A meeting between King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and Israeli president Shimon Peres that took place on the margins of a U.Nn Interfaith Dialogue Conference organized last November in New York, has been revealed by William Burns, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, overseeing the Middle East. "The king spoke with Israeli President (Shimon) Peres, the first such exchange between Saudi and Israeli leaders," said Burns during a meeting on Saudi-American relations in Washington that began on Monday.
Israel, who holds no official diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, had been invited on King Abdullah’s initiative to participate in the Conference running from 12-13th November. Burns gave no details on the circumstances of the meeting between the Saudi monarch and the head of the Jewish state.