The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud chaired the Cabinet s session at Al-Yamamah Palace in Riyadh on Monday afternoon. At the outset of the session, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques briefed the Cabinet on his phone call with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Republic of Turkey; the phone call received from President Vladimir Putin of Russian Federation; the message received from President Joko Widodo of the Republic of Indonesia; and the outcomes of his meetings with Member of the British parliament from the conservative Party Rehman Chishti and members of the British parliament, former United States Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the Secretary General of Gulf cooperation Council for Arab States Dr. Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani, and the heads of agencies responsible for protection of integrity and anti-corruption of the Council. The Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Adel bin Zaid Altoraifi said in a statement to Saudi Press Agency following the session that the Cabinet stressed what was expressed by an official source on halting Kingdom s aid for arming the Lebanese army and Internal Security Forces, confirming that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been consistently and throughout its history providing support for Arab and Islamic countries, and the Lebanese Republic has had a substantial share of this support and assistance, and it has stood by Lebanon in its all difficult stages and supported it without distinguishing between its sects and groups, emanating from its keenness on what achieves Lebanon s security and stability and maintains its sovereignty. The Cabinet confirmed that despite these honorable positions, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been met with Lebanese positions against it at Arab, regional and international platforms in light of the so-called Lebanese Hezbollah s confiscation of the will of the State, as it happened in the Council of the Arab League and Islamic Cooperation Organization of non-condemnation of the flagrant attacks on the Kingdom s Embassy in Tehran and Consulate General in Mashhad which contradict international laws and diplomatic norms, in addition to the political and media positions led by the so-called (Hezbollah in Lebanon) against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Hezbollah s practices of terrorism against Arab and Islamic nations. The Kingdom sees that these deplorable and unjustified positions are inconsistent with the fraternal relations between the two countries, do not take into consideration their interests, and ignore Kingdom s all historical positions supportive of Lebanon during the crises faced by it economically and politically. The Cabinet pointed out that the Kingdom, which has done everything in its power to prevent the arrival of matters to this level, emphasizes its standing by the brotherly Lebanese people with all their sects, it will not give them up and will continue to support them, and it is confident that these positions do not represent the Lebanese people, appreciating the positions issued by some Lebanese officials and personalities including Lebanese Prime Minister Tammam Salam, in which they expressed their standing and solidarity with the Kingdom, expressing its pride of distinguished relations binding the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with the brotherly Lebanese people, which the Kingdom has been always keen on enhancing and developing them. --More
