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Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz has said that the conservative kingdom does not plan to lift a ban on women's driving, in comments published Tuesday.
"It is regrettable that this matter has become an issue, though it does not deserve to be. I am astonished why this issue has been discussed," Nayef told the Kuwaiti Al-Anbaa newspaper.
"This is a secondary issue and is not on our priorities (list) ... I urge everyone to forget about it ... Such an issue is decided in accordance with public interests and women's dignity," he said.
The controversy over the decades-old ban raged earlier this year when the appointed consultative council refused to debate a proposal submitted by member Mohammad al-Zalfa calling to lift the ban.
Information Minister Iyad Madani told an economic forum in the Red Sea city of Jeddah in February that there was "nothing in the Saudi legislation that forbids Saudi women to apply for a driving license."
But Nayef insisted that it would be better if "we achieved rights that are more important for Saudi women."
"Based on directives by the king ... We will be considering the possibility of Saudi women taking part in municipal elections," in the near future, he said. Saudi women were barred from landmark municipal elections last year.
Women in the oil-rich desert kingdom are forced to cover from head to toe in public, and cannot travel without written permission from their male guardian.
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AFP 141351 GMT 11 06
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