LONDON -- Britain's future king and queen will set out Monday on a tour that will take them to Saudi Arabia despite a drinking scandal that resulted in the expulsion of nearly three dozen Britons from the oil kingdom this week.
Prince Charles and his wife, Princess Diana, will visit the Persian Gulf states of Oman, Qatar and Bahrain in addition to Saudi Arabia on the nine-day swing -- their first official trip to the Middle East.
Buckingham Palace officials said the uproar over alcohol at a birthday party in Riyadh would have no effect on plans for the tour. The trip is the first to the region by British royals since 1984 when the duke of Edinburgh went to Saudi Arabia and Princess Anne visited the United Arab Emirates.
Charles and Diana will head for Oman first, then to Qatar, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia before returning to Britain on Nov. 19.
British officials and diplomats said they hoped the royal journey would ease tension between the two countries over the drinking episode, the latest in a series of difficulties in Anglo-Saudi relations.
In 1981, the British government was embarrassed by the televising in Britain of a movie, 'Death of a Princess,' based on the execution of a Saudi princess as a result of her affair with a commoner. The Saudis were enraged and the British issued a formal apology.
Last October, Riyadh again was upset by the leaking of a letter written in 1984 by Sir James Craig, former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia, describing the Saudis as incompetent and narrow-minded.
The drinking escapade was triggered when Saudi religious police, enforcing a strict Moslem law against consumption of alcohol, raided a private birthday party largely composed of British male and female nurses Sept. 18.
Twenty-three Britons were expelled Monday, eight others the following day and three more arrived back in Britain Thursday.
