Saudi- Syria talks futile, king tells Russia 

(MENAFN - Arab News) Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah told Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that dialogue on Syria was "futile." He said Russia should have coordinated with the Arabs before using its veto against the UN Security Council resolution on Syria.

King Abdullah made this comment during a telephone conversation with Medvedev. According to the SPA, the Russian president called the king and discussed the situation in Syria, other regional issues and ways to boost bilateral ties.

Medvedev expressed his country's stand on the Syria issue while King Abdullah said Saudi Arabia would never back down from its religious and moral stand on events taking place in Syria.

"Our Russian friends should have coordinated with the Arabs ... before using the veto to block a resolution on Syria at the UN Security Council," the SPA quoted the king as saying.

"But now, dialogue about what is happening (in Syria) is futile," the Saudi ruler told the Russian president during the talk on the escalating violence.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's forces, trying to hammer the city of Homs into submission, on Wednesday killed 19 more people including two Western journalists.

The journalists - Marie Colvin, an American working for Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, and French photographer Remi Ochlik - were killed on Wednesday when shells fired by government soldiers hit the house they were staying in, activists and witnesses said.

A witness told Reuters by phone that shells hit the house where the journalists were staying and a rocket hit them as they were escaping.

On Tuesday, the soldiers captured and shot dead 27 young men in northern villages.