Saudi crown prince discusses with Abbas the Roadmap to peace

Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul Aziz yesterday in Jeddah discussed with the Palestinian prime minister Mahmoud Abbas latest developments concerning the Palestinian issue and the efforts made to implement the so-called Roadmap.

Abbas had arrived on Thursday in Jeddah his first leg in an Arab tour which will lead him to the United Arab Emirates and Tunisia.

The Saudi news agency said that "during the meeting developments of the Palestinian issue, the stumbled ME peace process and efforts made to implement the Roadmap so as to lead to the foundation of the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital were discussed, as proclaimed by the initiative of the crown prince, adopted at the Arab summit of Beirut 2002. The initiative has become an Arab initiative for peace. Developments on the Arab and international arenas were reviewed.

Abbas was also due to visit Kuwait on Sunday ( tomorrow) but the visit was postponed at the request of Kuwait. Palestinian ambassador in Riyadh Mustafa Deib said that the visit which was decided on Sunday following the visit of the UAE, was cancelled "for reasons beyond our will."

The Palestinian ambassador stressed indirectly that the postponement was made at Kuwait's request which seemed as not having forgiven the Palestinian leadership for its past position of supporting Iraq following its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

In Oslo, the Norway government announced that Abbas will visit Norway by the end of the current month, just one and a half month after the visit of his Israeli peer visit Sharon to this country.