Saudi Arabia on Monday voiced its hope that the positive points in the Mideast peace proposal recently spelled out by U.S. President George W. Bush will be implemented, Kuwait's official KUNA news agency reported.
After a cabinet meeting held earlier in the day, Saudi Minister of State Madani Bin Abdul-Qadir Alaqi said his country hopes that the contacts between U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and parties concerned will end in tangible and concrete steps for establishing peace in the region.
The cabinet stressed the need to enforce all relevant U.N. legality resolutions in a bid to crystallize a just and comprehensive peace acceptable to the Arab states, said Madani, whois also the acting information minister.
The minister added that the cabinet also condemned Israel for continuing aggression against the Palestinian people when the Arab and Islamic states are yearning for peace.
The cabinet, he said, urged the international community to intensify pressure on Israel to halt its aggressive practices whichobstruct world efforts to realize peace in the Middle East, and to pull out its troops from the occupied Palestinian territories.
Saudi Arabia, a key regional ally of the United States, has beenplaying an increasing role in Middle East peace efforts.
The oil-rich kingdom has welcomed some "positive elements" in the new strategy unveiled by Bush last Monday.
However, it criticizes Bush's demand for the ouster of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The kingdom launched in March its own peace initiative, which offers the normalization of Arab diplomatic ties with Israel in return for the latter's withdrawal from all the Arab lands the Jewish state occupied in the 1967 Mideast war.
(Xinhua News Agency July 2, 2002)
