JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia yesterday demanded that the US State Department retract a false claim made by one of its senior officials that Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah held talks with Israel’s president last year.
William Burns, undersecretary at the State Department, told a conference on US-Saudi relations in Washington this week that the king spoke with Shimon Peres at a UN conference on dialogue among world religions in New York in November.
Both Peres and King Abdullah attended the UN interfaith meeting and gave speeches, but were not seen talking to each other.
“The comments by the State Department undersecretary are absolutely baseless and made up,” the Saudi Press Agency said, quoting an official Saudi source. “The official source demanded that the State Department retract the news and offer an explanation and clarification of the reasons behind this falsehood that does not serve relations between the two friendly countries.”
There are no diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel. King Abdullah proposed the latest Arab peace initiative that calls for normal Arab relations with Israel in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it seized in 1967, creation of a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and a just solution for Palestinian refugees.
A special UN General Assembly session on cultural and interfaith dialogue was held at UN headquarters in New York on Nov. 12. It was held on King Abdullah’s initiative.
The interfaith dialogue was meant to deepen understanding and appreciation of religions, faiths and cultures and create a favorable environment for the resolution of political issues.
The landmark UN meeting was organized on the recommendation of the World Dialogue Conference that was held in Madrid on July 16, which was attended by more than 300 leaders representing Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism.
King Abdullah is currently on an inspection tour of the Eastern Province. He arrived in Al-Ahsa yesterday from Alkhobar, accompanied by senior princes, Cabinet ministers and high-ranking officials.
King Abdullah received princes, Islamic scholars, tribal leaders, senior officials and a group of citizens who came to greet him at Hajar Palace in Al-Ahsa.
Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior Prince Naif, Intelligence Chief Prince Muqrin, Eastern Province Gov. Prince Mohammed bin Fahd and other princes attended the reception.
Last Tuesday, King Abdullah launched massive development projects worth SR54 billion in the Eastern Province’s newest industrial zone, Jubail-II. He pushed a series of buttons to mark the formal opening of the projects that included the world’s largest desalination and power generation plant.
