DUBAI Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz said in comments published on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia was not mediating between Iran and the United States. The London-based Saudi newspapers Asharq al-Awsat and Al-Hayat also quoted Prince Sultan as telling reporters in the northern Saudi town of Tabuk that the kingdom's relations with its non-Arab Persian Gulf neighbor were improving. Asked to comment on reports that Saudi Arabia had told U.S. Vice President Al Gore earlier this month it was willing to mediate between Washington and Tehran, Prince Sultan said: On Saudi Arabia's relations with Iran, I cannot say they are at their best but they are heading to the better, Asharq al-Awsat quoted the prince as saying.

Therefore the visit of the American vice president had no influence on us and there are no Saudi mediations between America and Iran at all, he said. Saudi-owned newspapers, including Asharq al-Awsat, said earlier this month that Saudi Arabia told Gore that Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal was ready to convey Washington's views to Iran during his forthcoming visit to Tehran. Saudi newspapers said Prince Saud would visit Tehran on May 26 and 27.

U.S.-Iranian ties, which plunged to their lowest level after Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled the pro-Western Shah, have begun to thaw since the election last year of Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. Khatami has called for a cultural dialogue between Iranians and Americans but stopped short of advocating resumption of political ties with the U.S. administration. Ties between Saudi Arabia and Iran, the biggest oil producers of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), have been improving since Khatami's election.

(Reuter)