Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdelaziz told US Secretary of State Colin Powell in a meeting in Paris on Friday that Israel had "turned its back" on peace, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faysal said.
"His royal highness has assured the secretary that the Arab World is for peace," Prince Saud said, quoted by AFP.
"He expressed the perception that now exists that the Israelis have turned their back on peace and he also expressed that one cannot really equate the responsibility of the Israelis and the responsibility of the Palestinians," the minister said.
"The Palestinians are asked to provide one hundred percent security for Israel, and yet Israel is destroying the ability of the Palestinian Authority to do what it is necessary for it to do."
But he said Powell's lightning tour of the Middle East aimed at shoring up the shaky US-brokered ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians was "indicative of the seriousness with which the United States views the situation."
"It's a seriousness that we appreciate," Prince Saud said.
Prince Abdullah arrived in Paris on Thursday for a private visit, and held a 90-minute meeting Friday with Powell -- on his way back to Washington -- in the suite of the posh Hotel George V on the French capital's famed Champs-Elysees.
A State Department official accompanying Powell described the meeting as a "serious conversation about the region."
"They reaffirmed the fundamental basis for the sound US-Saudi friendship (and) they agreed on the need to move quickly for the full implementation of the Mitchell committee report" on steps to end Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
Describing US-Saudi ties as "solid," the official said the pair also discussed "regional issues such as the state of...the Iraq sanctions, and their views were very similar."
Powell was scheduled to return to Washington after the talks.
Last week, Prince Abdullah called for a more effective and balanced American and European role to bolster the ceasefire between Israel and the Palestinians, and voiced his country’s support for a Palestinian demand for an international monitoring force.
The crown prince, who has been running day-to-day affairs in the kingdom for the past five years on behalf of his ailing brother, King Fahd, was speaking in an interview with the British Financial Times newspaper.
He warned that an escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would raise the specter of terrorism in the Middle East.
“We fear that terrorism out of the region would engulf the world," he says. "There could even be a regional war. Why wouldn't there be?" the prince said.
Since the eruption of the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, against Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the crown prince has openly criticized the US over its support for Israel.
His frustration appeared to be aggravated when the Bush administration took over and sought a more hands-off approach to the conflict, said the paper, quoting him as saying, “All we want [from the US and Europe] is justice and respect for human rights."
"We want them to look at the reality and to consider their conscience. Don't they see what is happening to Palestinian children, women, the elderly - the humiliation, the hunger?"
Abdullah shrugged off criticism that he has radicalized Saudi foreign policy, pointing out that the kingdom has accepted "every peace initiative irrespective of its source.”
He stressed, however, that Saudi Arabia's weight in the Arab World carried a responsibility that should not be taken lightly.
"We are the country with high credibility with all parties in the Arab and Islamic worlds," he says. "Maybe we are also the one qualified to persuade all concerned to come to the peace table. But we cannot play this role . . . while Israel continually frustrates every peace initiative."
The crown prince ruled out using Saudi oil to exert political pressure on the West.
The comments come as the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon travels to Washington after talks in London to try to increase international pressure on the Palestinians – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
