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 Tuesday afternoon. At the outset of the session, the King briefed the Cabinet on the two telephone contacts with President Barham Salih of the Republic of Iraq and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Iraq, Adel Abdul Mahdi, and on his congratulations and wishes for them of further progress and prosperity as well as on confirming the deepening of relations between the two countries. The Cabinet highly appreciated the interview made by His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Vice President of the Council of Ministers and Minister of Defense to Bloomberg Agency and HRH's affirmation of the contents of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's political, economic, military, security and social agenda and its strategy in the Middle East region as well as its stances towards many regional and international issues with its categorical refusal to interfere in its internal and sovereign affairs, its ability to protect its interests and maintain its security, achievements against extremist ideology and terrorism, ambitious plans for growth and reform in all fields, as well as what has been achieved in the past three years at various levels and the steady increase in budget for 2019 according to the projects of the Kingdom's Vision 2030, which comes in the interest of the homeland and citizens. Minister of Media Dr. Awwad bin Saleh Al-Awwad said in his statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) following the session that the Cabinet reviewed a number of reports on latest developments in the region and the world, pointing to what the Kingdom highlighted before the United Nations in Geneva within the framework of its humanitarian responsibilities to help and support the world's peoples in their humanitarian, relief and development assistance and played a pivotal role in alleviating the suffering of the peoples as well as the Kingdom's humanitarian assistance provided for refugees around the world during the last eight years at the cost of 1.03 billion US dollars, its assistance through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) at the cost of 239.7 US dollars and via the International Organization for Migration (IOM) at a cost of 93.2 million US dollars. --More 16:01 LOCAL TIME 13:01 GMT 0015 www.spa.gov.sa/1824098
