KUALA LUMPUR, 1 February 2006 — Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said here yesterday that the boycott of Danish products in the Kingdom was not governmental. Rather the boycott was an action by the people of Saudi Arabia to express dismay about the cartoons published in a Danish newspaper.
Speaking to reporters after King Abdullah and the Malaysian Prime Minister gave speeches at the Malaysian-Saudi Business Council luncheon, the prince said the public boycott in the Kingdom was due to the fact that Muslim sensibilities all over the world had been hurt by the cartoons.
“I do not think that there is a Muslim anywhere in the world whose feelings have not been insulted or hurt by what has been published in the Danish newspaper,” he said.
“First of all, it was meaningless. Second, it was insulting what is sacred in Islam. The boycott is a public one, whether the government wants it or not. This affects the pride of every person in the Islamic world,” he added.
The foreign minister described the situation as “sensitive,” and justified the Kingdom’s withdrawal of its ambassador from Denmark due to the seriousness of the issue.
Asked about the Kingdom’s reaction to the victory of Hamas in the Palestinian elections, Prince Saud said: “This was the will of the people.” He went on to say: “Hamas was first a movement. Now it is a government. And I cannot believe that it will not act responsibly as a government.”
He said the international community should be patient and see what Hamas will do before judging it in the light of past statements and declarations.
Asked whether, in addition to economic agreements, any political ones had been signed in the three Asian countries visited by King Abdullah so far, the prince said the Kingdom shared similar viewpoints and opinions with the countries on a number of political issues.
He said that during the king’s visit, the host countries had expressed “special appreciation” for the reforms being carried out by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, especially in the past two years. He also said that the leaders of the three countries appreciated King Abdullah’s initiative to promote peace and mutual understanding in the region.
Prince Saud denied that there were problems in his ministry regarding the issuing of visas to visitors, saying that the Foreign Ministry in the Kingdom was now completely electronic. “The Foreign Ministry has applied electronic government and this includes all countries of the world. Everything is now computerized and any citizen, for example from China, India or Malaysia, can obtain a visa within 24 hours.”
In reply to a question about whether the Kingdom had discussed with the Malaysian government the implementation of the recent OIC recommendations made in Makkah, the foreign minister said that discussions which would lead to implementation began immediately after the summit was over. He said a committee from the presidency, the host country and the secretariat general had already met on the representative level and that another meeting on the ministerial level would soon take place.
