Saudi Arabia is holding talks with Iran to repatriate Osama Bin Laden's daughter to the Kingdom after she took refuge in the Saudi embassy in Tehran, said Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Minister of Foreign Affairs. “We consider this to be a humanitarian issue,” he told a news conference. “We are negotiating with the Iranian government on this basis,” he said. He was speaking at a joint conference with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu here Saturday. Iman Bin Laden, 17, recently fled from a family compound near Tehran to the embassy in hopes of leaving Iran, where she, several siblings and one of Osama Bin Laden's wives have lived under house arrest for several years. The prince categorically denied reports that the Kingdom was trying to hush up the issue. Prince Saud declined to give any details of the talks with Tehran, saying it could complicate the issue. Prince Saud and his Turkish counterpart also affiremed their countries' commitment for a stable and secure Middle East free from nuclear weapons. However, both the foreign ministers defended peaceful use of nuclear power, which they said was the right of every country. Prince Saud said that Israel acts like a “spoiled child” and stalls Middle East peace talks thanks to easy international treatment. “We can't reach a solution with the preferential treatment that Israel gets,” Prince Saud said in reply to a question. He said that in the long-run Israel's refusal to make peace will lead to instability, which would first threaten Israel itself. The two foreign ministers called for Israel to halt all settlement expansion activities to enable peace talks to move ahead. “There should be a freeze on the settlements in all the occupied territories and especially east Jerusalem,” Davutoglu said. Describing Turkey's role in the Mideast peace process as constructive, Prince Saud said that Turkey was making all-out efforts to resolve the issues facing the region. Davutoglu said that Turkey wants to highlight the plight of the Palestinians living in Gaza. He said there was a need for immediately addressing the issues of the Palestinians and steps should be taken to make Israel halt settlement construction in West Bank and occupied east Jerusalem. In a joint statement Prince Saud Al-Faisal and Davutoglu underscored the significance of Iraq's unity, Afghanistan's sovereignty and peace and unity in Yemen.
