WASHINGTON, 17 April — US President George W. Bush will welcome Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, to his Texas ranch on April 25 for talks focusing on Middle East peace process, the White House said yesterday.
“The US-Saudi relationship, which extends back over six decades, has been a bulwark of US engagement in the Middle East,” spokesman Ari Fleischer said on confirming the royal visit.
“Among other things, the two leaders are expected to discuss the Saudi peace proposal presented by the crown prince at the March 27-28 Arab summit in Beirut,” the spokesman said.
“As well, they will discuss US-Saudi bilateral relationship, the next phase in the war against terrorism, and the general situation in the Middle East,” said the spokesman.
The crown prince is set to become the third world leader welcomed at the sprawling property. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Russian President Vladimir Putin have stayed on the ranch.
“The refusal of (Israeli Prime Minister) Ariel Sharon to withdraw his troops from reoccupied Palestinian territories and to lift the siege imposed on towns and villages made the crown prince more determined to make his US visit,” a Saudi official said.
“He will tell the American president of the prevailing situation in the Arab world in light of continuing Israeli attacks on the Palestinians and try to convince Washington to play a fairer role in its mediation” between the two warring sides, he added.
The Saudi Cabinet warned Monday that failure to force Israel to pull out of West Bank towns it has reoccupied could discredit the United States. “The bias of US policy toward Israel puts American interests in the Arab world in danger,” a Saudi source warned in the Al-Hayat newspaper yesterday.
Crown Prince Abdullah is the architect of a Middle East peace proposal endorsed at the Beirut summit, which offered Arab normalization with Israel in return for the Jewish state’s pullout from territory occupied in 1967.
The crown prince’s proposal was followed on March 29, by a sweeping Israeli invasion of the West Bank
Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal will visit Moscow tomorrow and meet with President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
