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Peres to attend conference with Saudi king

President to take part in UN interfaith conference scheduled for mid November. Conference may set stage for rare public meeting between Israeli, Saudi leaders

President Shimon Peres plans to join Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah at a UN interfaith conference this month, Peres' office said Wednesday, raising the possibility of an unprecedented public meeting between the heads of state of the longtime adversaries.

 

Peres, a Nobel Peace laureate, has recently spoken favorably of a Saudi-sponsored plan that calls for a comprehensive peace between Israel and the Arab world.

 

A spokeswoman confirmed he would attend next week's gathering in New York, though it was unclear whether the two men would meet separately or discuss the peace plan. Various world leaders, including President Bush, Arab leaders and the Italian prime minister are expected to attend.

 

"President Peres and King Abdullah will take part in a special assembly that will be entirely dedicated to the bringing together of religions and will make remarks from the same stage together with presidents, prime ministers and kings," Peres' office said.

 

It said Peres, who is traveling to the conference with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, hopes to bring along Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders from Israel as well.

 

Public meetings between Israeli and Saudi officials are extremely rare, and never have such senior figures come into public contact.

 

Saudi Arabia has confirmed that Abdullah is attending the gathering. Under the 2002 Saudi peace plan, the Arab world would recognize the Jewish state in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from all lands captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

 

Israeli officials have said the peace plan is a good basis for negotiations, though they want to retain some of the captured territories.

 

The conference is the second in a series of dialogues spearheaded by Abdullah.

 

The UN event is scheduled to take place on November 11-13 in New York. The first conference was held in Spain in July and brought together leaders from many of the world's widely practiced religions.

 


פרסום ראשון: 11.05.08, 18:53
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