Saudi Cabinet reviews regional developments

President Mubarak visits U.S. on May 26, Obama to address Muslim nation from Egypt

Mubarak says won't deal with Lieberman, warns of settlements, stresses Palestinian statehood

Lieberman's Europe tour discloses magnitude of Israel-EU differences over Palestine

Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud chaired the Cabinet's session.

At the outset of the session, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques briefed the cabinet on the results of the 11th consultation meeting which was held on Tuesday and which discussed many important issues for the benefit of the countries of Gulf Cooperation Council and its joint action.

These issues included the railways network among the GCC countries, the electric linkage which will save huge costs of electric power among the GCC countries and activation of the role of the private sector in developing the GCC work in the fields of trade and economy.

The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques appreciated the GCC leaders' desire to boost cooperation among the GCC countries in various fields.

In a statement to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA) following the session, Minister of Culture and Information Dr. Abdulaziz bin Moheiaddin Khoja said the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques briefed the cabinet on the discussions, consultations, meetings and contacts he held over the past few days with leaders and envoys of countries and which dealt with various Arab, Islamic and international events and developments including the two messages he received from Sheikh Khalifah bin Zayed Al Nahayyan, President of United Arab Emirates and French President Nicholas Sarkozy and the telephone call from Egyptian President Mohammad Hosni Mubarak, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Salih and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The Minister of Culture and Information said the Cabinet stressed the importance of the meeting of the King Abdullah Economic City-hosted International Understanding Council in its 27th session under the patronage of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques.

The cabinet stressed the importance of the issues concerning the whole world which will be discussed by the meeting including conservation of energy, economic growth, international issues and the current world situation.

The cabinet listened to a report by the foreign minister on the emergency meeting of the Arab League Council at the level of foreign ministers which was concluded in Cairo on Thursday.

The meeting discussed many issues concerning the Palestinian cause and reasserted in its final statement that the achievement of the lasting and comprehensive solution of the Palestinian cause and the ending of the Arab-Israeli conflict on all tracks are the fundamental basis for achieving regional security and stability in the region as well as the desired progress in the other regional issues.

After viewing the results of the emergency meeting of executive bureau of the council of Arab health ministers which was held on Tuesday, the cabinet stressed the importance of coordinating and integrating efforts among the Arab countries to face the pandemic of swine influenza and also stressed the importance of the contents of "Riyadh Statement" issued by the meeting on facing this pandemic.

Dr. Khoja said that after reviewing the Cabinet's agenda, the cabinet took a number of decisions as follows: The cabinet authorized the Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior - or his deputy - to discuss with the Afghan side a draft cooperation agreement between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan in the field of extradition of the accused and sentenced and exchange of implementing freedom depriving punishments.

The cabinet authorized the Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Interior - or his deputy - to discuss with the Argentine side a draft cooperation agreement between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Argentina in the field of extradition of the accused and sentenced.

The cabinet authorized the Foreign Minister - or his deputy - to sign a headquarters draft agreement between the government of Saudi Arabia and the Organization of Islamic Conference.

The cabinet approved the charter of the Organization of Islamic Conference approved at the 11th Islamic Summit Conference held in the city of Dakar on 14/3/2008.

The cabinet approved an agreement between Saudi Arabia and Greece on avoiding tax duplication and preventing tax evasion concerning taxes on income and capital and the accompanying protocol signed in the city of Athens on 19/6/2008.

The cabinet authorized the Finance Minister - or his deputy - to sign a draft agreement between Saudi Arabia and Ghana on avoiding tax duplication and preventing tax evasion concerning taxes on income and capital profit.

The cabinet approved a number of appointments at the 14th rank as follows:

1- Fahd bin Nasir bin Zaid Albhairan is appointed to the position of minister plenipotentiary at the Foreign Ministry,

2- Abdulhadi bin Mohammad bin Ahmad Bakhraibah is appointed to the position of assistant undersecretary of the general president for sports affairs at the General Presidency of Youth Welfare,

3- Saad bin Salih bin Abdulaziz Alwtaid is appointed to the position of director general of administrative and financial affairs at the Ministry of Finance, and

4- Abdulaziz bin Hamad bin Abdullah Almodaifir is appointed to the position of director general of financial audit at the Ministry of Finance.

On the other hand, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said on Tuesday that Avigdor Lieberman, Israel's firebrand foreign minister, is still not welcome in Egypt, according to remarks reported by the official MENA news agency.

Reporting an interview Mubarak gave in Arabic to Israeli television, the agency said that when asked whether Lieberman would visit Egypt after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he said: "No."

Mubarak and Netanyahu met on Monday in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to take stock of the Middle East peace process.

"I deal with Netanyahu, I don't deal with Lieberman," Mubarak reportedly told the interviewer.

"I don't know if the foreign minister (Ahmed Abul-Gheit) invited him or not. But public opinion will not accept Lieberman, that's the problem," MENA quoted Mubarak as saying.

"Public opinion will not accept him because he said 'I'm going to attack the Sinai' and he has attacked us. These words remain engraved in the public conscience. How could he say 'I'm going to destroy the dam'?" at Aswan, he asked.

Lieberman, an ultra-nationalist who has triggered controversy over his virulently anti-Arab stance, leads the far-right Yisrael Beitenu (Israel is Our Home) party, and has been called a "racist" by critics.

He has suggested bombing Egypt's famed Aswan dam in the event of war between the two countries, which signed a landmark peace deal in 1979.

Lieberman also said last year, before he became foreign minister after the February 2009 general election, that Mubarak could "go to hell" if he continued to refuse to visit the Jewish state.

Twice in recent weeks Cairo has denied reports from Israel that Lieberman had been formally invited to Egypt. Abul-Gheit also said earlier this month that he would not shake Lieberman's hand.

In his interview, Mubarak also took a dig at former US president George W. Bush, saying that in eight years in office his administration "failed to move the Palestinian question forward by even one centimeter."

On May 26, in his first visit to the United States since 2004, Mubarak will meet Bush's successor Barack Obama in Washington amid a revived Middle East peace drive by the new US president.

"Obama is undoubtedly different from Bush," MENA quoted Mubarak as saying. "Obama is precise... and reasoned, he acts after hearing from his advisers and those countries with which he deals," he said.

"In order to take a decision in a region such as ours, you have to listen to the countries, to the Israelis and Palestinians, the Egyptians and Saudis, the Gulf states and all countries concerned, to have any idea of how to reach peace," he said.

He also said he had been "surprised" by the previous US administration's wish to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before Bush's presidential term expired in January this year.

"Quite frankly, I was astounded. I said: what? They want to solve a 60-year-old problem in just three months?"

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called on Israel on Monday to "fundamentally change its policies" on settlements and prove its commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Addressing a Security Council debate on the Middle East, Ban also demanded an end to Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel and said the Palestinian Authority must develop an effective security structure and state institutions.

But Ban's remarks appeared to focus more on Israel's obligations as he urged the parties and world powers to kick-start a fresh attempt to resume stalled Middle East peace negotiations and achieve a settlement.

At the ministerial-level meeting called by current Security Council president Russia, but boycotted by Israel, speaker after speaker affirmed support for a two-state solution in which a new Palestinian state would exist alongside Israel.

New Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for talks with the Palestinians but has not specifically supported a Palestinian state. Netanyahu is to meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on May 18.

Ban spoke of a "deep crisis of confidence" among people in the region and a "vortex of hopelessness" in Gaza caused by Palestinian divisions and tensions between Israel and the Hamas militant movement, which controls the territory.

He said Palestinians "continue to see unacceptable unilateral actions" by Israel in East Jerusalem and the West Bank. These included house demolitions, intensified Jewish settlement activity, settler violence and oppressive movement restrictions, all linked to settlements, he said.

"The time has come for Israel to fundamentally change its policies in this regard as it has repeatedly promised to do, but not yet done," Ban said in unusually outspoken comments.

"Action on the ground, together with a genuine readiness to negotiate on all core issues, including Jerusalem, borders and refugees, based on Israel's existing commitments, will be the true tests of Israel's commitment to the two-state solution."

A statement later agreed upon unanimously by the 15-nation council also stressed the need for a two-state solution and said negotiations must be built on previous agreements.

The U.N. chief said indiscriminate rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel were unacceptable and must cease.

But he also said Israel must refrain from using excessive force, as he said it had done during its December-January campaign against Gaza. He said Israel's continued closure of the territory did "not weaken Israel's adversaries in Gaza."

Israel allows only food and medicine into Gaza. Ban called for the import of glass, cement and other building materials that Israel says Hamas could use for military ends.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said the Obama administration was looking for quick progress in the Middle East. "Our interest lies not in a lengthy, drawn-out process but in real results. We must not tarry," she said.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner both called for follow-up to a U.N. report criticizing Israel over damage to U.N. facilities during the Gaza campaign, a report angrily rejected by Israel.

Libyan diplomats said their country was drafting a resolution demanding a broader inquiry into the Gaza fighting. The United States, however, is unlikely to support it.

In a statement, Israeli U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev said her country did not take part in Monday's meeting because it did not believe Security Council involvement would help and because Israel was conducting a policy review.

Diplomats said Russia had called the meeting to maintain Moscow's role on the Middle East stage pending a full-scale Middle East conference in Moscow planned for late this year.

On the other hand, Israel's outspoken Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman failed to convince Europe of his peacemaking credentials as he returned home Friday from his first foreign tour.

During visits to France, the Czech Republic and Germany, there were no press conferences or meetings with heads of government. Only in Italy did Lieberman, a skeptic on peace with the Palestinians, speak in public.

In a statement released Friday, Germany urged Lieberman not to back away from the peace process with the Palestinians.

During talks with Lieberman late Thursday, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Israel must pursue a two-state solution in the interest of regional security and stability, his ministry said in a statement.

Steinmeier "underlined the government's expectation that the new Israeli government maintain its commitment to results produced in previous (peace) talks and the goal of a two-state solution," it said, adding that Germany would support Israel in the process.

In Italy, whose right-wing Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi welcomed him in person, Lieberman received five-star treatment. There he appealed for patience while Israel's new government hammers out a diplomatic strategy.

Lieberman had sparked unease among Europeans by saying ahead of his trip that the new cabinet of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was not bound by the previous government's decision in 2007 to revive peace talks with the Palestinians.

The leader of Yisrael Beitenu (Israel is Our Home) entered Netanyahu's coalition government after elections which saw his party come in third place, campaigning on a hard-line agenda against Israel's Arab minority.

Netanyahu has so far refused to publicly endorse the idea of a Palestinian state, a bedrock principle of international plans to resolve the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

After meeting Lieberman on Tuesday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner insisted he regarded the creation of a Palestinian state as central to any chance of peace.

"Bernard Kouchner recapitulated France's expectations, in particular concerning the creation of a viable Palestinian state coexisting in peace and security with Israel," a foreign ministry statement said.

"He underlined the urgent need to restart negotiations with this objective in mind."

From there, Lieberman went on to Prague and a meeting with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

"It has been a meeting in which not much has been advanced as you would imagine (as) they are in a process of review... let us see what is the revision they present," he said.

"They know very well what our policy is, which is a policy encapsulated in the two states solution," he added.

EU external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner warned last month that a planned upgrade of bilateral relations could not come about until the Israeli government commits to the peace talks with the Palestinians.

Only Italy has opposed that call.

"What they call the upgrading between Europe and Israel must not stop because that way Europe can play a major role" in the Middle East peace process, Italy's Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told a joint news conference with Lieberman who also called for stronger ties with the EU.

The Israeli prime minister has said all attempts at finding peace between Israel and the Palestinians had failed since the 1993 Oslo accords. Lieberman did not signal any change from that view.

"There was some disagreement but it was the first contact... We hope that he will take account of what we have been saying and that the Americans are going to say the same thing," said one European diplomat.