King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, holds talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Riyadh, Tuesday. – SPA RIYADH – King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas discussed here Tuesday developments in the Middle East peace process and efforts toward achieving for the Palestinian people the right to an independent state on their national land. “The visit comes as a part of diplomatic coordination ahead of the so-called proximity talks,” a Palestinian diplomat told a news agency, referring to the US-brokered indirect negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis. After meeting King Abdullah, Abbas will head to Egypt for talks with President Hosni Mubarak, ahead of a planned meeting Friday with US Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell, who arrived in the region Tuesday. “The support of the Kingdom to our cause springs from its strong belief that what it is doing for the Palestinian cause is a duty dictated on it by its conscience and its faith,” Abbas said before the visit. Efforts to revive the Middle East peace process took another blow Tuesday after settlers torched a West Bank mosque. “President Mahmoud Abbas condemns the burning of the mosque in Lubban Al-Sharqiya by extremist settlers and said the responsibility for this criminal attack lies with the Israeli government because the Israeli army protects the settlers,” his office said.
