SAUDIS LAUGH AT U.S. AND WTO

AS POSTED LAST WEEK, WHEN SAUDI ARABIA WAS GRANTED ADMISSION TO THE WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION LAST YEAR, THEY PROMISED TO STOP SUPPORTING THE ECONOMIC BOYCOTT OF ISRAEL. WTO MEMBERS ARE BANNED FROM BOYCOTTING OTHER WTO MEMBERS. ISRAEL WITHDREW ITS OPPOSITION TO SAUDI ARABIA'S JOINING THE WTO WHEN SAUDI ARABIA PROMISED TO END ITS BOYCOTT. THEY HAVEN'T DONE SO. IN FACT, THEY ARE PROMOTING ITS EXTENSION.

Saudi Arabia to host Israel boycott event
Despite a promise made to Washington last November to drop its economic boycott of Israel, Saudi Arabia plans to host a major international conference next week aimed at promoting a continued trade embargo on the Jewish state, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The Post also found that the kingdom continues to prohibit entry to products made in Israel or to foreign-made goods containing Israeli components, in violation of pledges made by senior Saudi officials to the Bush administration last year.

“Next week, we will hold the ninth annual meeting for the boycott of Israel here in Jidda,” Ambassador Salem el-Honi, high commissioner of the Organization for the Islamic Conference’s (OIC) Islamic Office for the Boycott of Israel, said in a telephone interview.

“All 57 OIC member states will attend, and we will discuss coordination among the various offices to strengthen the boycott,” he said, noting that the meeting is held every March. The OIC, consisting of 57 Muslim countries, is based in Jidda, as is its boycott office. Honi, a former Saudi diplomat, has headed the boycott office for the past four years. The scheduled gathering is listed on the OIC’s official Web site in a section entitled “Provisional Calendar of Meetings.”

Hamed Salah a-Din, of the OIC General Secretariat, confirmed in a telephone interview that the conference would take place from March 13 to 15, describing it as “our regular annual meeting about the boycott.”

The Saudi decision to host the parley appears to run counter to assurances that Riyadh gave the Bush administration when Saudi Arabia was seeking entry into the World Trade Organization (WTO). On November 11, the WTO’s ruling general council voted to grant Saudi Arabia entry into the prestigious group, which aims to promote international free trade, after it agreed to scrap restrictions on doing business with Israel.