The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud chaired the Cabinet's weekly session at Al-Salam Palace in Jeddah on this afternoon.

King Salman began the meeting by briefing the Cabinet on his meeting with the British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond.

King Salman was also updated on the arrangements for Umrah performers and visitors in preparation for the holy month of Ramadan.

The Cabinet extended its thanks and appreciation to King Salman his approval to exempt farmers of the Arabian Shield's areas from the payment of the loans of the Agricultural Development Fund due to the drought.

The Cabinet welcomed the joint statement issued at the conclusion of the 4th joint ministerial meeting for strategic dialogue among Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Russia, and the joint statement for the 2nd strategic dialogue between the GCC foreign ministers and the Foreign Minister of Canada, as well as the results of the joint meeting of the GCC foreign ministers and the Foreign Minister of Britain.

The Cabinet commended the results of the 139th session of the GCC Ministerial Council, the decisions issued by the extraordinary meeting of the Council of Arab Foreign Ministers, and Arab Information Ministers Council's adoption of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as "The Capital of Arab Media" in a confirmation of its special status in the Arab and Muslim world.

The Cabinet concluded its session after discussing a number of domestic topics including the MoU with Malaysia for cooperation in scientific, technical and industrial fields for the purposes of national defense, the MoU with Bulgaria cooperation in the field of tourism, as well as the draft memorandum of understanding with Georgia on political consultations between the foreign ministries.