CAIRO, 5 March 2007 — Saudi Arabia said yesterday that it would support any Arab decision to change or develop the Arab peace plan, which was passed by the Arab League summit that was held in Beirut in 2002.

“The peace plan is the property of Arabs, not Saudi Arabia. If they want to change or develop it, it’s totally an Arab decision,” Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told reporters here.

Referring to Libya’s decision not to attend the Arab summit in Riyadh following a change in the conference venue, Saud said, “It is the discretion of the host country to decide whether the summit be held in Arab League headquarters or in its country.”

He said Saudi Arabia had never considered Iran as an enemy. “If the Kingdom had considered Iran its enemy, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah would not have received President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in Riyadh.” However, he advised Tehran to avoid confrontation with the US to reinforce the stability of the region.

Earlier, the Libyan foreign minister had said that Libya won’t attend the upcoming Arab summit in Saudi Arabia, adding that the Arab world “is not serious” and that “joint Arab action is dysfunctional.”

“Arab joint action is marred by disorder,” Libyan Foreign Minister Abdel-Rahman Shalqam said at Arab League headquarters in Cairo yesterday. “Libya is insisting on a real Arab mechanism — not policies of axes, groups and unilateral changes to decisions,” an angry Shalqam said.

Arab foreign ministers convened yesterday to prepare the agenda for the summit, which is scheduled for March 28-29 in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Late Saturday, Shalqam announced that his country’s “seat at the summit will be vacant.” Libya will not attend due to “procedural errors,” he said.

Shalqam disputed that the shift of summit venue from the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh to Saudi Arabia had been done according to Arab League procedures. The 2006 summit had agreed that the 2007 gathering would be held in Egypt after Saudi Arabia, which chairs the summit in 2007, had requested this.

But in January, Saudi Arabia asked that the event be held in Riyadh.

“Our relations with Saudi are brotherly and good,” Shalqam told reporters yesterday. “But the Arab world is not serious,” he said criticizing the way Arab countries manage their political affairs.

“Iran has become the enemy (of Arab countries) — not Israel. What nonsense this is,” Shalqam added.