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Monday, September 18, 2006
Saudi, Jordanian kings rule out Shiite-Sunni conflict



Compiled by Daily Star staff



The Saudi and Jordanian rulers, in separate remarks, have ruled out the possibility of a sectarian war in the region between Sunnis and Shiites and stressed the need to revive Middle East peace talks. "The Arab region will not witness wars between Muslims for any reason, whether sectarian or non-sectarian. No sect will dominate the other. Contrary to what some analyses say, this is totally ruled out," Saudi King Abdullah told the Kuwaiti Al-Siyassah daily on Saturday.

The Saudi monarch also welcomed the decision by rival Palestinian leaders to form a national unity government.

"Forming a Palestinian national unity government is the way to achieve peace in the Middle East, the path which we have all chosen and for which the kingdom has presented a comprehensive plan," he said.

Saudi Arabia presented a peace plan which was adopted by an Arab summit in Beirut in 2002 and which calls for Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from Arab lands seized in the 1967 war.

Echoing the Saudi monarch's views, Jordanian King Abdullah II separately said that anyone who sought "to sow discord between Sunnis and Shiites" was a "traitor to his religion and his nation."

In Saturday's interview with the London-based Al-Hayat daily, he voiced concern about the "daily deterioration" of Iraq's security situation saying it stood in the way of "any serious effort to save Iraq from

the disturbances, violence, blind fighting and a plunge to civil war that would consume all and its effects, God forbid, would destabilize the entire region."

Interior ministers from countries bordering Iraq will meet in the Saudi city of Jeddah on Monday to improve security coordination in an effort to prevent sectarian violence mainly between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq from spreading.

Saudi officials say the representatives from countries attending, which include Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Bahrain, will sign an "anti-terror" security protocol including measures to combat border infiltration.

The Jordanian king said that Amman had agreed with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Palestinians on a number of "ideas" to revive peace talks.

"There are ideas which have been approved in coordination with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, a number of other Arab countries and Palestinian president Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] to relaunch the peace process on the basis of international legitimacy, the Arab peace initiative and the road map," he told the London-based newspaper Al-Hayat.

"The peoples of the region will experience years of violence" unless the moribund peace process is quickly revived, the Jordanian monarch said.

Abdullah II told the Saudi-owned daily that Jordan's relations with Syria are currently "less than good."

Syria's relations with Jordan deteriorated in 1994 when Jordan signed a peace deal with Israel. - Agencies



Copyright © 2006 The Daily Star