JEDDAH, 4 September 2007 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah yesterday held talks with Tony Blair, former British prime minister and international Middle East peace envoy, on achieving a just and comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace settlement based on the Arab peace plan and UN resolutions.
The Saudi leader’s meeting with Blair comes ahead of a US-sponsored international peace conference later this year. Blair also met with Crown Prince Sultan.
King Abdullah and Blair discussed “developments pertaining to the Middle East peace process,” the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Blair’s spokesman Matthew Doyle told AFP after he arrived in Jeddah that Blair had come to “listen as part of the conversations he is having with countries in the region.”
Blair, who flew in from Kuwait, “welcomes the chance to talk directly to Saudi Arabia about the Palestinian situation,” Doyle said.
Doyle had earlier said that Blair, who was appointed the Quartet envoy in late June after stepping down as British premier after a decade, would also visit Egypt before arriving in Israel today.
In July, during his maiden visit to the region as envoy of the Quartet — the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States — Blair said he saw a “moment of opportunity” in the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
US President George W. Bush has called for a Middle East peace conference to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian talks that are probably going to be held in November.
Saudi Arabia has welcomed Bush’s peace push, saying it contains elements compatible with an Arab peace plan revived at an Arab summit in Riyadh last March.
The five-year-old Saudi-authored blueprint offers Israel peace and normal ties if it withdraws from all land seized in the 1967 Middle East War and allows the creation of a Palestinian state and return of Palestinian refugees. Riyadh has stressed that the conference must tackle core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a related development, the Council of Ministers yesterday cautioned against machinations aimed at exploiting the current division among the Palestinians to deny them their rights.
In a statement after the Cabinet meeting, chaired by King Abdullah, the Kingdom however emphasized that restoration of Palestinian rights was the only way to Middle East peace.
The Cabinet reminded the warring Palestinian groups of the need to get united in order to safeguard their legitimate rights. “There is no redemption for the Palestinians except by unity, overcoming their differences,” the statement said.
During the meeting, King Abdullah briefed the ministers on the outcome of his talks with Jordan’s King Abdallah in Jeddah on Sunday.
“Saudi Arabia has always been working in the service of the Islamic Ummah and for the unification of Arab ranks,” the king said. He also noted the government’s efforts to promote the Kingdom’s progress and prosperity. Culture and Information Minister Iyad Madani said the Cabinet applauded the success achieved by the Lebanese Army in defeating the extremist group Fatah Al-Islam. The meeting also emphasized the need for Lebanon taking independent decisions without foreign interference.
The Cabinet also approved the establishment of an association named the Saudi Society for Organic Culture in order to promote the trade and its products.
It endorsed a memorandum of understanding signed with Azerbaijan to promote scientific and educational cooperation between the two Islamic countries. The agreement encourages cooperation between educational and research institutions in the two countries, Madani said.
The Cabinet meeting agreed to contribute $250 million to the capital of Arab Gulf Program for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND).
The Kingdom will give $25 million to AGFUND annually from the revenue of Saudi Fund for Development during the next 10 years after the approval of its capital by the Gulf countries, the Cabinet said.
Prince Talal, president of AGFUND, has called upon Arab leaders to adopt a microcredit mechanism to combat poverty. “Many countries in the world have already adopted this system,” he said.
Talal said professor Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank of Bangladesh won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for their efforts to create economic and social development from below. “Lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty. Microcredit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said while awarding the prize to Yunus and Grameen Bank.
