Iran’s Ahmadinejad travels to Saudi Arabia for talks

Iran Focus: Tehran, Iran, Dec. 06 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad travelled to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to take part in a meeting of heads of Islamic states, according to the state-run news agency. Iran Focus

Tehran, Iran, Dec. 06 – Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad travelled to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to take part in a meeting of heads of Islamic states, according to the state-run news agency.

The two-day conference is set to take place in the holy city of Mecca and will conclude on Thursday.

Separately, Fars news agency, which is close to the office of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, reported on Tuesday that Ahmadinejad had met with the Khamenei prior to his trip.

Iranian Foreign Minister travelled to Riyadh Monday evening to take part in a conference of Islamic nations’ foreign envoys set to take place in Mecca on Tuesday.

In November, Saudi King Abdullah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz Al Saud announced that the United States-led war on Iraq benefited Iran’s clerical rulers. “The result of the war in Iraq has been to the benefit of the Iranian regime”, the Saudi King told a London-based daily.

King Abdullah said that Tehran had sent Riyadh several messages, explaining that Iran and Syria were under great international pressure and were heading for crises.

Tehran had reportedly requested Riyadh’s support in the face of U.S. pressure over its suspected nuclear weapons program, support for the insurgency in Iraq, and opposition to the Middle East peace process.

Ali Akbar Velayati, a former Iranian Foreign Minister and a top foreign policy aide to Khamenei, recently travelled to Saudi Arabia to deliver a message from senior Iranian officials to King Abdullah, according to Iran’s state-run press.