RIYADH DENIES INVITING ISRAEL

Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Abdul Aziz Khoja, has denied the remarks published that Riyadh had invited Israel to a UN inter-faith meeting in New York next week, saying the invitation had come from the United Nations secretariat. “The president of the UN General Assembly addressed invitations to all UN member states,” Khoja was quoted as saying in Saudi and Lebanese newspapers. The November 13 conference is being held at the initiative of Saudi Arabia, which has no relations with Israel. Both King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, and Israeli President Shimon Peres are due to attend the conference. The meeting, which aims to promote dialogue among the world’s monotheistic religions, will be a follow-up to a similar conference in Madrid in July. This was an initiative by King Abdullah. Peres’s office said that he will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and that they intended to use the conference to meet leaders from the Arab World. Khoja said Lebanese politicians who “accused” Saudi Arabia of inviting Israel should “check their facts,” according to Arabic daily Al-Hayat and other newspapers.