RIYADH, 14 December 2003 — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, held talks yesterday with Iraq’s interim Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.
The talks, which were attended by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal, focused on Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the rebuilding of the war-torn country and other issues.
Zebari is on a regional tour of the Gulf states seeking aid and assistance for the country’s reconstruction. He has urged Gulf countries to extradite former Saddam Hussein officials if they are indicted for war crimes by a special tribunal.
“The purpose of the visit is to discuss with Saudi officials the situation in Iraq; at the moment we are on an Arab tour, and Riyadh is an important stop,” he said in an arrival statement.
It was not clear whether Zebari discussed with Saudi officials the restoration of diplomatic ties severed during the 1991 Gulf War.
Iraq’s embassy here has been lying vacant.
During a recent visit to Bahrain, Zebari told GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Atiyya that members of the Iraqi Governing Council did not agree to Iraq’s accession to the six-member regional body.
However, Zebari said Iraq would resume its activities in Gulf organizations and agencies which were frozen following its occupation of Kuwait.
The two neighbors are poised to reopen their main border post near the Saudi city of Arar, which has been closed since Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait.
Saudi firms have been doing business with Iraq despite the absence of diplomatic ties and closure of the border post most of the time all these years.
At the donors’ conference in Madrid last month, the Saudi government pledged $1 billion in loans for Iraq’s reconstruction.
The Kingdom also set up a 120-bed field hospital in Iraq after the war, while several wounded Iraqis were airlifted for treatment in Saudi hospitals.
Zebari said a Pentagon ban excluding French, German, Canadian and Russian companies from bidding for Iraqi reconstruction contracts could be reconsidered if these countries “change their negative attitude” toward Iraq.
The minister said a delegation from the Governing Council was due in Madrid yesterday on the first leg of a tour of European countries to discuss Iraqi rebuilding efforts.
The Iraqi delegation, led by the chairman of the interim council Abdel Aziz Al-Hakim, was to meet with Spanish Foreign Minister Ana Palacio on arrival.
Meanwhile, about 200 Iraqis, including religious leaders, are receiving lessons on democracy at the Islamic University in Halla.
The move comes in preparation for setting up a national legislative authority in June to draft the country’s constitution in 2005.
