RIYADH, 3 July 2005 — Crown Prince Abdullah and British Prime Minister Tony Blair yesterday discussed the situation in Iraq, Middle East peace and ways of strengthening bilateral ties.
The Saudi-British talks focused on “major regional and international developments, most importantly the Palestinian issue and the situation in Iraq,” the Saudi Press Agency said.
Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, and other top officials, including Saudi Ambassador to the Britain Prince Turki Al-Faisal and Labor Minister Ghazi Al-Gosaibi, attended the talks.
Blair’s three-hour visit to Riyadh comes days before hosting a Group of Eight (G-8) summit during which he hopes to push both a Middle East peace initiative and aid to Africa.
Ahead of the talks, British Embassy spokesman Barrie Peach said the Gleneagles summit, Blair’s forthcoming term as G-8 president and the situation in Iraq were to figure high on the prime minister’s talks with the crown prince.
Blair was quoted as saying that the G-8 summit “should produce a specific initiative” on the Middle East peace process. “We are working on that at the moment,” Blair said, saying he had set aside time at the talks to discuss the issue.
He warned a deal was not guaranteed, but said there had been recent indications progress could be made. “I’ve set aside time within the summit now to do this because there have been developments over the past few days that lead me to believe we may be able to make some progress.” Despite recent tensions Blair says there is an atmosphere of hope.
Peach said Blair will be following up some of the topics covered in the June 21 conference in Brussels where European nations and the US discussed the future of Iraq and the challenges it faces and thanked Prince Abdullah for Saudi Arabia’s support of the transition government in Baghdad.
At the June conference, over 80 senior officials from around the world, including US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, heard Iraq’s road map for reform, a plan that focused on reconstruction, security and the political process.
No fresh funds were offered at the meeting as it was not intended as a donors’ conference. The conference was however, widely interpreted as proof that sharp differences over the US-led invasion of Iraq could be put aside to help Iraqis now.
“The prime minister is looking forward to the Donors Conference to be held in Amman in July,” said Peach. The conference, to be held on July 18-19, will seek new donors for the reconstruction of Iraq.
