JEDDAH, 9 August 2003 — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, is scheduled to visit Syria today on the first leg of a four-nation tour which will also take him to Egypt, Morocco and Russia.
According to a report carried by Al-Jazirah newspaper yesterday, Prince Abdullah will meet with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to discuss the latest global developments, Middle East peace and the situation in Iraq. The Middle East peace process in light of Israeli foot-dragging in the implementation of the internationally-authored road map is likely to top the Saudi-Syrian summit agenda.
Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal announced last Wednesday that the crown prince would be launching an Arab tour to be followed by a trip to Russia in a bid to unite the Arab ranks.
The Arab trip will be followed by an already scheduled visit to Moscow where the crown prince will hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin on bilateral relations, terrorism, and energy.
“The government of Saudi Arabia is always keen to establish a unified Arab position to be able to respond to the big questions about what Iraq may need,” Prince Saud told a press conference in Jeddah recently.
Ahead of his foreign tour, Prince Abdullah met here yesterday with Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas and discussed the latest developments in the Palestinian issue and efforts to implement the road map.
In a statement issued after the meeting, the two sides emphasized the need to implement the road map to achieve the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
The Jeddah talks were attended by Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, Prince Nawaf, director of intelligence, and Prince Saud.
The Palestinian side was attended by Foreign Minister Nabeel Shaath, Information Minister Nabeel Amr and Palestinian Ambassador to Riyadh Mustafa Deeb.
Prince Abdullah is scheduled to arrive in Cairo tomorrow for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on major Arab developments.
Prince Abdullah’s Cairo visit comes ahead of Mubarak’s talks with American envoy for the Middle East William Burns on Monday.
The crown prince last visited Egypt on June 3 to attend a summit conference at the Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh with US President George W. Bush, Mubarak, Jordan’s King Abdallah, Bahrain’s King Hamad and Abbas.
