King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, will attend the Nov. 15 emergency economic summit of the G20 world leaders at the White House to discuss further measures to deal with the financial crisis and international regulatory reform, it was announced on Tuesday. “The King has welcomed the summit and accepted the invitation,” said Prince Saud Al-Faisal, Minister of Foreign Affairs, at a joint press conference here with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier who is visiting the Kingdom. Prince Saud said that King Abdullah, in his talks with Steinmeier earlier Tuesday, had expressed confidence in the resilience of the economies of Saudi Arabia and other GCC countries thanks to a solid banking system and increasing growth rates which can withstand any fallout of the global financial crisis. Addressing other global and regional issues, Prince Saud said the Kingdom and Germany have agreed to help Pakistan and to ask the IMF to support it. On the Mideast peace process, Prince Saud said, “Doubt is cast on the peace process every time Israel breaches its obligations and takes unilateral decisions like expanding settlements which would change the geographical and legal landscape of the occupied territories and prevent the establishment of a livable Palestinian state with uninterrupted geography and borderlines.” He said it is important to take a serious stand on the issues of conflict relating to Jerusalem, borderlines, refugees, water, and a host of other contentious issues, he said. Speaking about Iraq, Prince Saud said the Kingdom welcomed the recommendations of the 5th Meeting of the Interior Ministers of Iraq's Neighbors which was held in Amman last week, hoping for more coordination among Iraq's neighbors to help it achieve stability and national unity and re-build itself without foreign interventions. On Afghanistan, Prince Saud stressed on more efforts to bring about Afghan national unity. He called for more work to help Afghanistan rebuild its economy and social fabric with the support of the international community to redeem the war-torn country, which has become a haven for terrorists. Speaking about Iran, Prince Saud hailed Germany's efforts to help settle the controversy over Iran's nuclear program through peaceful means so as to guarantee a nuclear-free region without losing the right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. “The Kingdome appreciates all these efforts and again asks that these should be extended to all Middle East countries including Israel,” he said.
