Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud chaired the Cabinet's session today at Al Yamamah Palace in Riyadh. At the outset of the session, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques briefed the cabinet on the discussions, consultations, meetings and contacts he made over the past few days with leaders and envoys of friendly countries including the messages he received from Emir of Qatar Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifah Al Thani, Sudanese President Omar Hassan Al Bashir, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UAE President Sheikh Khalifah bin Zayed Al Nahayyan. He also briefed the Cabinet on the phone calls he received from a number of world leaders including the Sudanese president, France's president as well as UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) following the session, Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Abdulaziz bin Moheiaddin Khoja said that the Cabinet expressed hope that inner-Palestinian dialogue, concluded last Thursday in Cairo, will meet the expectations of the Palestinian people and work toward an overall national reconciliation across all fractions in order to confront the continuous threats and aggressions carried out by Israel. Dr. Khoja added that the cabinet also stressed the importance of the 26th meeting of Arab Interior Ministers held yesterday in Beirut which discussed enhancing inter-Arab security cooperation. The Cabinet also discussed the results of OPEC's Fourth Forum held last Wednesday in Vienna. The Cabinet emphasized that the Kingdom is going with its long-term investment policy for oil and gas production increase and the associated programs of boosting world energy supplies despite the current economic situation and the challenges facing the sector of energy. He added that the Cabinet also stressed that the Kingdom is steadfast one research and development focusing on technologies of extracting oil and development of future types of environment-friendly fuel in which advanced internal combustion engines will depend; this is aimed at securing future demand and providing more sustainable protection of the environment. --More
