IRAN: Iran's President Mohammad Khatami headed to Saudi Arabia yesterday evening for talks with Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz on the crisis between Iraq and the United States, the official IRNA news agency reported.
Mr Khatami is to meet the desert kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah, on Saturday after spending two days on a private pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites Mecca and Medina, IRNA said. It is the second visit to Saudi Arabia by an Iranian head of state since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The election of the moderate Mr Khatami as Iranian president in 1997 prompted a gradual thaw in relations, culminating in his landmark 1999 visit to the kingdom.
Saudi Arabia has pressed ahead with the rapprochement despite misgivings in the US, which has said it regards Iran as part of an "axis of evil", along with Iraq and North Korea.
The longtime rivals signed a security pact in April last year during a visit to Tehran by Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, the first Saudi interior minister to travel there since the revolution.
Shared opposition to US threats of military action against Iraq has pushed Iran and the pro-Western Gulf states yet further together in recent months.
During a visit to Tehran early last month, Saudi Foreign Minister Mr Saud al-Faisal joined with Iranian officials in speaking out strongly against President Bush's push to oust President Saddam. - (AFP)