The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdulaziz chaired the cabinet's weekly session held at Al-Salam palace in Jeddah on Monday.
At the outset of the session, the monarch praised Almighty God for the Kingdom's success in enabling pilgrims to perform Hajj, the fifth pillar of Islam, easily and comfortably and for the divine honoring of this country to serve the holy sites and pilgrims. He prayed to Almighty God to accept Muslims' good deeds and to return the pilgrims home safely.
In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) following the session, Dr. Fouad bin Abdulsalam Al-Farsy, the Minister of Culture and Information, said that the King expressed his great appreciation for the efforts of the various public departments and bodies and private establishments and sectors in servicing pilgrims within the framework of the capabilities that have contributed to achieving this high level of success in Hajj for the year 1425H.
The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques stressed that the Kingdom has been going ahead with the set up of developmental and organizational projects in the holy sites to further facilitate Hajj - to enable pilgrims perform this ritual comfortably and safely.
The Cabinet then reviewed the deliberations of the International Counter-terrorism Conference currently hosted by the Kingdom, the Minister of Culture and Information said.
In this regard, the Cabinet commended the address delivered at the conference by Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, Deputy Premier and Commander of the National Guard, who called on all countries to set up an International Center for Combating Terrorism. The Center should include specialists in this field and aim at exchanging and passing information promptly in line with the speed of events to thwart them prior to their occurrence.
Welcoming all the delegations participating in the conference, the Cabinet renewed the Kingdom's stress on unifying all international efforts to confront and uproot terrorism, prevent the causes of its spreading, and eliminate all its sources in general.
The Cabinet emphasized the importance that the Conference should bring about outcomes and recommendations that serve all countries in confronting and containing this phenomenon through further cooperation in the field of combating terrorism, exchanging expertise, experience, opinions, ideas and proposals for forming an international bloc to face up to terrorists and deviant thoughts and to
prevent them from achieving their objectives in destabilizing countries and their peoples.
At the same time, the Cabinet condemned the terrorist acts in Kuwait, expressing the Kingdom's support for the efforts exerted by Kuwait to combat this dangerous phenomenon.
Al Farsy said the Cabinet then reviewed the local items on its agenda and took the following decisions:
The Minister of Transport or his deputy was authorized to discuss with the Philippine side a draft agreement on cooperation between the Government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Government of the Republic of the Philippines in the field of sea transportation. The final version of the agreement will then be forwarded for further authentication.
Article (6) of the Saudi Engineers Society's system was amended upon recommendations co-presented by the Minister of Commerce and Industry and the President of King Abdulaziz City for Sciences and Technology to read as follows: "The Board of Directors of the Society is composed of ten members to be elected from among the Society's founders. The term of office of the Board of Directors will
be three renewable years."
The Cabinet approved the appointment of Mujahid bin Othman Alsagheer as Assistant Undersecretary of Najran Governorate for Security Affairs; Dr. Ma'en bin Sulaiman Hafiz as Minister Plenipotentiary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; and Abdullah bin Rashid Alsinaidi as Assistant Undersecretary for Following-up Citizens Affairs at the Ministry of Civil Service.
