JEDDAH, 30 May 2005 — The health of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd, who was admitted to a Riyadh hospital on Friday for medical examination, is steadily improving, Interior Minister Prince Naif said yesterday.
“Thank God, his health is steadily improving,” the Saudi Press Agency reported quoting Prince Naif, who spoke to the media after attending a convocation ceremony at the Public Security Training City in the capital.
The minister criticized foreign news agencies for describing the king’s condition as serious even after reassuring medical reports issued by the King Faisal Specialist Hospital where he had undergone medical tests.
Crown Prince Abdullah yesterday reassured Iranian President Muhammad Khatami, Sudanese President Omar Al-Bashir and Syrian President Bashar Assad about King Fahd’s health when they telephoned him expressing their concern.
Speaking to reporters in Riyadh, Prince Naif also said that the Kingdom had received more than 30 Saudi detainees extradited by Syria. According to press reports, Syria arrested more than 300 Saudis over the past few weeks on suspicion they were en route to Iraq to fight alongside insurgents.
Prince Naif refuted suggestions that new terror cells were in the making after Saudi security forces made remarkable success in a nationwide clampdown on Al-Qaeda militants. However, he pointed out that police had arrested some suspects who were planning to join the terror group.
