Saudi, American disputes over mention of Jerusalem

A high-ranking official in Washington has stressed that the reason behind the delay in issuing the joint statement on talks held between Saudi Arabia's deputy premier and chairman of the National Guard, Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, with US President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore for two days was because of a dispute over mentioning Jerusalem.

The US side asked Crown Prince Abdullah not to mention Jerusalem in name and preferred to leave it implicit under Madrid summit resolutions. The sources said in a statement to the Saudi daily al-Riyadh on Monday that the Saudi crown prince was persistent on including the name of Jerusalem within the final statement. The source added that the statement was released according to the viewpoint of the Saudi side.

The Saudi Press Agency reported that the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., Prince Bandar Ibn Sultan Ibn Abdul Aziz commented that "the joint communique issued on Friday at the end of the official state visit of Crown Prince Abdullah to the United States of America was very clear about the issue of the peace process in the Middle East. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is concerned about the issue of Jerusalem, and the Crown Prince insisted on mentioning this in the joint communique."