RIYADH, 5 April 2006 — Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has confirmed in a press conference that a Saudi citizen is being held in Israel. “We are cooperating with international agencies such as the United Nations, Red Cross and the Red Crescent in order to obtain his release,” the prince said, without giving details of the man’s identity or how he was captured.
Al-Arabiya TV channel identified the Saudi as Abdul Rahman Al-Atwi, 36, who was detained by the Jewish state after he crossed the Jordanian border last year.
He has been held in Israel’s Ramleh prison, where he started a hunger strike some two weeks ago demanding to be repatriated to Saudi Arabia. Al-Atwi was transferred to the jail’s hospital after his health deteriorated and he was force-fed by prison officials, informed sources said. Before his arrest in Israel, Al-Atwi was in Egypt where he resided in a flat in Al-Muhandiseen district. Police later found his personal belongings in the flat as well as his telephone number. When contacted by phone he was between Sinai and Ismailiya. “After that we never had any contacts with him,” said Lt. Col. Sameer Al-Babli, an Egyptian police officer.
Prince Saud said it was the responsibility of the minister of higher education to prepare Saudi women to enter the diplomatic field. He refused to specify when Saudi women would take up diplomatic positions as ambassadors but said that those who wanted to become diplomats were letting themselves in for a “big challenge.” The foreign minister added, “I can tell you, however, that the Saudi women who have applied for jobs in the ministry have shown proficiency.”
Prince Saud said the crown prince’s visit to Japan, Singapore and Pakistan was part of the Kingdom’s policy to strengthen strategic ties with those countries and expand bilateral cooperation. “These countries have developed rapidly and accordingly our relations with them have also developed. The visits don’t signify being anything, except that we want to build strategic relations with those countries.”
He said that the Kingdom’s leaders would continue to visit Asian countries because of the rapid development in relations with them and he denied that any military deals were made between the Kingdom and the Asian countries King Abdullah visited in February. “There were no secret deals signed,” he said.
Asked whether Iran’s military maneuvers would be a threat to the Kingdom, the foreign minister said it was not the first time the country had carried out such exercises. “We do not believe they are a threat,” he said. He said that Iran had denied that it had nuclear weapons and that the Kingdom took the denial “at face value.” He confirmed that he would visit Iran in the near future.
He congratulated the Palestinians on the formation of a new government. “We express our best wishes to the new Palestinian government in adhering to its responsibilities for maintaining the unity of the Palestinian people as well as their stability and development according to international resolutions.”
He said he was hopeful the national dialogue discussions held between different Lebanese sects would achieve their goals in maintaining political stability and security in Lebanon. Answering a question on Saudi efforts to end the tension between Syria and Lebanon, the prince said that the Kingdom had shown its good intentions in talks with both Lebanese and Syrian officials.
Speaking about Iraq, he said that the Kingdom was hopeful that current endeavors to establish a new Iraqi government would be successful. “What is left is for Iraqi officials to live up to their responsibilities toward achieving the goals of stopping the bloodshed, violence and sustaining the unity of the country, its independence and sovereignty,” he said.
The prince said that the Kingdom would not involve itself in Iraq’s domestic problems but would give support to efforts to restore the country’s sovereignty.
