enhancing and developing them. Dr. Adel bin Zaid Altoraifi said that the Cabinet expressed the Kingdom's strong condemnation and denunciation of the terrorist attack struck Ankara, resulted in casualties and injuries and reiterated the firm positions of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in rejecting terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, stressing the importance of international efforts to confront and eliminate it, praying to Allah Almighty to bestow His mercy and forgiveness upon the deceased and grant the injured people a speedy recovery. The Cabinet hailed the stages of readiness and administrative and logistic capabilities provided by the concerned bodies for the success of "Raad Al-Shamal" maneuvers, which are considered as the largest military exercises in the history of the Middle East, expressing hope that these maneuvers achieve the scheduled targets in the exchange of experiences and upgrading the military coordination level. The Cabinet welcomed the statement issued by the third extraordinary meeting of Ministers of Information of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for Arab States and its confirmation of the importance of activating the role of media agencies and the implementation of the joint integrated plans to make the media as a main supporter for the political action in general, in addition to the statement's condemnation of indiscriminate attacks launched by Houthi militias and forces loyal to the deposed President against the southern border regions of the Kingdom with the Republic of Yemen that targeted the civilian population, and their violations and targeting of Yemeni civilians by deliberate shelling of residential areas and medical facilities, as well as their disruption of humanitarian aid which constitutes war crimes and a flagrant violation of the rules of the international law, and the emphasis that GCC countries' media agencies have to hold responsibility to expose all these crimes before Arab and international public opinions, along with the importance of coordination and unification of GCC media discourse. Regarding domestic affairs, the Cabinet praised the opening of the exhibition of the armed forces on localization of spare parts industry (AFED) within the wise leadership's pursuit, aspiration and plans to manufacture all military systems locally by national creative and experienced cadres. Dr. Adel bin Zaid Altoraifi also said that the Council of Ministers was briefed on the topics on its agenda, including ones it co-shared in their study with the Shura Council and the Cabinet decided the following: First : After reviewing a report of General President of Youth Welfare, and after consideration of the Shura Council's resolution No. (23/11) dated 08/04/1437 AH., the Cabinet approved a memorandum of cooperation between the General Presidency of Youth Welfare in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in Japan in the field of sports, signed in Tokyo on 01/08/1436 AH. A royal decree has been prepared for this purpose. Second: The Council of Ministers approved the Kingdom's subscription with a number of (19,483) nineteen thousand, four hundred and eighty-three shares of the shares available for subscription in increasing the capital of Islamic Foundation for Development of the Private Sector with an amount of (194,830,000 ), one hundred and ninety-four million, eight hundred and thirty thousand US dollars. - Third : The Cabinet approved the General Agreement of Cooperation between the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the governments of the Republic of Benin and the Republic of Gambia. Two Royal decrees have been prepared in this regard. - Fourth : The Cabinet approved a memorandum of scientific and educational cooperation between the Ministry of Education of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Ministry of Education and Scientific Research of Romania signed in Riyadh on 11/7/1436 AH. A royal decree was prepared in this regard. - Fifth : The Cabinet approved the appointment of Dr. Badr bin Homoud Al-Badr as a member of the Board of Directors of Saline Water Conversion Corporation (from the private sector). Sixth: Upon recommendations of the Ministry of Agriculture on how to further comprehensively promote the poultry sector in the Kingdom and put short-term and long-term plans and strategies to enhance domestic consumption supplies from local and external sources and increase the production, the Cabinet approved a number of arrangements to that end. They include encouraging investment in poultry industry in general, including offering investment opportunities available in the solid and liquid poultry remains to investors, encourage poultry small producers to merge in bigger entities to enable themselves continue staying and growing in the industry market. The Cabinet cited cooperative societies. It said the ministry would insist on building poultry projects away from cities, villages and residential compounds and plots with at least ten kilometers and, last, form a committee in each governorate to be in charge of choosing the proper site for a poultry project according to regulations. Seventh: The Cabinet approved the appointment of the following at the post of Minister Plenipotentiary at the Foreign Ministry: 1. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Ali Al-Gasomi. 2. Mofleh bin Ghuetaish bin Hamad Al-Salmi. 3. Abdullah bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Abu-Rasain. 4. Saleh bin Abdullah bin Abdulrahman Al-Qaraawi. 5. Abdulrahman bin Abdulaziz bin Suleiman Abanammi. 6. Ayesh bin Abd Rabbo bin Mastour Al-Nfiei. 7. Saeed bin Abdullah bin Saeed Matheeb. 8. Yahya bin Mohiuddin bin Saleem Al-Hamawi. 9. Faisal bin Habib Al-Rahman bin Obaid Al-Rahman Hafez. 10. Khalid bin Abdulaziz bin Mohammed bin Askar. 11 Abdulmo'amin bin Mohammed bin Sharaf Sharaf. The Cabinet was also briefed on the half-year report submitted by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry on the outcome of the real estate contributions committee for the fiscal year 1436/1437 H. The Cabinet took note of the report's contents.
