Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz will visit the United States on April 23 for talks with President George W. Bush on the situation in the Middle East.
"Prince Abdullah will leave for his planned visit to the United States on April 23," a Saudi official said on condition of anonymity Tuesday.
The official said the prince would leave Morocco, where he is currently on a private visit, for Houston from where he will go on to Bush's Texas ranch for "talks on the situation in the Middle East."
Earlier, American press reports indicated Abdullah had canceled his planned visit, due to "the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinians."
On Monday, the White House said no final date had been set. Despite media reports the two men would meet in the second half of April, National Security Council spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington and Riyadh had "never finally agreed" on a date. "We are still working with the Saudi government to arrange a mutually convenient time," he said. "The president looks forward to meeting with the Crown Prince."
A senior U.S. official suggested media reports Abdullah and Bush would meet on April 25 at "Prairie Chapel Ranch" near Crawford in central Texas were premature and pointed out that the White House had made no announcement about the date of the meeting.
Originally, the crown prince accepted the invitation to meet Bush - extended personally by Vice President Dick Cheney during an 11-nation Middle East tour last month - at a date to be set later, the official said.
Nine months earlier, Abdullah snubbed a similar invitation over perceived U.S. bias in favor of Israel. Abdullah turned down Bush's invitation last June to visit the White House, in a show of anger over what he saw as a lack of U.S. action to restrain Israeli efforts to quell a Palestinian uprising.
Two months later he wrote a letter to Bush warning U.S.-Saudi relations were at a crossroads and that Riyadh would be forced to review its ties with Washington unless it took active steps to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Ties chilled further after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Washington said 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis, and the U.S. media and some senators criticized Saudi Arabia for not doing enough to combat terrorism.
Relations between the two allies warmed recently following Abdullah's peace proposal which offered Israel normal ties with Arabs in return for full withdrawal from Arab land occupied in 1967 and the return of Palestinian refugees.
Abdullah complained last week the United States was not doing enough to restrain Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who has dragged his feet in carrying out Bush's demand for a full troop withdrawal from Palestinian areas.
"We, and the whole world, realize the role and weight of the United States," he said. "The pressure tools in the hands of the American administration enable it to stop the bloodshed, loss of soul and dignity that have been created by the Israeli government's actions against our brothers in Palestine."
On Monday, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia reiterated its strong denunciation of Israel's procrastination and indifference to the international legitimacy resolutions and its opposition to the will of the entire world community, which is gearing forward to see a realization of peace and an end of grievances and aggression against the Palestinian people.
The kingdom reiterated its call on the United States of America to promptly implement the call of its president, George W. Bush, for immediate and irreversible withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Palestinian-Authority-controlled territories. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
