JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia said on Tuesday that it would form a higher committee for hydrocarbons to be headed by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported. The decision was approved in a Cabinet meeting chaired by King Salman at Neom, Tabuk region. The Higher Committee for Hydrocarbon Affairs will include the energy minister as well as the ministers of trade, finance and economy. “The committee will be a reference for all hydrocarbon issues and everything relating to them and a representative of the state’s rights linked to them,” SPA said. During the session, the Cabinet said that the failed terrorist attack by Iran-backed Houthi terrorist militias on a Saudi oil tanker in international waters, west of Hodeidah Seaport, proves the threat that these militias and those behind them pose to regional and international security. The Cabinet said that threats to crude oil tankers affect international trade and maritime navigation in the Strait of Bab Al-Mandab and the Red Sea showed the importance of handing the Hodeidah governorate and its seaport to the Yemeni government to prevent its use as a base from which terrorist attacks could be launched against shipping routes. The Cabinet expressed the Kingdom’s condemnation of suicide bombings that targeted a polling station in the Pakistani city of Quetta, and a security convoy west of the Afghan capital of Kabul, and the shooting in the Canadian city of Toronto. The Cabinet reaffirmed the Kingdom’s solidarity with those countries against acts of violence, terrorism and extremism. The Cabinet thanked the king for his order to host 1,500 pilgrims of the martyrs of the Yemeni National Army and Sudanese forces participating in Determination Storm and Renewal of Hope operations within the Program of Guests of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for Hajj this year. The Cabinet praised the executive council of the International Monetary Fund, commending the efforts of the Kingdom’s government to implement its reform plans as part of Vision 2030, which came in implementation of the directives of King Salman and the follow-up by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The Cabinet also praised the council’s expectations of Gross Domestic Product growth of 1.9 percent in 2018, and its welcoming of the Kingdom’s efforts to strengthen the fiscal situation that contributed to reducing the fiscal deficit.