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Both Saudi King Abdullah (picture) and Israeli President Shimon Peres are due to attend the UN conference.
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RIYADH (AFP)---A Saudi diplomat denied in remarks published on Friday that Riyadh had invited Israel to a UN inter-faith meeting in New York next week, saying the invitation had come from the United Nations.
"The president of the UN General Assembly addressed invitations to all UN member states," Saudi Arabia's ambassador to Lebanon, Abdul Aziz Khoja, was quoted as saying in Saudi and Lebanese newspapers.
The November 13 conference is being held at the initiative of Saudi Arabia, which has no relations with Israel. Both Saudi King Abdullah and Israeli President Shimon Peres are due to attend.
The meeting, which aims to promote dialogue among the world's monotheistic religions, will be a follow-up to a similar conference in Madrid in July. This was an initiative by King Abdullah, whose country hosts Islam's holiest shrines and does not permit the public practice of religions other than Islam.
Peres's office said on Wednesday that he will be accompanied by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and that they intended to use the conference to meet leaders from the Arab world.
Khoja said Lebanese politicians who "accused" Saudi Arabia of inviting Israel should "check their facts," according to the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat and other newspapers.
Saudi Arabia is the author of an Arab blueprint offering Israel peace in return for withdrawal from occupied Arab lands but refuses to have ties or contacts with Israel in the absence of a Middle East peace settlement.