Following the meeting between His Royal Highness Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, the Deputy Premier and Commander of the National Guard, and Mr James Baker, Special Envoy of U.S. President George W. Bush, His Royal Highness Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister, said that the meeting discussed the reconstruction of Iraq.
The two sides agreed that reconstruction of Iraq requires a substantial debt reduction following the establishment of an internationally recognized Iraqi government.
The Crown Prince expressed Saudi Arabia’s keen interest in promoting the stability and prosperity of Iraq, and its sovereignty and territorial independence. Saudi Arabia was thus among the largest contributors at the recent Madrid Conference.
Regarding Iraqi debt to the Saudi Arabian government, the Crown Prince affirmed the readiness of the Kingdom to enter into negotiations with other principal creditors regarding substantial reduction of the debt. The outcome of negotiations would have to be endorsed by an internationally recognized Iraqi government, hopefully in the year 2004. What constitutes “substantial debt reduction” is subject to agreement between the creditors.
Source: SPA
