Abd Rahman Rashed, editor of the Saudi-owned, London-based Arabic daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, expressed a different point of view.

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Mr Hashemi had told the Pan-Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat during his stay in Qatar that he would go next to Saudi Arabia on his tour of "friendly states".

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Imad al-Din Adib in the pan-Arab Saudi-owned Al-Sharq al-Awsat agrees that the killing of the US ambassador and three of his aides "is a humanitarian and political catastrophe" with implications for "Washington's ties with the region as a whole".

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