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December 24, 2004 |
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THE CABINET CALLS UPON THE WORLD COMMUNITY TO TAKE FIRM AND CONCLUSIVE STAND AGAINST THE ISRAELI AGGRESSION AND ON ALL IRAQIS TO UNITE AND CONFRONT ANY OBSTACLE THREATENING IRAQ. PRINCE SULTAN INAUGURATES THE NEW BUILDING OF THE AIR DEFENCE'S COMMAND. SAUDI ARABIA EXTENDS $1 MILLION TO THE AGENCY OF AL-QUDS FUND. Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz, Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard, chaired the cabinet's weekly session held at Al-Yamamah palace in Riyadh. At the outset of the session, the Crown Prince wished all success for the 25th Summit of Arab Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) currently in progress in Bahrain. Then the Crown Prince briefed the Cabinet on the talks, consultations, meetings and contacts held by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz and the Crown Prince over the previous days with a number of leaders and officials of brotherly and friendly countries which dealt with the situations at Arab and international arenas. The Crown Prince also informed the Cabinet of the outcome of meetings held by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques with Bahrain's King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa; the President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayid Al Nahayan; the Chairman of the Executive Committee of Palestine Liberation Organization Dr. Mahmoud Abbas and Palestine's Premier Ahmed Qurie. The talks focused on the situations in the region particularly in Iraq and Palestinian occupied territories. In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) following the session, Dr. Fuad Ibn Abdul Salam Al-Farsi, the Minister of Culture and Information, said the Cabinet reviewed the contents of the State's general budget for fiscal year 1425/1426H. and its implications of good giving for the homeland and citizens and for the enhancement of the strength and growth of the national economy as it moves on the track of continual achievement of comprehensive development. The Cabinet noted King Fahd's address to the Cabinet which laid stress on considering the budget as a major instrument to achieve comprehensive development, to provide the required expenditures for the ministries, to complete the execution of projects, and to provide new developmental and service projects for citizens and for the enhancement of development and the role of the private sector. In his address the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques said that this budget has approved twice the number of projects of the previous one, adding that it is balanced in providing for the needs of the Kingdom's regions. Dr. Al-Farsi indicated that the Crown Prince renewed his directives to all officials of various sectors to meet the needs of citizens and to provide best services for them. On the situation in the Palestinian occupied territories, the Cabinet strongly condemned Israel's continuous aggression, its military escalation, and criminal acts against the Palestinian people such as the bombardment of cities, demolition of houses, terrifying the secure people and rendering them homeless, closure of roads, and isolation of Palestinian cities from each other. The Cabinet called on the world community to take firm and conclusive stand on this aggression and to halt Israel's escalatory practices which lead to more violence and instability in the region. With regard to Iraq, the Cabinet emphasized the importance of halting acts of violence which have been inflicted on the innocent people, their properties and the infrastructure. The Cabinet called on all Iraqis to unite and confront any obstacle threatening Iraq's stability, security, safety and sovereignty. Dr. Al-Farsi said the council then reviewed the local items on its agenda and issued the following decisions: The Cabinet approved the General Framework of the Saudi building code, presented by the Saudi Arabian Standards Organization. The code includes a number of regulations addressing legal, architectural, electrical and health issues relevant to the application of the code. The ministers also approved the final version of Kyoto Protocol annexed to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The Cabinet approved the appointment of Abdul Majeed Ibn Jameel Ibn Hassan Makki as Minister Plenipotentiary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Hamad Ibn Sulaiman Ibn Abdul Rahman Al Qassoumi as Director General of the Information Center at the Department of Customs; and Salih Ibn Abdul Aziz Ibn Salih Al Mirshed as Legal Consultant at the Presidency of the Department of Religious Research and Ifta, and approved the transfer of Abdul Aziz Ibn Mohammed Ibn Abdul Aziz Al Majalli from the position of Legal Consultant to become Director General for Follow-up and Research at the same department. On the other hand Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minster of Defence and Aviation and Inspector General will patronize the inauguration of the new building of the Air Defence Command in Riyadh. The Commander of the Air Defence Staff General Atiya Ibn Abdul Hameed Al Touri said this achievements is one of many realized lately. The building is in Riyadh and was built with the use of the latest modern technologies. Prince Salman Ibn Abdul Aziz, the Governor of Riyadh Region, received the Ambassador of Iraq's children to the Arab countries, Zaizafoon Sadiq Ahmad accompanied by her father. At the beginning of the meeting, the Iraqi child said she came from Iraq accompanied by her father to convey greetings and gratitude of Iraq's children and people to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd Ibn Abdul Aziz, his government and Saudi people for the material support which greatly helped in alleviating the suffering of the Iraqi people. At the end of the meeting, Prince Salman Ibn Abdul Aziz thanked the child Zaizafoon for warm feelings she conveyed from the brotherly Iraqi people and whished her and her father good stay in their second homeland, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. On the other hand Prince Khalid Ibn Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Assistant Minister of Defence and Aviation and Inspector General for Military Affairs has patronized the inauguration ceremony of the second annual conference for medical services in the Armed Forces and the seventh meeting of directors of administration and hospitals. At the venue Prince Khalid was received by the Commander of the General Staff General Saleh Ibn Ali Al Mohaya and the Director of medical services and Chairman of the conference Major General Kutab Ibn Eid Al Otaibi. A speech ceremony was held on the occasion. It started with readings from the Holy Quran then Major General Kutab Ibn Eid Al Otaibi, delivered a speech in which he explained the purposes and the aims of the second annual conference for medical services in the Armed Forces and the seventh meeting of directors of administration and hospitals. Then the director of the Armed Forces programme in Riyadh and Al Kharj Major General Kalaf Ibn Radn Al Motairi presented a working paper on outpatients clinics, emergency and dentistry at Riyadh military hospital. Then Brigadier General Said Al Asmari director of the Armed Forces programme in Al Hoda and Taif presented a working paper on the effects of wearing preventive clothes in case a chemical attacks on blood circulation in hot weather. Another paper was presented by Brigadier Abdul Aziz Al Dheeb on ways of following up the physical and psychological health of military personnel through computers. Then Prince Khalid Ibn Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Assistant Minister of Defence and Aviation and Inspector General for Military Affairs, delivered a speech in which he expressed his happiness for the inauguration of the conference and expressed hopes that the conference would issue a book that will include all the researches and papers presented, its results and recommendations. Prince Khalid expressed hopes that this book would be distributed to doctors and all military and civilian hospitals in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and translated in other languages. Prince Khalid said that he hopes that the recommendations will include plans that would be implemented. He said he saw the seriousness and the importance of the researches and papers presented. He emphasized the importance of industrial medicine and called for its expansion. Prince Khalid Ibn Sultan noted the importance of the medical career, stressed the importance of medicine. He stressed the importance of introducing ways of providing the citizens with low price medicines. Prince Khalid stressed the importance of researches in the fields of applied medicine, and said officials are convinced of the importance of development and progress in this field and are supporting it. Prince Khalid Ibn Sultan praised the researches presented in the conference and the role of the Armed Forces in this field. He stressed the importance of following up researches in the field of heart diseases, ways of preventing them and using modern technologies in this field. Prince Khalid went on to say that he read the booklet issued on the ethics of the medical career adding that it is a good and necessary step towards a better future. Prince Khalid pointed out that he listened to the results of the researches presented in the last conference and said the results must be delivered to Prince Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz, Second Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Aviation and Inspector General after setting up ways of implementing them and the approximate costs of implementing this plans. He lauded the strong subjects discussed in this conference and especially field medicine which is implemented in Iraq or during Hajj season. He stressed his hopes that doctors would benefit from these experiences while assessing their positive and negative points. Prince Khalid Ibn Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz ended his speech expressing hopes that the conference will achieve its targets, and stressed the importance of using modern technologies, finding ways of dealing with overcrowding and the best ways of using beds and all available resources. In Riyadh Prince Mohammed Ibn Naif Ibn Abdul Aziz has patronized the graduation ceremony of security session and building defence at King Fahd Security College in Riyadh. Upon arrival he watched a film on the shooting field that will be founded at the college, and watched four simulation of ways of detaining terrorists, attacking a building in a terrorist is hiding, freeing hostages, freeing hostages detained in a multi storeys building and defending an important person from a shooting attack. Brigadier Dr Baraka Al Hushan, head of military studies at the college spoke of the importance of training which include not only ways of preparing security forces but also ways of dealing with the citizens. Brigadier Dr Baraka Al Hushan said the terrorist attack to which the Kingdom was subjected enhanced the will of the security forces to work hard for defeating these deviants, adding that the results of the attack on the US consulate in Jeddah are the best proof of the abilities of the Saudi security forces. The results of the training session were announced as 471 trainees achieved their training and the first three received armours. On the other hand the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has decided to extend $1 million to the Agency of Al-Quds Fund (Beit-Mal Al-Quds) to enable it perform its mission and work for the preservation of the cultural identity of Al-Quds. This was announced by Minister of Islamic Affairs, Endowments, Call and Guidance Dr Salih Al Al Sheikh at a meeting recently held in Rabat with the participation of the Foreign Ministers of Morocco, Palestine, Senegal and Iran. Al Al Sheikh attended the meeting on behalf of Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister. The participants of the meeting underlined the importance of extending support to the Palestinian educational institutions. In Algeria the Saudi-Algerian joint commission held on Tuesday, Dec 21, 2004, its sixth session under the co-chairmanship of Dr Hashim Yamani, the Minister of Commerce and Industry, and his Algerian Counterpart Abdel-Latif Al-Hashimi. The meeting of the joint commission was preceded by a meeting of experts from the two countries for preparation of the minutes of the session. Algerian Minister of Commerce Noureddine Boukrouh, received Saudi Commerce Minister Dr Hashim Ibn Abdullah Yamani and his accompanying delegation. Speaking on the occasion, Boukrouh underlined the importance of the Saudi investment in Algeria and said his Government would unwaveringly work for removing any obstacle that might face the Saudi investment in Algeria. On his part, Dr Yamani reiterated the keenness of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on boosting its commercial relations with Algeria. On the other hand, Algerian Minister of Industry El-Hachemi Djaaboub also received Dr Yamani and the accompanying delegation. They exchanged views on prospects of boosting investment in Algeria. Meanwhile, Dr Yamani met with Algerian Minister of Small & Medium-Sized Industries Mustapha Bin Bedbada. They reviewed aspects of cooperation between the Kingdom and Algeria. Algerian Prime Minister Ahmed Ouyahia received the Saudi Minister of Commerce and Industry Dr. Hashem Ibn Abdullah Yamani and his accompanying delegation. During the meeting, Ouyahia welcomed Dr. Yamani to Algeria and discussed a number of economic issues of common interest. On the other hand, the Saudi-Algerian Joint Committee concluded yesterday evening the works of its sixth session in which Dr. Yamani headed the Saudi delegation and Algerian Minster of Finance Abdulatif Bin achenhou led the Algerian delegation. They signed a number of agreements in various fields and the minutes of the session. Then, Dr. Yamani delivered a speech in which he thanked Algeria for its hospitality and said that they approved the discussion between experts and businessmen from both countries. He added that they signed agreements in spheres of economy, education, youth and sports. Meanwhile, Algerian Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research Rasheed Harraoubia received Dr. Yamani and they discussed a number of issues of common interest. |
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