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Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Shame on this kind of custodians! |
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| jaihoon |
| 09/16/02 at 00:03:53 |
| Kingdom could join anti-Saddam coalition By a Staff Writer JEDDAH, 16 September — Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said yesterday that Saudi Arabia would cooperate in a US-led attack on Iraq if the UN Security Council gives the green light. "If the United Nations takes a decision, by the Security Council, to implement a policy of the UN, every country that has signed the UN Charter has to fulfill it," Prince Saud said in an interview with CNN television network. "A decision of the Security Council under Chapter Seven (of the Charter) is binding on every member country" of the United Nations, the prince said. Prince Saud, however, expressed optimism that the deadlock with Iraq over the return of UN arms inspectors would be resolved soon. He welcomed US President George W. Bush’s decision to push for action against Baghdad by the UN first. "I think we are moving in the right direction," he said. Saudi Arabia had earlier stated that it would not allow the US forces to use its territory to strike Iraq. It had also warned that an attack on Iraq would destabilize the whole region. In his CNN interview, Prince Saud also said that the Kingdom would work to keep oil prices stable in case of a clash with Iraq. "We will do everything to try to keep the balance," he said. The Kingdom would also work to ensure other members of the OPEC did the same, he added. Earlier in an interview with Al-Hayat Arabic newspaper, Prince Saud urged Baghdad to agree to UN weapons inspections to avoid a war, which risks breaking up the country. "Since Iraq says it does not possess weapons of mass destruction and has no plans to produce any, why doesn’t it agree to the return of inspectors to settle the issue", the prince asked. Such a move by Baghdad would be "wise" and "would spare the Iraqi people," the Saudi minister said. He hoped the Baghdad government would agree to the return of the inspectors. The disarmament inspectors withdrew from Iraq on the eve of US airstrikes in December 1998 and Baghdad has refused to allow them back, alleging many were Western spies. "They can say they agree to the inspectors in line with the approach outlined by the UN secretary-general on Thursday," Prince Saud said. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the resumption of inspectors was an indispensable first step to show the world Iraq did not have weapons of mass destruction, as it repeatedly claims. If that proves to be the case the sanctions imposed in 1990 over the invasion of Kuwait could be suspended and finally lifted. However, if Baghdad refused to allow inspections, "we fear that the suffering of the Iraqi people will worsen and we will be worried about the unity, independence and stability of Iraq," Prince Saud said. Iraq wants to make the return of inspectors conditional on the lifting of UN sanctions imposed on it when it invaded Kuwait in 1990. Meanwhile, Egypt denied as "totally untrue and baseless" a Kuwaiti press report that said it had agreed to let US forces use its territory as a launch pad for an attack on Iraq. "As far as Egypt is concerned, this report is totally untrue and baseless. This matter has not even been discussed, not with the Americans not with others," an official spokesman told the state-run MENA news agency. The agency said the spokesman was reacting to a report in yesterday’s Al-Seyassa daily which said US forces would be stationed in Turkey and Israel and a number of Arab countries, including Egypt, in preparation for a war on Iraq. Egypt has consistently voiced its opposition to a US attack on Iraq, but its foreign minister, Ahmed Maher, on Friday said Cairo would support an attack if the United Nations endorses it. President Hosni Mubarak is expected to travel to several Arab countries to gather support for an initiative aimed at convincing Iraq to allow UN weapons inspectors back into the country. |
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