Walter Steinmeier expressed thanks to the Kingdom's government for warm welcome and generous hospitality during his first ever visit to the Kingdom since his second term of office as foreign minister. He pointed to the strong relations between the two countries in the economic, educational and cultural fields, noting that Germany will become Janadriah festival's guest of honor in 2015. He said that today's talks with Prince Saud Al-Faisal dealt with the situation in Yemen which, thanks to the efforts of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the GCC, has started a promising transitional process but now sustaining some kind of setback by some Yemeni sectarian forces, a backward development that intentionally derails the formation of a new government in Sanaa. The second issue of the talks was the situation in the Middle East, he said, citing the terrorist existence of ISIL. He said the group of the so-called ISIL is a threat to the region and the world, noting that Saudi Arabia is taking part of the in the airstrikes by international coalition. But airstrikes are not sufficient to wipe out the group, a matter necessitating finding a political strategy to match with the military work, he added. He said Germany rejects any attempt to create an equation between Islam and ISIL, thanking those who also explained the issue to the public and rejected ISIL ideology. --More 22:49 LOCAL TIME 19:49 GMT تغريد
