France's Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner met in Paris today with his Saudi counterpart Prince Saud Al-Faisal. During the meeting, bilateral relations between the two countries were discussed in addition to the current international and regional issues, led by the Palestinian issue. In a joint press conference with the French Foreign Minister following the meeting, Prince Saud Al-Faisal expressed hope that the Palestinian reconciliation would be achieved and that the Egyptian initiative would succeed before the next Arab summit to enable the Arab nation to proceed to what preserves the legitimate interests of the Arab and Palestinian peoples. He described the visit of the Syrian Foreign Minister to the Kingdom as very positive. He quoted the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud as saying that "we have dug a deep grave where we buried our differences. We will never discuss the past but rather look forward for the future". He added that this move comes within the framework of the call by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for reconciliation on fair bases that meet the aspirations of the Arab peoples. Now definitely, there will be contacts after this visit, Prince Saud stated. In response to a question, the Saudi Foreign Minister described the statements issued in Iran about the Kingdom of Bahrain as worrying. However, the Iranian Minister of Interior's visit to Bahrain to reaffirm his country's recognition of Bahrain as a sovereign independent state is an end of this problem, he said, adding that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia was never playing part in igniting fire after it was put off. He expressed hope that such statements will not come to the surface as they are detrimental to Iran in the first place. In response to another question, Prince Saud Al-Faisal said that for any Israeli peace-seeking government to be committed to treat Palestinians as human beings and not consider them a field for experiments and practice killings and humiliation on them. If Israel wants peace, it should live in peace with the Palestinians, otherwise matters will go to the worse, he explained. As for Afghanistan, he said the Asian country needs peace, development, stability and economic development and not military action. He said view points of the Kingdom and France on these issues were almost identical. For his part, the French minister underscored the importance of setting up a Palestinian state, calling on Israel to follow the path of peace. We extremely count on the forthcoming donors summit in Egypt and that it should be preceded by a strong indication on the unity of Palestinians, he said.
