France's Foreign Minister meets with Saudi counterpart

Paris, February 26, SPA -- France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner
met in Paris today with his Saudi counterpart Prince Saud Al-Faisal.
During the meeting, bilateral relations between the two countries
were discussed in addition to the current international and regional
issues, led by the Palestinian issue.

In a joint press conference with the French Foreign Minister
following the meeting, Prince Saud Al-Faisal expressed hope that the
Palestinian reconciliation would be achieved and that the Egyptian
initiative would succeed before the next Arab summit to enable the
Arab nation to proceed to what preserves the legitimate interests of
the Arab and Palestinian peoples.
He described the visit of the Syrian Foreign Minister to the Kingdom
as very positive. He quoted the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques
King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as saying that "we have dug a
deep grave where we buried our differences. We will never discuss the
past but rather look forward for the future".
He added that this move comes within the framework of the call by
the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for reconciliation on fair
bases that meet the aspirations of the Arab peoples. Now definitely,
there will be contacts after this visit, Prince Saud stated.
In response to a question, the Saudi Foreign Minister described the
statements issued in Iran about the Kingdom of Bahrain as worrying.
However, the Iranian Minister of Interior's visit to Bahrain to
reaffirm his country's recognition of Bahrain as a sovereign
independent state is an end of this problem, he said, adding that the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was never playing part in igniting fire after
it was put off.
He expressed hope that such statements will not come to the surface
as they are detrimental to Iran in the first place.
In response to another question, Prince Saud Al-Faisal said that for
any Israeli peace-seeking government to be committed to treat
Palestinians as human beings and not consider them a field for
experiments and practice killings and humiliation on them.
If Israel wants peace, it should live in peace with the
Palestinians, otherwise matters will go to the worse, he explained.
As for Afghanistan, he said the Asian country needs peace,
development, stability and economic development and not military
action.
He said view points of the Kingdom and France on these issues were
almost identical.
For his part, the French minister underscored the importance of
setting up a Palestinian state, calling on Israel to follow the path
of peace.
We extremely count on the forthcoming donors summit in Egypt and
that it should be preceded by a strong indication on the unity of
Palestinians, he said.
--SPA