[Peace-discuss] Saudi Arabia caves in

[Dlind49 at aol.com]

The recent DOD Defense board recommendations by Mr. Pearlman to take out Saud 
Arabian oil fields and freeze bank accounts have paid off. Saudi leadership 
is caving in under threats of their own destruction.  



Saudis May Allow U.S. Use of Bases
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


Filed at 8:20 a.m. ET


UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Saudi Arabia has turned up the pressure on Baghdad, 
hinting that it might offer its desert installations as a jump-off base for 
any U.S. military campaign against Iraq -- as long as such an attack had U.N. 
sanction.

But the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, also said the rest of 
the world clearly wants the Iraq crisis resolved without ``the firing of a 
single shot.''

Saud's statement was issued Sunday in New York as the U.N. General Assembly 
wrapped up the fourth day of its opening general debate, a day on which other 
Arab leaders also addressed the explosive impasse over Iraq.

Syria's foreign minister said ``blind bias'' was focusing global attention on 
Iraq rather than Israel. Jordan urged Iraq to comply with U.N. resolutions 
and avert ``dire consequences'' for its people.

Appearing before the General Assembly on Thursday, President Bush called on 
the U.N. Security Council to take decisive action to pressure Iraqi President 
Saddam Hussein's government into allowing U.N. weapons inspectors back into 
Iraq and dismantling any Iraqi chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, or 
the capacity to build them.

If the United Nations failed to act, Bush made clear, Washington would feel 
free to attack Iraq on its own.

As the Bush administration in recent months raised this possibility of a 
unilateral U.S. attack on Iraq, the Saudis ruled out use of their bases for 
such a campaign.

Some 5,000 U.S. military personnel are stationed in Saudi Arabia, most at the 
remote Prince Sultan Air Base. In the 1991 Gulf War, Saudi Arabia was the 
main base for a half-million-strong, U.S.-led military force that drove the 
Iraqi army from Kuwait. But since then the Saudis have periodically 
prohibited the use of their soil for strikes against Iraq and, more recently, 
limited the use of their bases for the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan.

The Saudi foreign minister first commented Sunday in an interview with CNN. 
Asked whether Saudi bases would be available to Washington, Saud replied that 
if the Security Council adopts a resolution authorizing force against Iraq, 
``Everybody is obliged to follow through.''

Saud said, however, he remained opposed in principle to the use of military 
force against Iraq or a unilateral American attack.

Later, the Saudi minister issued a more complete statement, saying, ``All 
signatories to the U.N. Charter, including Saudi Arabia, are obligated to 
abide by the decisions of the Security Council, in particular those taken 
under Chapter 7 of the Charter.''

The U.N. Charter's Chapter 7 authorizes the collective use of force, under 
the Security Council, in cases of threats to international peace and security.

Saud's statement welcomed Bush's decision to take the case against Iraq to 
the United Nations, ``which will assure consensus in the international 
community behind a workable plan.''

``Whatever threat Iraq poses, it is clear that the will of the international 
community is to remove that threat in a way that does not require the firing 
of a single shot or the loss of a single soldier,'' he said.

Once international consensus is reached, Saud said, the Iraqis will have to 
respond or ``suffer the consequences.'' Earlier, in an interview with the 
London-based Al Hayat newspaper, Saud urged the Iraqis to quickly allow 
inspectors back in, to head off a Security Council ultimatum.

The Iraqi foreign minister, Naji Sabri, said here Saturday that he hoped the 
crisis could be resolved without a new U.N. resolution.

In Sunday's round of General Assembly speeches, the Jordanian foreign 
minister, representing another Arab neighbor of Iraq, also called on the 
Baghdad government to implement Security Council resolutions, including the 
return of U.N. weapons inspectors. Compliance would spare the region ``the 
dire consequences'' of war, said Jordan's Marwan Muasher.

A decade ago, the Gulf War devastated the economy of Jordan, which was 
overrun by refugees and abruptly lost, in Iraq, a vital trading partner.

The Syrian foreign minister, Farouk al-Sharaa, accused much of the world of 
``blind bias'' in dealing with Iraq while ignoring what he said was Israel's 
refusal to abide by international demands.

``Is it reasonable for the world to request Iraq implement Security Council 
resolutions while some assist Israel in being above international law?'' 
al-Sharaa asked the General Assembly, referring to U.S. support for Israel 
and to what Arabs see as Israel's disregard of U.N. resolutions calling for 
it to withdraw from Arab territories seized in the 1967 Middle East war.