Taif- Prince Khalid Al-Faisal bin Abdulaziz, the Advisor to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Governor of Makkah region, said the Saudi youth was under fierce campaign due to its adherence to the Holy Quran and Sunnah principles.

He highlighted King Salman bin Abdulaziz’s directives to support the young generation of Saudi Arabia, whom he described as the Kingdom’s hope and solution.

Prince Khalid’s remarks came during an open dialogue with a number of young Saudi men and women at Taif University on Wednesday within the framework of the ongoing Souq Okaz festival. The dialogue session was also attended by Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Adel Bin Zaid Al-Toraifi.

Prince Khalid called on the Saudi youth to face challenges in order to contribute to the shaping of the Kingdom’s future. He also highlighted the march of the Kingdom since its inception to become a member of the Group of Twenty (G20) of the major economies in the world.

He praised the high intellectual, cultural and scientific level of the Saudi youths and praised the launch of the first Academy for Arabic poetry in the Arab world.

For his part, the minister of culture and information highlighted major efforts undertaken by the ministry in the media and cultural fields.

Al-Toraifi described Souk Okaz cultural gathering as a symbol of Islamic tolerance and an expression of the wonderful image of the kingdom of Saudi Arabia through the eyes of the world.

The culture minister announced that a Royal Arts Academy, that would include a national theater, would soon be established in the Kingdom, within Saudi Arabia’s National Transformation Program.

He also said that the ministry would launch new cultural initiatives, including the establishment of a cultural and media city and the launching of Al-Ekhbaria news channel in Arabic, Persian and English.

“We would like to reach Persian-speaking populations, not to attack Iran; as we separate between the Iranian people whom we greatly respect and the Iranian leadership and its foreign interference,” Toraifi said.

He pointed out that the Kingdom was witnessing a boom in the cultural sector in terms of acquisition of books, based on the number of visitors to both Riyadh and Jeddah International Book Fairs.

The culture minister noted, however, that Saudi Arabia was facing a fierce war over social networking sites as the leader of the Arab and Islamic world and member of the Group of 20. He noted that a number of forged and fake accounts on social media were broadcasting wrong news from outside the Kingdom, using names and images of Saudi citizens.

The minister of culture and information stressed the need to strengthen national unity and vision to face current and future challenges.