King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, received Prince Naif Bin Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior, and the regions' emirs at his palace in Jeddah Monday evening to hold detailed talks over their 18th annual meeting held in Jeddah the day before. The emirs listened to the directives of the King who urged them to pay attention to the interests of citizens and residents, to look after their needs, to achieve further prosperity for the homeland, citizens and residents, and to work for the accomplishment of balanced development in all regions of the Kingdom. — SPA JEDDAH – The Council of Ministers at its weekly session here Monday night praised the decision of King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, to recall the Kingdom's ambassador to Syria and condemn the Syrian government's crackdown on protesters. In a statement following the meeting, Dr. Abdul Aziz Khoja, Minister of Culture and Information, said the Cabinet welcomed the speech by the King with regard to Syria, in which he said the many deaths in that country cannot be condoned by Muslims and Arabs and go against Islamic values and ethics. The Cabinet also endorsed statements on Syria issued by the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Arab League and the United Nations Security Council, calling for an end to violence. Meanwhile, the Cabinet denounced the Israeli authorities for building 900 new residential units in the Jabal Abu-Ghunaim settlement. It said the illegal settlements are evidence of the Israeli government's determination to destroy any peace initiatives in the region. The Cabinet approved measures to provide special training inside or outside the Kingdom for implementing operations, maintenance, supply, and installation of developed devices and machines. According to the new measures, training should be confined to the devices, materials and programs mentioned in the contract, cost of training should be projected, and approval of the Civil Service Personnel Scholarships Committee should be obtained. The Cabinet authorized the Minister of Finance or his deputy to sign a draft agreement with the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan on avoiding double taxation and preventing tax evasion on income and capital. The Cabinet also authorized the Minister of Communications and Information Technology or his deputy to discuss with Egypt a draft memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the field of the General Keys of Infrastructure with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (the National Center for Digital Notarization). The Cabinet approved the appointments of Saleh Bin Amer Bin Mohammed Al-Khushail as Ambassador at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Dr. Abdullah Bin Musa Bin Tayer Al-Tayer as Administrative Consultant (15th Rank) at the Ministry of Higher Education; Adnan Bin Ibrahim Bin Ahmed Farahat as Minister Plenipotentiary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Dr. Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Abdullah Al-Shihri as Director General (14th Rank) at the Presidency of General Intelligence.
