Manama: The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud and Kuwait’s Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad held talks in the Saudi capital Riyadh that covered bilateral relations, the developments in the region and issues of shared interest.
The Saudi Press Agency (SPA) did not give further details about the talks, but said King Salman hosted a lunch banquet in honour of Shaikh Sabah who had arrived hours earlier to the kingdom and was welcomed at the airport by the Emir of Riyadh Prince Faisal Bin Bandar Bin Abdul Aziz and his deputy Prince Mohammad Bin Abdul Rahman Bin Abdul Aziz.
Speculation
No reason for the visit has been mentioned by the official news of the two countries, although speculation has mounted that it was related to Kuwait's mediation efforts to reach a settlement for the Gulf crisis that has marked the region since June 5 when Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt severed their diplomatic and trade relations with Qatar over its support for extremists and funding of terrorism.
Kuwait a member of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that also comprises Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, has been exerting efforts to bring the two sides in the dispute together, but no breakthrough has been achieved yet.
Demands
The four countries insist that Qatar respond positively to its list of 13 demands before steps could be taken to restore relations.
Kuwait is also keen on ending the crisis before December when the country is scheduled to host the next GCC summit.
Despite statements by Kuwait that it was ready to welcome the GCC leaders for their annual formal summit, no signal has been given yet by the Riyadh-based GCC secretariat general that the summit would proceed as planned.
Reports speculated that the summit could be postponed or cancelled or even moved to Riyadh and that Qatar would not be invited. However, no official reaction to the reports has been made by any of the six GCC states.
