RIYADH, May 17: Saudi Arabia will host a consultative summit of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council on May 26. The summit has been convened by Saudi Arabia to discuss and study the situation in the Palestinian territories in view of the Israeli rejection of the Arab peace initiative and its continued violence against the Palestinian people.

Meanwhile, reports here indicate that the Palestinian President Yasser Arafat intends to travel to Saudi Arabia, next week, to discuss the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict with the Saudi leadership. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah’s peace initiative was endorsed late March by an Arab League Summit, while President Arafat was confined to his presidential compound in Ramallah.

The intended visit of President Yasser Arafat would be significant in many ways. It would be his first travel outside the Palestinian areas. Analysts will be looking at his first excursion outside the Palestinian territories with deep interest and curiosity.

More so, because some Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Ariel Sharon have vowed in past not to let the Palestinian President back in the Palestinian territories, once he leaves out of it on a foreign trip.