The Kingdom's statement came at the weekly meeting of the Council of Ministers at Yamamah Palace in Riyadh on Monday. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah chaired the meeting.
“The Kingdom pulled its observers because the Syrian government did not comply with any of the Arab solutions intended to end the bloodshed,” Minister of Social Affairs Yousuf Al-Othaimin, who is also acting minister of culture and information, said in a statement on the discussions.
The Arab League’s ministerial committee in its Cairo meeting urged the Syrian government and opposition parties to start talks under the auspices of the Arab League to set up a national unity government and share power between the government and the opposition under a commonly acceptable head, Al-Othaimin said.
The transitional government should prepare for multiparty elections for Parliament and president under Arab and international supervision, according to the Arab League’s recommendations.
The king also briefed the council on the messages received from Bahrain’s King Hamad bin Issa Al-Khalifa and President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahyan last week.
The council also discussed other regional and international developments.
It discussed the outcome of various economic and science conferences held in the Kingdom and commended the king’s call to universities and industrial firms to cooperate in conducting scientific and industrial research in order to make the Gulf region a knowledge-based society.
The king made the call in a speech addressing the 13th Conference of GCC Industrialists in Riyadh last Tuesday. The council also commended the king’s call in last week’s Global Competitiveness Forum to business leaders to adopt policies supporting developing companies and providing an investment climate for youths so they create more employment opportunities matching the government’s efforts to end unemployment.
The council authorized the minister of petroleum and mineral resources to negotiate with China on a modified protocol draft for cooperation in petroleum, gas and minerals sectors.
The council endorsed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation signed between the Darah (King Abdulaziz Foundation for Research and Archives) and Uzbekistan’s Al-Biruni Institute for Oriental Studies, signed in Riyadh last January.
The council also approved final account statements of the Saudi Industrial Development Fund for 1997, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009.
