Friday 29th of March 2024

predator drone .....

predator drone .....

Dick Cheney, the US vice president, has met King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia with the soaring price of oil and instability in the region expected to be on the agenda. 

However, it is unclear whether Cheney will urge the leader of the world's largest oil exporter to increase output during the talks at the monarch's horse farm in Riyadh. 

"They will review a broad agenda of diplomatic and security issues as well as where we are now in the global energy market," John Hannah, Cheney's national security adviser, told reporters aboard the Air Force Two vice presidential aeroplane on Friday. 

The two men were also likely to talk about efforts to confront Iran over its disputed nuclear programme. 

Cheney will also visit Israel, the West Bank, and Turkey before returning to Washington. 

Cheney Meets Saudi King

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Gaddafi said Iran and the Arab world had historic relations that could not be ignored, with a sizeable Iranian minority in Gulf Arab countries.

He said the United Arab Emirates should seek international arbitration to solve a dispute with Iran over three Gulf islands which Tehran controls but are claimed by the UAE.

''Solve the issue peacefully,'' Gaddafi said. ''Are these islands the only thing we have lost? Arab dignity, Arab future and past have been lost.'' President George W Bush tried to shore up Gulf Arab support against Iran during a visit to the region in January. But Gulf states, which share a strategic waterway crucial to world oil flows with Iran, expressed little public backing to Bush's call.

Gaddafi said it was important for the summit to convene in Damascus despite a regional rift, adding that Arabs have failed to produce a meaningful union after decades of meetings.

''We are at crossroads. The Turks have their country, the Persians have Iran, the Arabs cannot prove their worth because they do not have a (unified) Arab state.'' Without a union, Gaddafi predicted Arab countries to turn into ''spheres of influence, protectorates ...'' ''The only thing that gathers us is this (summit) hall.''