Relations between Saudi Arabia and Middle Eastern and Near Eastern countries

This file concerns Saudi Arabia's relations with the Middle East and regional affairs. It contains press cuttings and correspondence on:

• Israel's view of the threat posed by Saudi Arabia, including of the analyst David Aphek
• Saudi views on Jordanian-Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) dialogue and agreement and speculation on whether the Palestinians will accept UN Security Council Resolution 242
• A meeting on 7 June 1985 between King Hussein Bin Talal of Jordan and the Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher discussing the Jordanian-PLO dialogue
• A Palestinian delegation visit to Rome, Paris and possibly London
• US and matching Saudi funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA)
• A one-day visit by King Hussein on 9 July
• Saudi funding for the PLO and the possibility of hosting its financial headquarter in Saudi Arabia
• A meeting between Yasser Arafat and King Fahd on 31 October
• Jordanian-Syrian reconciliation talks under Arab League auspices and a visit to Damascus on 10 September by Crown Prince Abdulla Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, Chadli Klibi, and the Tunisian Prime Minister Mohammad Mzali for meetings with President Hafez Al Assad; an assessment of the rapprochement by Julian Amery MP in a letter to Mrs Thatcher
• Talks between the Syrian Prime Minister Abdul Rauf Al Kasm and the Jordanian Prime Ministers Zaid Rifa’i
• Syria’s role in Lebanon and the Damascus Agreement on the Palestinian camps
• The release from his kidnap in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley of the Saudi Arabian Consul Hussein Farrash, a newspaper interview with him and his comments on a video of British hostage Alec Collett
• The hijacking of an airliner in Beirut
• Israeli complaints about the threat from missiles to their reconnaissance aircraft over Lebanon
• Saudi assessments of the prospects for settling the Iran-Iraq War
• The authority given for the Royal Saudi Air Force to engage Iranian aircraft
• Deadly explosions in Kuwait, and Kuwaiti opinion that Iran was responsible
• Visits by the Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz to see King Fahd, and to London
• A possible visit to Iran by Yusif Bin Alawi Bin Abdulla on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)
• A GCC Interior Minister meeting in Riyadh
• A meeting between Crown Prince Abdulla and President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt at the GCC Summit in Muscat
• Saudi support for Iraq in its oil exports, the improbability of it helping Iran, but its unwillingness to see an Iranian collapse
• Reports of the involvement of Sheikh Ahmad Zaki Yamani with an Indian group supplying arms to Iran
• Efforts to mediate between Iran and Iraq by Australia
• The mediation efforts of the Swedish Prime Minister Olaf Palme and UN official Jan Eliasson
• The views of the Secretary General of the Islamic Conference Organisation Syed Sharifuddin Pirzada on the Iran-Iraq War, Afghanistan, and other issues
• A visit to London by Iranian official Khalid Jindan
• The appointment of a new Iranian Chargé d’Affaires Mohammad Hussein Atarme
• A visit to Tehran by the Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Bin Faisal Al Saud and his assessment of the Iranian mood
• Reports that Saudi Arabia intends leasing Boeing aircraft to Iran
• A visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Velayati to Jeddah for talks with King Fahd and others
• Talks between the US Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead and King Fahd, Crown Prince Abdulla and the Foreign Minister Prince Saud
• A possible Arab Summit in Casablanca, and the improbability of Yasser Arafat, Hafez Al Assad and Saddam Hussein all attending
• The Gambia Donors’ Conference of the Islamic Development Bank (IDB)
• A visit by Sudan’s Transitional Military Council member Sowar Al Dahab
• Saudi financial assistance to Sudan
• A denial of rumours that Saudi Arabia has been supporting the Libyan opposition
• The views of US Chargé d’Affaires Rocky Suddarth on Saudi foreign policy and regional affairs
• A denial by Saudi Arabia that it has been giving funds to Oman in exchange for distancing itself from the US and the repatriation of Iranian forces in Dhofar
• Oman’s establishment of relations with the Soviet Union, and Saudi reluctance to do likewise
• A visit by Sheikh Ali Bin Mussali to the Yemen Arab Republic with ‘personal’ funds for the President Ali Abdulla Saleh
• A Saudi and an IDB loan to People's Democratic Republic of Yemen (PDRY)
• PDRY allegations of subversive training camps in Saudi Arabia
• Peruvian foreign policy.