Jeddah, Asharq Al-Awsat—The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz, and Salman Bin Abdulaziz, who serves as the Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister, have both said Saudi Arabia “will not allow religion to be exploited by extremists who only work for their personal interests, and who harm the reputation of Islam.” They added that “we will not accept anyone in our country, and in any circumstances, to join political parties which have nothing to do with God, and which only lead to conflict and failure.”

The comments came in a joint speech delivered yesterday on their behalf by the minister of culture and information, Abdulaziz bin Mohieddin Khoja, to congratulate the Saudi people and all Muslims on the occasion of Ramadan.

Saudi Arabia and the majority of the Muslim world celebrate the start of the holy month of Ramadan today.

They also said that Saudi Arabia will, “with God’s help, and remain the defenders of Islam . . . and continue on our centrist, moderate approach, assuming our responsibility towards the Muslim world and humanity in general.”

The prayed for the Syrian people to be safe, and called on the international community not to put their political gains ahead of their moral values, adding that those who do “will be remembered by history as those who participated in the killing of innocent civilians.”

Meanwhile, King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz has instructed his government to provide an aid package of USD 5 billion for Egypt to help it deal with its current economic problems.

Minister of Finance Ibrahim bin Abdulaziz Al-Assaf said the support for Egypt consists of a USD 1 billion cash grant, a USD 2 billion in-kind grant in petroleum and gas products, and a further USD 2 billion as a deposit in the Egyptian central bank.