Three months before the joint attacks by Egyptian and Syrian forces on Israeli forces in the Sinai and the Golan Heights, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Syrian President Hafez Assad visited King Faisal in Riyadh in August 1973. In turn, King Faisal visited Damascus in 1974 and persuaded then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to include Syria as a key participant in any Arab-Israeli negotiations. King Khalid, successor of King Faisal, stated in 1975 that Saudi Arabia supported the Syrian role in the Lebanese civil war. Hafez Assad participated in the Riyadh summit held in 1976.