Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Saudi Arabia on Saturday for talks with King Abdullah expected to focus on the sectarian bloodshed in Iraq, the crisis in Lebanon and Tehran's nuclear row with the West. Before leaving Tehran, Ahmadinejad said he would discuss how Iran and the kingdom can work together to reduce tensions in the Middle East.
"We will discuss with (Saudi) King Abdullah the joint work that we have to carry out in the Islamic world and the region," he told reporters at Tehran airport. "Iran and Saudi Arabia are two significant countries whose relations in recent years have been expanding and developing, and we are interested in expanding our stable ties," he said.
Ahmadinejad will hold talks with the king, whom he previously saw at an Islamic summit in Mecca in December 2005, and is only expected to spend a few hours in the kingdom. Relations between the two regional heavyweights have been strained over non-Arab Iran's growing influence in Iraq and its perceived backing of Shiite militias at war with the once-ruling Sunni minority there.
The Iranian president, whose country has been accused by the United States of meddling in the region, said Iran was ready to do all it can to reduce political tensions in Lebanon. "If Lebanon requests the Islamic Republic of Iran to assist its national unity and independence then we are ready to help," he said.
Lebanon has severely tested ties between predominantly Shiite Iran and Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia, a key US ally which provides substantial financial aid to Beirut and which has close links with the Western-backed government of Sunni Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.
The anti-Syrian Lebanese administration has been crippled by an opposition ministerial walkout and an open-ended protest spearheaded by the Iranian-backed Shiite movement Hezbollah, raising fears of Sunni-Shiite clashes similar to the sectarian bloodbath in Iraq.
Iran has said it has been working closely with Saudi Arabia to reduce political tensions in Lebanon, although it has denied the existence of a joint Saudi-Iranian plan to calm the situation. Shiite Iran is also accused by the United States, Riyadh's top Western ally, of arming Shiite militants attacking US forces in Iraq - charges that Tehran vehemently denies.
"We should allow the Iraqis to implement their decisions and enforce security themselves," Ahmadinejad added on Saturday. In December, King Abdullah likened the situation in the Arab world to "a powder keg waiting for a spark to explode," and Riyadh and Tehran recently began working together to reduce tensions in Lebanon.
The two oil powerhouses have sought to contain differences over Iraq, which at one point saw Saudi Arabia accusing the United States of effectively handing the country to Iran and triggered reports - swiftly denied by Riyadh - of possible Saudi intervention on behalf of Sunnis.
Saudi commentators see Ahmadinejad's visit as a sign that the two countries are pooling efforts to ease regional crises at a time when Tehran is under heavy Western pre keen to avert a US-Iran military showdown which could destabilise the entire Gulf region.
The visit "might yield a joint initiative" to break the deadlock in Lebanon and lead to "an understanding that will ease the conflict in Iraq," analyst Anwar Eshki told AFP. The leading daily Al-Riyadh said a "half success" of the Saudi-Iranian summit would be "better than the continuation of crises" in regional trouble spots. "Mr President," said the Saudi Gazette, "your visit in this darkest hour yet for our region offers hope" of achieving Muslim unity. "As we people of the desert know, it's always darkest before dawn."
Ahmadinejad's moderate predecessor, Mohammad Khatami, visited Saudi Arabia in 1999 and 2002, repairing relations which had nose-dived after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
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