Manama: Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf, seemingly distressed about Sweden’s escalating spat with Saudi Arabia, will attempt to find a solution to the problem and will hold on Monday a meeting with Foreign Minister Margot Wallström to discuss the row.

The Swedish royal palace has announced the king would meet Sweden’s top diplomat “to help contribute in finding a solution to the situation,” Sweden’s The Local reported.

“It is important to have a good dialogue and good relations between countries,” the king reportedly said, but noted that he had not been in contact with the Saudi royals.

The spat began when Wallström made remarks about social norms and judicial issues in Saudi Arabia that the Arab kingdom viewed as blatant interference in its domestic affairs.

Wallström this month said she had not been allowed to go ahead with a speech at the Arab League and Stockholm decided to end its military cooperation with Riyadh. Sweden has been selling arms to Saudi Arabia for decades, but the deal on military cooperation, signed in 2005 and renewed in 2010, was being strongly debated in the Nordic nation and has caused divisions within the Social Democrat-Green coalition government.

Saudi Arabia recalled its ambassador to Sweden and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, issued statements condemning Sweden for its flagrant interference in Saudi affairs.

On Wednesday, the UAE recalled Sultan Rashid Al Kaitoub, its ambassador to Sweden, and summoned Swedish ambassador in the country to protest the Swedish Foreign Minister’s offensive statements against Saudi Arabia.

“These remarks violate the principle of sovereignty on which normal relations between countries are based on, as they are considered interference in other country’s domestic affairs that do not respect religious and cultural characteristics of other countries and communities,” Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, said as he expressed the UAE’s “strong condemnation of the statements.”

In Stockholm, local media reported that rowing concern that Sweden’s strained relationship with Saudi Arabia could affect business in the Arab world prompted discussions of the issue between the business community and the government.

According to the report by The Local, 31 business people have warned that a government decision to halt its military agreement with the Saudis could damage Swedish exports to the Arab world.