Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz, the Deputy Premier and Commander of the National Guard, chaired the Cabinet's weekly session at Al-Yamamah palace in Riyadh on Monday.
In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) following the session, Iyad bin Amin Madani, the Minister of Culture and Information, said that the Cabinet was briefed on the outcome of the 17th Arab Summit held in Algeria.
The Cabinet expressed its satisfaction over the decisions taken by the Summit which supported Arab joint actions and renewed commitment to the Arab Peace Initiative as an Arab plan to achieve a just, comprehensive and lasting peace in the region.
The Arab leaders supported Lebanon's right to sovereignty and the practice of its political options.
They also emphasized the importance of reforming the system of the United Nations including the regaining and enhancement of the role of the General Assembly in preservation of international peace and security and the limitation of the use of veto to the minimum extent. The Summit stressed the necessity that Arab countries should pay their annual shares fully on time along with their dues as scheduled in Tunisia Summit.
The Cabinet praised the great efforts exerted by Algeria's President Abdulaziz Bouteflika to accomplish the Summit's tasks in full and commended his address at the conclusion of the Summit in which he reminded the leaders of the Document of Covenant of Reconciliation, Rapprochement, and Solidarity which was approved by the Tunisia Summit. According to the document, the leaders vowed to lay stress on unity, solidarity and decisive and effective joint actions to achieve Arab higher interests and to be committed to faithfully and fully implementing their decisions.
The Cabinet was then informed of the contents of messages, talks, meetings and contacts exchanged between the Kingdom and a number of Arab and friendly countries on the latest developments in the region and the world, and the Kingdom's position towards them.
The Minister noted that Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz, the Minister of Interior had briefed the Cabinet on the results of his visit to the Sudan, his talks on bilateral relations, issues of common concern, the signing of an agreement of combating narcotics trafficking and the smuggling of psychotropic substances, along with an agreement on security cooperation between the two countries.
The Minister of Culture and Information said the Cabinet then reviewed local items on its agenda and issued the following decisions:
The Cabinet approved a draft memorandum of understanding pertaining to political consultations between the foreign ministries in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Albania, aiming atan exchange of view points of the two countries on regional and international issues of mutual concern.
The Director General for Customs Department or his deputy was authorized to sign a draft agreement between the International Customs Organization and its member states in North Africa and Middle and Near East regarding verbatim interpretation in the Arabic Language within technical training courses and seminars covering customs works.
The Cabinet ratified the agricultural quarantine bill for the member states of the Riyadh-based Gulf Cooperation Council, which has been passed by the 22nd GCC summit held in Muscat, Oman. The new law aims at preventing the entrance and spread of agricultural pesticides, protecting the environment and plant resources and facilitating trade among the GCC member states. The Cabinet also ratified the penalties to be imposed on violators of the law which comes into effect after 90 days from its publishing in the official gazette. The new law nullifies the current agricultural quarantine regulations.
The Cabinet approved the amendment of some articles of the system of the General Corporation for Water Desalination issued in 1973 to read as follows:
- Article 1: "The GCWD is an independent public corporation which enjoys a legal personality and all rights necessary to practice its activities. Administratively, its head reports to the Minister of Water and Electricity."
- Article 3, paragraph C: "Concluding foreign agreements and contracts for selling and purchasing water, electric power and steam with the producing and distributing parties, be they government or private sector organizations."
- Article 4: "The establishment's board of directors is formed of the Minister of Water and Electricity as chairman, its Governor as Vice Chairman and each of the Undersecretaries of the ministries of Water and Electricity, Municipal and Rural Affairs, Finance, Petroleum and Mineral Resources, and Economics and Planning and two representatives of the private sector as members."
- Article 6, paragraph F: "Setting up, purchasing, selling, leasing and renting real estate buildings to achieve the purposes of the organization." The Cabinet instructed the GCWD to expedite measures to restructure the organization and forward the study to the higher authorities.
The Cabinet approved the appointment of Mohammed bin Abdulaziz bin Saud Alfayez as Consultant for Regions Affairs at the Ministry of Interior; Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan Abu-Zira'a as Information Technology Consultant at the Ministry of Interior; and Salih bin Ahmed bin Abdulrahman Alsa'adi as Director General for the General Auditing Bureau in the Eastern Region.
