Exiled Hamas supremo Khaled Meshaal has called for a thaw in ties between Saudi Arabia and Syria during a recent visit to Gulf kingdom, an Arab diplomat said on Sunday. "During meetings with Saudi officials, Meshaal raised the issue of Saudi-Syrian relations, which have long been tense, and stressed the importance of improving those ties," the diplomat told AFP, requesting anonymity. Relations between Riyadh and Damascus have been tense since the February 2005 assassination of Lebanese former Premier Rafik Hariri, a close Saudi ally, in a bombing widely blamed on Syria. Meshaal, who lives in exile in Syria, visited the Saudi holy city of Mecca in September to perform the umrah, or lesser pilgrimage, and to meet with Saudi officials. Fresh tensions between Syria and Saudi Arabia surfaced after a deadly car bombing in Damascus last month that killed 17 people, with Syrian official media complaining that the Saudi authorities did not condemn the attack. Syrian authorities blocked the distribution of the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat after the September 27 car bombing, the paper's Beirut bureau chief told AFP on Thursday.
The head of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas also met in Mecca with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, the Arab diplomat said. Meshaal also met with Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman for talks on Cairo's efforts to broker a reconciliation between Hamas and the rival Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the diplomat added.