Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, agreed on a range of regional security issues. They met for talks at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Cairo on Thursday. At a joint press conference afterwards, Prince Faisal said: "Egypt is interested in establishing security in the Middle East, and Riyadh and Cairo will expand the volume of cooperation and consultation." The Foreign Minister said that his country appreciates Egypt's position on confronting the activities of the Houthi militia in Yemen. He added that there was a need for the Kingdom and Egypt to cooperate in counterterrorism. "We have a special and strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia," the Egyptian foreign minister said. Prince Faisal reiterated the need to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. The Saudi Foreign Minister indicated that no meeting had taken place between Riyadh and Iran during the past few days, but said that his country was open to dialogue. The two sides agreed that Arab security is an indivisible whole and spoke of the importance of joint Arab action and full solidarity to preserve Arab national security. The two sides affirmed their rejection of any attempts by regional parties to interfere in the internal affairs of Arab countries or threaten their stability and undermine the interests of their people. They agreed to continue fighting terrorist organizations in the region in all their forms and reviewed their efforts in this regard. They spoke about ensuring safe navigation in the Arabian Gulf, the Bab Al-Mandab Strait and the Red Sea, as well as about the need for serious steps to guarantee the rights of Egypt and Sudan in the issue of the Ethiopian dam. The two sides agreed on the importance of maintaining Libya's stability, unity, and territorial integrity, holding elections on schedule at the end of the year, and ensuring that mercenaries and foreign fighters to leave within a specific time frame in implementation of Security Council Resolution No. 2570 and the outcomes of the Paris Summit and the Berlin Conference 2. They said the Palestinian question was the central issue of the Arab nation, and that a just and comprehensive solution to it requires the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state on the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the Arab Peace Initiative and relevant international legitimacy resolutions. Prince Faisal also affirmed Saudi Arabia's rejection of the Israeli violations in Palestine. — SG
