SAUDI ARABIA: LIBYAN LEADER MOAMMAR GADHAFI VISIT

(12 Oct 2000) Natural Sound
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi arrived in Riyadh on Wednesday in a long convoy of cars from Damascus and Jordan on what is believed to be his first visit to Saudi Arabia in twenty years.
It is the latest stop in a tour that has seen him pay visits to Egypt, Syria and Jordan.
He was met by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy prime minister and Saudi National Guard commander.
Crown Prince Abdullah took over day to day running of the country after King Fahd, his half-brother suffered a stroke five years ago.
King Fahd is due to meet Colonel Gadhafi later this evening.
A Saudi news agency said Colonel Gadhafi would discuss with Saudi officials bilateral ties as well as the continuing violence between Israelis and Palestinians.
Gadhafi was also received by Crown Prince Abdullah,
His visits to both Jordan and Saudi Arabia suggest times are changing.
Colonel Gadhafi's relations with Arab royal families have been strained for many years - he did after all overthrow Libya's monarchy.
The upturn began when Saudi Arabia helped mediate between Libya and the West over the trial of two Libyans accused of involvement in the Lockerbie airline bombing in 1988.
Since Colonel Gadhafi handed over the two suspects last year, Libya has been steadily emerging from international isolation.
This Arab tour marks another step in that direction and Colonel Gadhafi is doing it in his own unique style, travelling by road and sea rather than plane, and sleeping in his trademark tent.
But his tour has been overshadowed by the aftermath of violence back home against African immigrants.
Thousands of Nigerians were deported from Libya after over one hundred migrant workers were killed
The attacks last month have been a major blow to his pan-African policy and the African Arab union he's been trying to promote as he travels.
Colonel Gadhafi has also been the only Arab leader to oppose plans for an Arab summit on the crisis in the Middle East, on the grounds it wouldn't achieve anything.

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