Riyadh, Apr 14: The foreign ministers of countries neighbouring Iraq will meet in Riyadh on Friday to review the fallout of the war, Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said today. The "emergency regional conference" was called by Saudi Arabia on instructions from King Fahd and crown Prince Abdullah, Prince Saud said in a statement carried by the official SPA agency. "The conference comes in response to the current circumstances and developments in Iraq, which affect the Iraqi people in particular, and the repercussions on the countries of the region in general," he said.
Prince Saud, who made the announcement after a surprise visit to Damascus today, did not name the countries which would take part in the meeting.
But Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Maher said today that he had also been invited to attend the meeting, although Egypt, a powerful regional player, is not a neighbour of Iraq.
Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Syria, Iran, all of which border Iraq, and Egypt held a regional conference on January 23 in Istanbul in a bid to prevent the US war on Iraq.
Kuwait, which provided a launchpad for US troops heading to Baghdad and backed the war, also borders Iraq.
Following the fall of Baghdad, Saudi Arabia has been active diplomatically as a new situation emerges in the Gulf.

French foreign minister Dominique de Villepin held talks here yesterday with Prince Saud and both men agreed that the return of Iraq to Iraqi control must remain a priority.
Bureau Report