JEDDAH, 3 September — A US bipartisan delegation, attempting to settle a longstanding dispute between Saudis and their divorced American wives on the issue of custody of children, is scheduled to leave the Kingdom today at the end of a visit without making a breakthrough.

Sources close to Saudi husbands, accused of kidnapping their American children, blasted the timing of the delegation’s visit and termed it ‘repugnant’. They accused the delegation of intending to make political gains in the upcoming American elections, although the dispute had existed for over two decades.

Patricia Roush, the divorced American wife of Khaled Al-Ghashyan, was the first to make the issue of “kidnapped American children” public. Patricia is planning to publish a book on her relationship with Al-Ghashyan, which began about 25 years ago.

The family of Al-Ghashyan said the book was a cheap attempt to grab media attention and profit from an unfortunate situation. His two daughters — Aliya, 24, and Aysha, 20, — are already married to Saudis. The US delegation, led by Rep. Dan Burton, did not seek to meet with Al-Ghashyan.

Over the last four days the delegation met with some of the accused Saudis and their representatives, in an attempt to settle their outstanding disputes with their former wives.

The delegation, including two Democrats and three Republicans, arrived in the Kingdom last week. They visited Riyadh and Jeddah where most of the 14 accused Saudis live. The delegation also met with Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal.

Arab News was informed that the Saudi husbands had put forth a number of conditions to arrive at a settlement. The main condition laid out by the Saudis was an official undertaking from the US government that would allow them (Saudi husbands) to visit the US any time and that their children would not be barred from leaving America after visiting their mothers.

Other conditions set out were related to money, US citizenship and right to work in the US. Burton has pledged that he would give them a reply after studying the conditions.

According to media reports there are 400 such cases, involving Saudi-American children. Many experts have described the cases as gridlocked because of lack of confidence between the parties involved.

The sources said the Saudis understand the desire of their divorced wives to see their children. But they fear that their ex-wives would bring up their children in an un-Islamic manner. They are also afraid that lawsuits would be filed against them to prevent them from visiting the US.

Abdullah Al-Areefi, one of the accused Saudi husbands, said the meeting with the US delegation was encouraging. He said he had allowed the delegation to take photographs of him with his three children. “I did not kidnap my children as alleged by my former wife. Actually, I protected them from their mother, who was negligent in looking after them,” he said citing her friends and neighbors as witnesses.

He said he had tried his best to settle the dispute since 1997. “I was frustrated by US judicial process, although I believe in US justice,” he said, adding that the US judicial authorities did not allow 25 witnesses from my former wife’s friends and neighbors to present their views.

In Riyadh, Burton had met with Amjad Radwan along with her husband at a coffee shop and they discussed her mother Monica Stowers’ accusation that her former husband did not allow Amjad to visit the US.