Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Minister of Foreign Affairs has said that the Arab nation is facing challenges not only political, but economic and inter-related challenges, indicating that over the previous period there have been continuing political meetings on the discussion of the plans for solving these problems. " The Arab world should not overlook economic cooperation as it benefits the political situation and strengthens the ability of the Arab countries in confronting all challenges," he said. Prince Saud, who is the Head of the Delegation of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the 2nd Economic and Social Development Summit which started in Sharm el-Sheikh today, gave an interview to the first channel of Saudi Television. In reply to a question on the most important issues at the present time and whether he is personally leading consultations on the situation in Lebanon and Saudi-Syrian consultations to resolve the prospective crisis in Lebanon, Prince Saud said, " I do not say personally that I am leading this issue. The issue has been led personally by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah Ibn Abdulaziz. He contacted directly with the Syrian president. The topic between the two leaders has been the commitment to end the Lebanese problem as a whole, but when that topic has not happened, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques has kept away from such agreements''. As for his vision of the situation in Lebanon after these constant attempts, Prince Saud described the situation as dangerous, saying, "If matters come to separation and partition of Lebanon, then Lebanon ends as a state containing this type of peaceful coexistence between religions, nationalities, and different strata and this will be a loss for the entire Arab nation''. On the situation in Tunisia and how the matter is dealt with at the Summit, Prince Saud said, "We have heard from the Tunisian Minister of Foreign Affairs on the situation in Tunisia. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has distinguished relations with the Tunisian people", wishing the achievement of stability, progress, prosperity and freedom for the Tunisian people. --More
