Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the Deputy Premier and Commander of the National Guard, on Monday chaired the Cabinet’s weekly meeting at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh.
At the outset of the session, the Cabinet expressed its concern and deep sorrow for the situation in occupied Palestinian territories as a result of Israel’s continual crimes against the Palestinian people and assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin in an outrageous act of aggression that violates the will of the international community to revive the Middle East peace process.
The Kingdom strongly condemned Israel’s criminal act that contravenes all international and humanitarian norms, laws and regulations. The Kingdom called upon the international community to shoulder its responsibilities towards the needs and rights of the Palestinian people and pressurise Israel to cease its policy of violence, which promotes only deterioration in the situation. The Kingdom expressed its condolences to Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, the Palestinian people and the family of martyred Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.
In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) following the session, the Minister of Culture and Information Dr Fouad bin Abdulsalam Al-Farsy said that the Crown Prince briefed the Cabinet on recent talks and consultation held with the leaders of other countries, which focused on developments in regional and international arenas.
The Crown Prince briefed the Cabinet on the outcome of meetings with Syrian President Bashar Al-Asad, which treated the latest developments in occupied Palestinian territories and Iraq and the means of boosting cooperation in all fields.
The Crown Prince briefed the Cabinet on talks held with Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski and a number of envoys of other countries, which discussed the Kingdom’s relations with the countries, the means of boosting cooperation, and developments in the regional and international arena, particularly Israel’s continual acts of aggression against the Palestinian people.
Dr Al-Farsy said that the Cabinet then reviewed items on the domestic agenda and issued the following decisions:
Upon recommendation by the Ministerial Committee for Administrative Organization, led by Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Second Deputy Premier, Minister of Defence and Aviation and Inspector General, the Cabinet approved the division of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs into the Ministry of Labour and the Ministry of Social Affairs.
The Workforce Council was dissolved, and its authorities transferred to the Ministry of Labour, which will also run all activities related to labour and employee affairs, currently overseen by the Department of Labour of the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, including the enforcement of the labour and labourers’ system, resolution of labour disputes, recruitment of workforce within the private sector and recruitment of foreign employees.
The new Ministry of Social Affairs will undertake the responsibility of activities regarding social affairs, which are currently run by the social insurance authority, including social insurance affairs, social welfare, social development, housing and cooperative and charities affairs, social studies and research.
The Cabinet decided to amend articles 14, 25, 26, 34 and 50 of the Hajj-related vehicles syndicate to guarantee improved performance of the organization that supervises the traffic of large Hajj transportation companies. The Ministry of Hajj was assigned to establish the appropriate mechanism for distributing pilgrims among registered public transportation companies. According to the new regulation, small companies and individuals are also permitted to participate, in accordance with certain conditions.
The Cabinet authorized the Minister of Foreign Affairs or his deputy to sign a cooperation agreement in economic, commercial, industrial and technological fields between the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the government of the Federal Republic of Austria.
The Cabinet approved an agreement on exploration for non-associated gas, its development and production between the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and LUKOIL Company for Energy, LUKSAR Company for Energy Ltd, SINO for Gas Ltd and ENER ISA for Gas Ltd.
The Cabinet approved the appointment of Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Ibrahim Al-Shaye and Dr Abdulrahman bin Mohammed bin Judae Al-Judae as Ambassadors at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Dr Ali bin Salih bin Saeed Al-Khabti as Director General of Education of Riyadh Region at the Ministry of Education.
Source: SPA
