Prince
Charles happy to meet Trump to discuss interfaith issues
Royal
sources say Charles’s connections with Islamic world might help his
views to carry weight with the US president
Robert Booth
Monday 30 January
2017 15.02 GMT
Prince Charles would
welcome a meeting with Donald Trump to discuss interfaith relations,
sources close to him have said, amid a growing outcry at the US ban
on travel from seven Muslim-majority nations.
A royal source said
Charles remained willing to meet Trump if the state visit went ahead,
saying: “It is not his style to turn his back.”
Charles’s record
as an advocate for interfaith relations and his high-level
connections in the Islamic world, including close relations with
Saudi and Gulf state royals, were cited by royal sources as reasons
why his views might carry weight with Trump.
More than 1.25
million people have signed a petition asking Downing Street to
withdraw the US president’s invitation to a state visit to Britain.
The prince is said
to have become increasingly concerned about religious intolerance,
and last week told a private reception at Lambeth Palace that he was
dismayed that a report on religious persecution around the world had
gone under-reported.
His supporters say
he is in a position to speak frankly to world leaders without
worrying about short-term politics.
“The prince has
gone into the Middle East over recent years at the government’s
request and has been the honest and neutral broker,” one source
said. “He has listened, reported back and convened. If that is
required now with President Trump, the only people who can decide is
the government.”
They added: “For
this country, it would be helpful for him [Trump] to sit down with
the Prince of Wales.”
Despite the
international outcry at Trump’s travel ban, the prince is likely to
approach any meeting with Trump as an opportunity rather than a
problem, allies said.
Charles has
repeatedly highlighted the plight of persecuted Christians in Syria,
an issue that Trump has also raised, and this may provide a bridge
between the two men.
Charles told Radio
4’s Thought for the Day last month: “We are now seeing the rise
of many populist groups across the world that are increasingly
aggressive towards those who adhere to a minority faith.”
Clarence House
believes the topics of interfaith dialogue and religious persecution
are as likely to come up at any meeting between Trump and Charles as
climate change, another faultline between US and US policy.
Charles reportedly
hopes to hear what Trump has to say on climate change and build a
relationship with the US president on that issue.
Clarence House was
keen to stress that it remained “very relaxed” about whether the
planned state visit includes a meeting with Trump. There were reports
that Trump’s team were concerned Charles would lecture Trump,
although Clarence House made clear he had no such intention.
Buckingham Palace
will be tasked with helping to organise the visit with the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office. As tens of thousands of people prepared to
attend demonstrations around the UK on Monday evening calling for the
invitation to be rescinded, there appeared to be little progress on
settling on dates for the visit or the programme, including whether
it would take place at Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle.
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