“The visit of President Mubarak to Riyadh will be for a day only,” confirmed Mohammed Abdul Hai, a spokesman of the Egyptian Embassy. The Syrian president will also pay a brief visit to Riyadh in response to an invitation extended by King Abdullah, said another Arab diplomat.
Kuwait’s official KUNA news agency said Sheikh Sabah received a telephone call from King Abdullah, inviting him to the summit. The emir appreciated the invitation and confirmed his participation, KUNA said.
Also yesterday, King Abdullah received a telephone call from British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. They discussed bilateral relations and issues of common interest, the Saudi Press Agency said.
An invitation to Assad to visit Saudi Arabia was delivered by Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal during his visit to Damascus last week.
Intelligence chief Prince Muqrin also made a rare visit to Syria and met with Assad on Feb. 15 in a move that signaled relations between the two countries are thawing. Prince Muqrin’s visit was the first by a Saudi official to Damascus since King Abdullah sent an envoy to invite Assad to the Arab summit in Riyadh in 2007. Following Muqrin’s visit, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem traveled to Riyadh on Feb. 24 to present King Abdullah with a letter from Assad. The visit was seen as a further effort on the part of both sides to repair relations ahead of the summit.
Al-Muallem also brought with him suggestions on how rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas could be reconciled.
Prince Saud said recently that differences with Syria are a matter of the past. He made the statement at a joint news conference with his French counterpart Bernard Kouchner. Quoting King Abdullah’s statement, the prince said: “We have dug a deep pit and buried our differences and will not return to past disputes but will look forward to the future.”
An Arab diplomat said Assad’s trip would help improve relations between Riyadh and Damascus. “The visit probably will end the strain in Syrian-Saudi relations that was caused by sharp differences over violence in Lebanon and Palestinian factional rivalries”, said the diplomat who did not want to be identified.
The visits of Assad and Mubarak come at a time when cross-party Palestinian committees began their marathon negotiations in Cairo yesterday to tackle a host of thorny issues aimed at forming a unity government and incorporating Hamas into the Palestine Liberation Organization.
