Saudi national meeting on diversity of opinion in Abha

Deputy chairman of the Saudi National Meeting said that the fifth session of the national meeting for intellectual dialogue in Saudi Arabia will be organized in the mid of December in Anha, in the south of the kingdom.

The Saudi official news agency quoted Rashid al-Rajeh, upon inaugurating in Tabbouk ( to the north west) a preliminary meeting, that the title of the next meeting will be "we .. and the others .. a common national vision to deal with the other." On the intellectual meeting which are being held frequently, he said it intends to allow the opportunity and the freedom of expression for citizens to express their own thoughts and crystallize views in results and recommendations to be submitted to the decision-makers."

However, the fourth national intellectual dialogue in Saudi Arabia was allocated to discuss youths problems. It had called for establishing student unions and councils.

The Saudi authorities had started "a national dialogue" whose first session was held in Riyadh in June 2003. The second session was by the end of December of the same year in Mecca with the participation of scholars and intellectuals including women.

The June 2003 round called for making deep reforms and a vaster political participation, and to have a larger independence for the judicial system and a fair distribution of the country's resources.

The third session in June 2004 which was held in al-Madina, in the west, its 70 participants including 35 women issued recommendations aiming at improving the status of women in Saudi Arabia.