Riyadh: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal has underlined that there will be no preconditions for the initiative taken by King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz in which he invited Iraqi political leaders to meet in Riyadh to agree on a national government to end the current political vacuum in Iraq.
"There is no intention for having an international presence during the talks as the meeting is for Iraqis, they are the one concerned. Focus will be on Iraqis' efforts and there would not be any 'hint' of intervention in Iraqis' affairs," the Saudi foreign minister said during a press conference Sunday night in Riyadh. He reiterated the Kingdom's support for any Iraqi solution.
Prince Saud Al Faisal noted that of concern to Saudi Arabia was the solution Iraqis agreed upon.
He added that King Abdullah's initiative was based on Arab League resolutions and that it respected the spectrum of Iraqi people.
He reiterated his country's absolute rejection of any attempt to intervene in Iraq's affairs during the proposed Iraqi political leaders' meetings in Saudi Arabia.
Commenting on a question about the possibility of Iran's attendance at the meeting, the Saudi foreign minister said Saudi Arabia would not be present at the meetings and would not be part of the talks.
Saudi Arabia would be at the service of Iraqi political leaders, and no other country would take part in the meetings, Prince Saud Al Faisal said.
He noted that no date had been set for the talks but presumably they would be held after the coming annual pilgrimage.
The Saudi foreign minister pointed out that the Kingdom had no reservations about the participation of any Iraqi leader. He also said there was no contradiction between the initiative of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the one made by Masoud Barazani, President of the Iraqi Kurdistan region.
He said what Saudi Arabia wanted was for the Iraqi political leaders to reach positive outcomes that would help take Iraq out of its current political crisis.
