Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faysal met with Bush Friday, in an unpublicized visit to Washington, that I inquired about the other day. "I don't have anything on this in particular, but it is interesting to note that Saud Al Faysal also made a largely unpublicized visit to Washington on Friday and had a private meeting with Pres. Bush," an American knowledgeable about the country noted. "I don't know what kind of deal the Saudis are offering Moscow, but there is clearly something important that King Abdallah wanted to convey to the great powers. Lebanon? Talking to Russia might mean something there, since so much of Lebanese policy has gone through the Security Council. Iran? Could be." Hmm. More speculation here and here.

Update:

On February 14, the Saudi-owned website Elaph carried the following report by Sultan al-Qahtani: "The Saudi Government is waging a battle with time in the search for quick solutions for the critical political crisis in Lebanon as some months have passed with the presidency in that country overlooking the eastern Mediterranean still vacant as a result of the internal argument over the candidate's identity between the loyalist and opposition parties.

"Saudi King Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz has sent his Foreign Minister Prince Sa'ud al-Faysal on a long tour distributed geographically between the east and west through Berlin, London, Paris, Moscow and Egypt, and in another version Damascus too, for the purpose of mobilizing international support for electing Lebanese Army Commander General Michel Sulayman president of the republic.

"This is not the principal political mission through which Riyadh is acting and is just the public tour while "Elaph's" well-informed sources say that Prince Muqrin Bin-Abd-al-Aziz, the head of Saudi intelligence, has started a "secret tour" lasting several days carrying verbal messages from his country's government to several world leaders all of which deal with the tumultuous Lebanese crisis.

"An informed source refused to name the destination of Prince Muqrin, who is very close to his brother the king, and whether one of the stages would be Damascus whose relations with Riyadh are going through the worst phases because of the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri who carried Saudi citizenship and was very close to the rulingfamily's members.

"All these successive signals from Riyadh somewhat underline how much it is worried by the scenarios of instability in Lebanon which is bound to strengthen the influence of foreign countries, at the top of them Iran, at a time when the latter's crisis with the West is escalating because of its controversial nuclear programme.

"According to a Beirut newspaper close to the Syrian Government, Prince Sa'ud al-Faysal made a secret visit to Damascus before his international tour during which he held talks with President Bashar al-Asad on the need to appoint the army commander president before that country slips into a civil war that would threaten stability and peace in the region.

"As-Safir newspaper said this visit failed to reach a compromise between Riyadh and Damascus which hastened the departure of the veteran Saudi
politician to Berlin in anger and after it to several international capitals for the purpose of exerting pressure on the Syrian Government.

A source close to senior decision-making circles told "Elaph" from Riyadh that the disagreement with Damascus over the identity of the next president and what Riyadh believes to be Damascus's attempt to disrupt the agreement on this president would have a negative impact on the size of Saudi representation at the upcoming Arab summit in Syria next month.

"It stressed in its statement that the matter could develop into Riyadh boycotting this summit, in which case it would have a negative effect on its success, particularly as reports are coming in from Cairo about the Egyptian president's refusal to attend, which would bring behind it other Arab stands that see in Damascus's position an "inflexibility" that is more than necessary towards solving the Lebanese crisis as political analysts are expecting. According to informed Gulf sources, there is a Qatari-Kuwaiti intervention in the crisis to influence Damascus following a visit by Prince Muqrin Bin-Abd-al-Aziz who carried two messages whose contents were not revealed to the leaders of these two countries last Monday." - *Elaph**, **United Kingdom*