WASHINGTON, April 29, 2007 (AFP) – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has turned down a request to meet with Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Baghdad’s foreign minister said Sunday, denying, however, that the refusal was an outright snub
WASHINGTON, April 29, 2007 (AFP) – Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has turned down a request to meet with Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, Baghdad’s foreign minister said Sunday, denying, however, that the refusal was an outright snub.
On Sunday, The Washington Post reported Abdullah had refused to receive Maliki before a regional summit on Iraq security set for next week because the Sunni leader was skeptical of Maliki’s Shiite government.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, however, said the newspaper report was "not true," although he acknowledged a requested visit had been denied.
"This time the Saudi king, his schedule was not suitable for this timing," Zebari told CNN.
"So they did not decline it, but they said the king has an internal tour which he does every now and again. So we couldn’t agree on the timing," he said, speaking in Baghdad.
The apparent snub comes as Saudi Arabia, long a US ally in the Middle East, has been increasing critical of the US-backed Iraqi government.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice put a good face on the criticism, saying the upcoming regional conference would offer Maliki the chance to make the case for his government. "There’s no doubt that the Saudi government has concerns about the process of reconciliation in Iraq," she told CNN.
"They have concerns about Sunni inclusion. They have concerns about the Iraqi government’s willingness to use their security forces in an even-handed fashion."
She said Maliki could show neighboring countries at the conference, in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, "what also needs to be demonstrated to the Iraqi people, that this government is behaving in an even-handed fashion."
Also Sunday, Martin Indyk, a former assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, declared the warm US-Saudi relationship over, sidelined in part by the Iraqi policy of US President George W. Bush’s administration.
In an essay published in The Washington Post, Indyk said Abdullah is working to "wean (Arab Shiite governments) off their dependence on Tehran."
"That dictates engagement, however distasteful, with Hamas in Gaza and Assad in Damascus," he wrote. "It also requires distancing Saudi Arabia from Bush’s ill-fated Iraq adventure, which in Abdullah’s view is only strengthening a pro-Iranian Shiite government at Sunni Arab expense."
In March, Abdullah sharply criticized the US troop presence in Iraq, calling it an "illegitimate foreign occupation."
But Sunday, Rice downplayed the criticism, saying US troop presence in Iraq was in line with international law.
"We have a good relationship with the Saudis, I think we have the same strategic goals for Iraq," Rice told CNN. "Our forces are there, and we’ve been assured that his majesty understands this, because of UN Security Council resolutions."
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