November 15, 2003	Saturday	Ramazan 19, 1424

RIYADH, Nov 14: Despite a firm ‘No’ by the Saudi interior minister to have any dialogue with extremist elements in Saudi society, the push for mediation between the government and militants appear to be continuing.

One Saudi scholar suggested on Thursday that Crown Prince Abdullah had agreed to meet the group despite a warning from the interior minister Prince Naif that dialogue with terrorists was out of the question. “We can talk to them only with the gun and the sword,” Naif said of the militants.

“A meeting with Crown Prince Abdullah and a group of more than 40 Saudi scholars is scheduled from Friday over the next three days in Makkah to consider mediation,” a scholar, Safar al- Hawali told Al-Hayat newspaper.

Al-Hawali who is one of the Islamic scholars leading the mediation proposal said: “This initiative aims to stop any new terrorist attack, (to stop) the bloodshed and to open a dialogue between the government and the extremists as well as the wanted armed men.” The initiative also aims to try to convince wanted militants to surrender to the authorities and to renounce violence.

“We are in the process of working out the details and the mechanism of this initiative and to propose it to the Saudi crown prince during his visit to Makkah,” al-Hawali said.

King Fahd had already delivered a hard-line message earlier the week, warning that an iron fist would be used to crush extremism after Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for Saturday’s deadly bombing.

Hawali said the authorities’ agreement to debate this mediation proposal will encourage us to pursue our efforts to preserve the unity of the country and to halt these (destabilization) attempts.