Crown Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Deputy Premier and Minister of Defense, chaired a meeting of the Cabinet on Monday afternoon at Al-Yamamah Palace, here. In a statement to Saudi Press Agency after the meeting, Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Abdulaziz bin Mohieddin Khoja said that the Cabinet reviewed the developments of events at the Arab, regional and international arenas including the continuation of the tragic situation in Syria and in this regard noted the conference of the Friends of Syria which was held in Italy and the participants' emphasis of the importance of providing more political and material support for the Syrian people to defend themselves, stressing the Kingdom's appeal to the international community to seriously and quickly move to put an end to the tragedy of the Syrian people and help them. The Cabinet was briefed on the outcome of the 126th session of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Gulf Cooperation Council states, which was concluded Sunday evening in Riyadh, lauding the final statement's decisions on a number of topics and issues that will support the joint march of the GCC and strengthen its efforts towards the desired GCC integration and the positions of the GCC states on a number of issues on the international scene. The minister said that the Cabinet touched on the work of the International Conference of the Alliance of Civilizations in the Austrian capital-Vienna, reiterating the Kingdom's call for the alliance of civilizations to be forged on a dialogue based on respect for the foundations of every religion and civilization, and that the premises of everyone should be justice and equality among humans in the light of their legitimate rights ensuring them living with dignity and justice. The Cabinet was also briefed on a report on the Council of the United Nations Human Rights' 22nd session in Geneva, stressing the speech of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia before the session underlining that the international community has become concerned more than ever with tackling the ethnic and religious violence and intolerance and the spread of extremism and hatred among peoples, and its call for issuing a UN resolution criminalizing whoever infringes on divine religions, prophets and apostles, stressing in this context the initiative of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for dialogue among followers of religions and cultures, which culminated in the opening of King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz International Center for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue in Vienna in order to renounce fanaticism and promote a culture of tolerance, co-existence and respect for cultural and religious diversity, promote purposeful and responsible human dialogue based on commonalities and deepen the spirit of tolerance, understanding and respect for others.
