Saudi denies inviting Israel to interfaith meet

A Saudi diplomat denied in remarks published on Friday that Riyadh had invited Israel to a UN interfaith meeting in New York next week, saying the invitation had come from the United Nations.

"The president of the UN General Assembly addressed invitations to all UN member states," Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Lebanon, Abdul Aziz Khoja, was quoted as saying in Saudi and Lebanese newspapers. The November 13 conference is being held at the initiative of Saudi Arabia, which has no relations with Israel. Both Saudi King Abdullah and Israeli President Shimon Peres are due to attend.

The meeting, which aims to promote dialogue among the world's monotheistic religions, will be a follow-up to a similar conference in Madrid in July.

This was an initiative by King Abdullah, whose country hosts Islam's holiest shrines and does not permit the public practice of religions other than Islam. Peres's office said on Wednesday that he will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and that they intended to use the conference to meet leaders from the Arab world. They were not expected to practice Judaism any more in Saudi Arabia than they do in Israel. Khoja scolded Lebanese politicians who had accused Saudi Arabia of inviting Israel that they should "check their facts," the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reported.

Tags: Islam, Livni, Peres, Saudi, Saudi Arabia, anti-Israel Arabs, diplomacy, interfaith

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Comment by JMKC on November 15, 2008 at 1:58am: So, the potluck is off?!?!

Comment by RedSniper on November 10, 2008 at 3:37pm: "The meeting, which aims to promote dialogue among the world's monotheistic religions, will be a follow-up to a similar conference in Madrid in July. " - so, why the politicians are the ones who are attending the conference?

Comment by Robert Bernier on November 10, 2008 at 10:09am: The Kingdom of Saudia.
Without its oil, the Kingdom of Saudia would have been one of the poorest countries of the world. The enormous flood of money from the export of oil makes Saudia a rich country. Instead of investing its wealth in the infrastructure of the country and developing basic agricultur and industry, the money is spent on promoting the Wahhabi doctrine of terrorism and hate to the entire non Muslim world as described at : http://israelagainstterror.blogspot.com/2007/12/saudi-arabias-jihad-in-middle-east-and_2060.html