Saudi Arabia has begun establishing special security units specifically to protect the Kingdom’s oil assets, Interior Minister Prince Naif confirmed here yesterday.

The announcement is the first public acknowledgement by a high-ranking Saudi official that the Kingdom’s oil infrastructure is a terrorist target that requires a heightened security apparatus.

Last year, Saudi security forces foiled an attempt by a terrorist group affiliated to Al-Qaeda to break into the Abqaiq oil facility. Attackers were killed in the assault and other plotters were later apprehended and are currently being tried according to the Saudi law.

The interior minister visited the Shoura Council yesterday and briefed its members about the efforts of his ministry to combat terrorism in the country. After reading a statement to the council, the prince then took questions from Shoura members.

“As an appreciation to the Shoura Council members and their responsibilities, we have provided them the real picture and have not hidden anything from them,” he said.

Fielding several questions from the press, Prince Naif ruled out the possibility that the Kingdom’s appointed consultative council would be selected by popular vote the same way such reforms are taking place in the country’s municipal elections (where half the members of each council are elected by Saudi male voters).

“What is important is the outcome and not the means or ways (that the council is picked),” he said. “Shoura Council members are the finest in the country and that is what is important. It is not important how they got here.”

He denied that some consulates in the Kingdom were given leniency regarding the deportation of some foreign nationals. Rumors have circulated that some consulates were expediting the deportation of some of their nationals by circumventing the longer process by Saudi officials.

He also announced that the Kingdom would be receiving another batch of released Saudi detainees from Guantanamo Bay after a team of Saudi officials visited the prison.

“They (the members of the team) went there and did their job,” he said. “They saw everything and sat with the Saudi detainees. The coordination is still going on. God willing, a number of detainees will arrive in the Kingdom.”

Prince Naif also accused some newspapers of targeting the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice by emphasizing the commission’s errors. The comments related to a couple of high profile cases where suspects detained by the commission died in custody, allegedly from abuse by officers of the commission.

Prince Naif also ruled out that the Shoura Council was against the commission. “One or two members who express their opinion does not mean that the entire body is against it,” he stressed. Referring to the case of Sulaiman Al-Huraisi, Prince Naif said that the Saudi justice system would be the final resort in the matter. According to a statement by the Governorate of Riyadh, a commission member was found to be responsible for Al-Huraisi’s death.

Commenting on the refusal of some Saudi judges to accept new official civil identity cards for women with their photos on it, he said that the ID cards were official cards. “We at the ministry accept these ID cards for identification,” he said.

However, he did not mention what measures would be taken against judges who continue to refuse them based on the concept that a woman’s photo is on the ID card.

Several businesswomen as well as Saudi citizens have said over the years that more and more judges were refusing to accept new women ID cards and asking for traditional family cards (which only list female names without photos). Women who have visited courtrooms with new ID cards were asked to bring two male witnesses to testify that the person under the completely covered abaya is the same person listed in the court case.

Regarding Saudi terror suspects held overseas, Prince Naif said that the Kingdom and Iran were cooperating in security levels regarding the expedition of Saudi terror suspects held in Iran.

“There is a security agreement between the two governments regarding this,” he said.

He did not confirm or deny that Saudis were apprehended by Lebanese officials for their involvement with the terror group “Fatah Al-Islam,” which has been outlawed by the Lebanese government. “Currently there is no cooperation between the two governments on that front, but we hope that we can coordinate with them in the future,” he said.