18 January 2006

U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney held talks with key regional allies Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Saudi King Abdullah on Tuesday during a Middle East tour focused on Iraq, Iran and Syria.

"The talks [in Riyadh] covered the situation on the Syrian and Lebanese scenes and Saudi-Egyptian efforts to ward off an escalation of the situation in the region," a Saudi official said after Cheney met the Saudi monarch.

They agreed on "the need for Syria to cooperate with the UN probe [into the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri] in keeping with UN Security Council resolutions and on the importance of safeguarding security in the region," he added, requesting anonymity.

In Cairo, Cheney and Mubarak also discussed tensions between Syria and Lebanon.

"We cannot say that today's meeting brought about any solutions in this file, because it is not so simple and any solution should be based on the implementation of Security Council resolutions," Mubarak spokes-man Suleiman Awad said after the two-hour meeting.

In Riyadh, Cheney met with Lebanese MP Saad Hariri, before traveling on to Kuwait to pay his  respects after the death of its emir, Sheikh Jaber

al-Ahmad al-Sabah. They discussed the latest in a UN investigation into the Beirut bomb blast which killed the ex-premier Hariri. No other details were available.

The Saudi official said King Abdullah voiced satisfaction at U.S. efforts to "facilitate" the legislative elections in the Palestinian territories on January 25.

Abdullah stressed the need for Washington to help the Palestinian Authority and pursue its efforts to "implement the 'road map' and achieve the U.S. President's [George W. Bush] vision about the establishment of an independent Palestinian state." 

The two leaders also reviewed "efforts and contacts under way at the Arab and local levels to ensure the success of the political process in Iraq," the official said.

Saudi Arabia and Egypt are co-sponsors of an Iraqi reconciliation conference to be held in Baghdad in late February or early March in a bid to bring the disempowered Sunni community back into the political arena.

Abdullah and Cheney also examined the Iranian nuclear file, the official said, as Western powers step up their threat to refer Tehran to the Security Council over its resumption of sensitive nuclear fuel research work.

Abdullah spoke of "the necessity of giving negotiations chance" before pressing for Iran's referral to the Security Council.

The talks were joined by intelligence chief Prince Mogrin bin Abdel-Aziz, Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and the Saudi ambassador to Washington and former intelligence boss, Prince Turki bin al-Faisal.

Arab diplomats said that Saudi Arabia was particularly concerned about the West's worsening relations with Iran as it fears a spillover to neighboring countries.

"The Saudis believe that all these issues are interconnected and should be dealt with as a package," said one Arab diplomat in Riyadh. "What happens with Iran will be reflected in Iraq, and what happens there will be reflected in the kingdom."

Cheney earlier sought Mubarak's support for referring Iran to the Security Council.

Awad said Mubarak's government would "wait and see whether there will be a consensus" at the IAEA on the matter.

"We cannot ignore our long-standing principled position ... which refuses to put all this fuss and focus on the Iranian nuclear program without looking at Israel's nuclear arsenal," Awad said. "We cannot give support to a resolution unless it makes reference to the universality of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty, and unless it is free of double standards."

"We call for Iran to show more flexibility and cooperation, and we call for a continuation of dialogue with Iran," Awad added.