Saudi King to make rare visit to Syria for talks on Mideast peace
Visit to be first by Saudi ruler since the assassination of former Lebanon PM Hariri caused deep rift.
By Reuters Tags: Saudi Arabia Syria Israel newsKing Abdullah of Saudi Arabia will meet Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus this week to discuss restarting efforts towards a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, political sources said.
The visit will be the first by the Saudi ruler to Syria since the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri, which caused a rift in relations between Damascus and Riyadh.
The official Syrian news agency announced the visit but did not give an exact date.
Ties between Syria and Saudi Arabia, which back rival factions in Lebanon and among the Palestinians, improved in the last several months, and Assad met King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia in September.
Saudi Arabia is the main supporter of Hariri's son Saad, who is in talks with Lebanese politicians to form a new government. Syria and Iran back the Lebanese Shi'ite movement Hezbollah, the main party opposed to Hariri.
A United Nations investigation has implicated Syrian security officials in the assassination of Rafik al-Hariri, a Lebanese parliamentarian and former prime minister who was well connected with the Saudi royal family and had Saudi nationality.
Syria has denied any role in the killing. A United Nations tribunal to try suspects in the case started work in March.
U.S. President Barack Obama began pushing for better ties with Syria soon after taking office in January.
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How strange, His Nibs, the last Absolute Monarch on Earth, is going to visit Syria in pursuit of peace.
The more the Arab leaders talk and getinvolved the better the process. Remember, King Abdullah proposed the moderate Arab states sign a the Peace Proposal of 2002. Time is right to keep talking. Also, there is a shared threat from Iran to all these countries. Make pece now.
The Wahhabhist Chieftain has no moral standing to discuss about peace. Their 'peace' is sponsoring Islamist-Jihadist terrorism around the world, and funding the Taliban Islamist-Jihadists in fighting against NATO Forces in Afghanistan. Without them funding Islamist-Jihadist terrorism in the region, there would not be any Middle East conflict. Americans must never forget that Saudi thugs attacked America and murdered 3000 Americans in cold blood on 9/11!