RIYADH, 15 January 2003 — Saudi Arabia and Egypt called here yesterday for more diplomatic efforts to resolve the Iraqi crisis in a bid to avert a US-led war against Baghdad.
The call came during separate meetings between Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who paid a brief visit to the Kingdom, and Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd and Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard.
Mubarak and Fahd stressed the need to “safeguard Iraq’s territorial integrity and remove the specter of war hovering over it,” the Saudi Press Agency reported.
“The two sides underlined the need to give dialogue and diplomacy a chance in order to spare the region and the world more humanitarian disasters,” it said.
SPA earlier reported that Mubarak and Crown Prince Abdullah “reviewed developments in the region and their implications for its security and stability.”
They also discussed “developments in Iraq, their keenness to preserve its unity and national integrity and (the need) to give diplomacy a chance in a bid to spare the region and the world a war and its human tragedies.”
They urged Baghdad to implement UN Security Council resolutions to avert war.
“The two sides also emphasized the UN role in implementing Security Council resolutions to safeguard the security and stability of the region,” the joint statement said.
The Saudi leaders and the Egyptian president exchanged views on the ongoing efforts to promote joint Arab action, reflecting Arab unity and solidarity.
Prince Abdullah and Mubarak also reviewed the “suffering of the unarmed Palestinian people as a result of killings and destruction at the hands of the Israeli occupation forces.”
