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Saudi working to put out Mideast fires
By Suleiman Nimr
AFP
RIYADH
Petroleumworld.com 01 31 06A Saudi offer to broker a deal between warring Palestinian factions is the latest move to contain what King Abdullah has termed an explosive situation in the Arab world, officials and diplomats say.
Rival Palestinian leaders have welcomed Abdullah's offer to host a meeting in Islam's holiest city in a bid to end the power struggle between president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah and the ruling Islamist movement Hamas which has left more than 30 people dead in four days.
"The priority must be to stop the fighting between Fatah and Hamas," a Saudi official told AFP, requesting anonymity.
"The objective of the king's call to Palestinian leaders to meet in Mecca is to halt the bloodletting first, followed by a meeting in the holy city to discuss the differences between them without the involvement of any other side," he said.
A ceasefire agreed by Hamas and Fatah came into force Tuesday as international pressure mounted on the two sides to hammer out a power-sharing deal and end the worst factional fighting since the Islamists won an election a year ago.
But the United States gave a lukewarm response to the Saudi offer, casting doubt on Hamas's commitment to forge peace with Israel.
Saudi Arabia's Palestinian mediation bid coincides with attempts to resolve the standoff between Lebanon's Western-backed government and the opposition led by the Iran- and Syria-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah.
The oil-rich regional powerhouse is also preparing to host an Arab summit at the end of March.
King Abdullah opened the annual summit of Gulf Arab leaders in Riyadh last month with a warning that the Arab world was on the brink of exploding because of the conflicts in the Palestinian territories, Iraq and Lebanon.
A Riyadh-based Arab diplomat noted that the kingdom hosted a meeting of Iraqi Sunni and Shiite clerics in Mecca last October in an effort to halt the sectarian violence in Iraq.
It also backed an Arab League initiative to break the deadlock in Lebanon, where the pro-Syrian opposition is seeking to bring down the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
With the political tensions in Lebanon erupting into deadly clashes last week, Saudi Arabia sent Prince Bandar bin Sultan, one of its most seasoned diplomats who heads the National Security Council, to Iran in a bid to enlist Tehran's help in stemming the deterioration in both Lebanon and Iraq.
"Saudi Arabia realizes that Iran is an important player in the region with which it must deal even if it does not see eye to eye" with Tehran, the Arab diplomat said.
"Saudi contacts with Iran are aimed not only at finding a solution in Lebanon but also at trying to nudge Iran to play a positive role in Iraq," he said.
Saudi Arabia has denied reports it will step in to support Iraq's Sunnis against Iran-backed Shiites in the event of a US pullout from Iraq. But Riyadh and its Arab partners in the Gulf are concerned that sectarian tensions in Iraq will spill over into the predominantly Sunni region, which has sizeable Shiite minorities.
Gulf Arab states also fear the repercussions of a potential US-Iran armed conflict over Iran's nuclear programme.
Saudi Arabia is seeking to resolve Arab disputes ahead of the Arab summit on March 28-29, the diplomat said.
King Abdullah's invitation to Palestinian leaders confirms that "the Palestinian issue is an Arab and Islamic issue," said the Palestinian ambassador in Riyadh, Jamal al-Shobaki.
Shobaki said Riyadh believes the "international climate" is evolving in favour of the Palestinians, something it has helped bring about.
However, Saudi Arabia feels the fighting in the Palestinian territories is liable to undermine this "positive climate," he said, apparently referring to planned US moves to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
AFP 30 0825 GMT 01 07
Copyright© 1999 AFP. All Rights Reserved.
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