Iran’s Foreign Minister arrives in Riyadh for Arab Summit — a first?

The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting News Network is reporting that the Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has now arrived in Riyadh for the Arab Summit. He was apparently invited only on Sunday.

“Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, heading a political delegation, arrived in Riyadh early Wednesday to attend the 19th Arab League summit in the Saudi capital. The two-day summit, opening Wednesday, is scheduled to discuss crises in Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine. Iran’s nuclear program will also be among topics to be reviewed by the participants in the summit. Leaders and senior officials from 23 Arab and Islamic states as well as United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu and EU Foreign Policy Chief Javier Solana are taking part in the two-day summit. Foreign ministers of China, Russia and India are also attending the summit. Libya is the only Arab state that is not participating in the summit.”

http://www.iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=233977&n=21

This must be the first time ever that an Iranian minister will have been invited to an Arab Summit.

This is now confirmed in an AP story about a report on CNN’s Turkish Channel:
“…Iran’s foreign minister said meanwhile a female British sailor held captive by Iran may be released later Wednesday or on Thursday, a Turkish TV station reported.
‘The woman soldier is free either today or tomorrow’, CNN-Turk television quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki as saying on the sidelines of an Arab summit meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia…On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said the woman, identified as sailor Faye Turney, 26, had been given privacy…”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070328/ap_on_re_eu/british_seized_iran

In addition to seeing whether or not there will be any greater movement on the possible liberation of all these British marines and sailors, it will be interesting to see if there is any movement on the Iran-Iraq border in the Shatt Al-Arab (where, despite Saddam’s having torn up the 1975 Algiers-brokered agreement with the Shah, the thalweg or mid-point line in the water is still recognized as the boundary, according to international law experts).

It will also be interesting to see if there is any movement on the long-standing dispute over three islands (Abu Musa and Greater and Lesser Tunb) in the Persian Gulf that the United Arab Emirates and Iran both claim. Iran administers all three Islands. At one point, the British recognized Iranian control of these Islands, but that seems to have changed. The Greater and Lesser Tunbs are located 20km from an Iranian Island, and are in an important sea lane in the Strait of Hormuz, through which much of the world’s oil supply passes. Abu Musa seems to be almost mid-way between Iran and the U.A.E.

And, of course, it will be interesting to see if there are any takers on Iran’s proposal for a Persian Gulf regional consortium on fuel production for peaceful nuclear energy (Iran says the facility should be located in Iran), or on regional security arrangements.

The EU ‘High Representative’ Javier Solana is also in Riyadh for the Arab Summit, so there will surely be contacts about the new offer for ‘talks to see if there is a basis for negotiations”.

UN SG BAN Ki-MOON is accompanied by Under Secretary-General Lynn Pascoe, the highest-ranking American in the UN System, who was the U.S. Ambassador to Indonesia until taking up his UN post.