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| Rawdat Khoraym, a wild life park and oasis 100 kms northeast of Riyadh |
French President Francois Hollande flies into Riyadh this
afternoon on his second official visit to Saudi Arabia before flying by
helicopter to Rawdat Khoraym for talks with King Abdullah.
Rawdat
Khoraym, or Khoraym Gardens, is a wild life park and oasis that blooms in the
middle of the desert, chiefly in springtime.
Situated some 100 kilometers northeast of Riyadh, Rawdat Khoraym
is the King’s favorite retreat.
Hollande told Lebanese journalist Ms Randa Takieddine in an exclusive interview for the
pan-Arab daily al-Hayat he will focus
in his talks with the monarch on the Iran file and the political solution in
Syria.
“Bilateral cooperation between our two countries is
consolidating in all fields. France and the Kingdom are partners in working for
peace, security and stability in the Middle East.”
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| Hollande and Abdullah in Riyadh last Novemeber |
The French president said he would take up with King Abdullah
the world powers’ talks with Iran on its nuclear ambitions and ways of reaching
a political solution to the Syria crisis, the need to uphold Lebanon’s
stability as well as France’s partnership with the Kingdom in the defense
domain.
He reiterated there could be no political solution to the Syria
crisis with Bashar al-Assad remaining in power, saying: “Assad is not fighting Muslim
extremists. He simply uses them to put pressure on the moderate opposition.”
France, Hollande stressed, continues to coordinate steps with
moderate Syrian opposition forces to find a political outcome in Syria.
He hoped the international community would come together at the
Geneva-2 Syria peace conference to kickoff a process for a genuine transfer of
power in Syria that would preclude the escalation of violence there and in the
region.
The French leader strongly condemned Saturday’s car-bomb
assassination in Beirut of Lebanon’s former finance minister Mohamad Chatah, an
economist who held a senior position at the IMF. Chatah “was a man of dialogue
and peace,” he said
Hollande called for the cessation of violence that is
threatening Lebanon, saying: “It is vital to respect the country’s
constitutional deadlines, particularly the date set for presidential elections”
in May.
President Michel Sleiman's mandate runs out on May 25 and there
are fears a successor will be hard to find because of huge disagreements
between Lebanon's pro- and anti-Syria blocs.
