Today, at the WHO Headquarters (Palais des Nations), in Geneva, His Excellency the Minister of Health, Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, chaired the 38th regular session of the Council of Arab Ministers of Health, on the sidelines of the 65th session of the WHO General Assembly. The meeting was attended by the council members, and discussed a variety of the topics on the agenda. Participants adopted a number of resolutions, including the resolution that has to do with health affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT), encompassing East Jerusalem and the Occupied Syrian Golan Heights.
The resolution reiterated that underway is strenuous coordination between the Arab Group and friendly countries, seeking to approve the draft resolution submitted to the WHO General Assembly. The resolution is meant to provide urgent humanitarian support for the Palestinian People to improve the overall health status, as well as quickly meeting the health requirements demanded by the Palestinian Minister of Health. That's to be added to facilitating the access of medicines, services relief teams and medical teams to the OPT through all crossings. The Council of Arab Ministers of Health has approved the provision of 200.000 US dollars to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
In addition, the unified speech of the Council of Arab Ministers of Health, delivered before the 65th session of the WHO General assembly, was approved, as well as approving the provision of 500.000 US dollars to the Arab Commission of Blood Transfusion Services, and 200.000 US dollars to the Republic of the Comoros Islands, from the Arab Fund for Health Development in order to support the Republic's health sector. Meanwhile, all participants commended and declared backing the Saudi efforts in the field of mass medicine, aiming to maintain the Kingdom's leadership of this domain, as manifested in its promising history in the management of large gatherings in Hajj and Umrah seasons.
Aside from that, participants have also approved the Arab-Chinese Health Cooperation Project, which entails the promotion of cooperation between the two parties in the various medical sciences (medical training, exchange of experiences, healthcare, epidemiology, control of communicable and non-communicable diseases, and the other areas of common interest). Participants approved, also, the formation of the Executive Board of the Council of Arab Ministers of Health, having in its membership Libya, Iraq and Qatar (the troika of the chairmanship of the summit, Saudi Arabia and the Sudan (alphabetically), and Egypt and Palestine (optionally) till May 2013.