nationalpost.com{308B11A2-AACD-4E0C-A842-63A79FEC4045}
Wasn't this an interesting headline ?
EDIT: I mean if that doesn't flush out fanatical reprisals upon the Saudis themselves what will ?
Saudis would help U.S. attack Iraq
Foreign Minister says kingdom will serve as
staging ground if UN gives go-ahead to war
Michael Higgins
National Post, with files from news services
Monday, September 16, 2002
Saudi Arabia indicated
yesterday it will allow
the United States to
use bases in the
kingdom to launch an
attack against Iraq if
military action is
approved by the
United Nations.
The significant shift in
Saudi policy comes as
one world leader gave
the clearest indication
yet that a war against
Iraq could be launched
early next year.
Prince Saud al-Faisal,
Saudi Arabia's Foreign
Minister, said his country -- which has been an outspoken
opponent of military action against Iraq -- would now bow to any
UN endorsement of a strike on Iraq.
"If the United Nations takes a decision, by the Security Council, to
implement a policy of the UN, every country that has signed the
charter of the UN has to fulfill it," Prince al-Faisal said.
When asked specifically whether Saudi bases would be available
to Washington, the Prince said: "Everybody is obliged to follow
through."
In an interview last month, Prince al-Faisal had declared that U.S.
facilities in the desert kingdom would be off limits for an attack.
Support for George W. Bush's tough stance on Iraq was growing
yesterday among the nations of the world.
Pressure from many countries, including Arab ones, was
increasing on Iraq to bow to demands to allow the return of
weapons inspectors and head off a Security Council resolution
that could open the way for military action.
Yesterday, Colin Powell, the U.S. Secretary of State, said he
expected quick action from the international community to
condemn what he called Iraq's defiance of Security Council
resolutions.
The United States would give other countries a few days to
consider the President's call for tough action to enforce 16 earlier
UN resolutions, but hoped to begin crafting fresh ones by the end
of this week, he said.
Work on these should include a tight timetable for Iraqi
compliance and should be completed within "weeks, not months."
"Saddam knows what he has to do. It's been out there for years,"
Mr. Powell said.
"We can't let this linger forever. Meanwhile the President retains
all his options."
Condoleezza Rice, the U.S. National Security Advisor, urged the
UN to stand firm.
"When an understanding is reached among Security Council
members about what constitutes Iraqi compliance, it's not an offer
to begin negotiations with the Iraqi government," Ms. Rice said.
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, said he was sure
Saddam Hussein would allow UN weapons inspectors back into
the country.
"However, if I should be proved wrong tomorrow and Iraq does
not comply with the UN ... then I think one can think in terms of
[action] in January or February," he said after seeing Mr. Bush at
the presidential retreat at Camp David.
Senior military planners also said any offensive is unlikely until
early next year.
It could take weeks for Mr. Bush to win the approval for military
action that he is seeking from Congress and the UN, while military
commanders say it would take at least 90 days to amass 80,000
to 100,000 troops in the Persian Gulf region, and even longer to
assemble a larger force.
Key envoys from the Arab League appeared to swing behind the
U.S. at the weekend and said Iraq should heed international calls
to allow inspectors back.
Arab League ministers said Naji Sabri, the Iraqi Foreign Minister,
told them Iraq was ready to let the inspectors return but not
before certain conditions were met. The UN has rejected any
conditions.
"We want Iraq to implement the Security Council resolutions
which will end the current crisis," said Mahmud Hammud, the
Lebanese Foreign Minister, speaking on behalf of Arab foreign
ministers who met Saturday with Kofi Annan, the UN
Secretary-General, in New York.
Last week, Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher of Egypt, among the
most influential Arab states, said his government would support a
U.S. strike on Iraq if it were under UN auspices.
Over the weekend, Igor Ivanov, the Russian Foreign Minister, told
Mr. Sabri that Iraq "must fulfill all UN Security Council resolutions
without any preconditions."
Russia is traditionally sympathetic to Iraq.
The foreign ministers of Austria, Greece and South Africa are also
believed to have told Mr. Sabri of the peril Baghdad faces if it
refuses to comply with UN demands.
Alexander Downer, the Australian Foreign Minister, told Mr. Sabri
that "the best strategy to avert war is to allow weapons
inspectors in."
Mr. Downer said Mr. Sabri had responded by reiterating Iraqi
demands for an end to UN sanctions and to the "no-fly" zones
enforced by the United States and Britain in Iraqi airspace.
Britain warned Saddam that time was running out for him to
comply or face the overthrow of his "dreadful, brutal regime."
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said Saddam had "played
games with world peace long enough" and faced a stark choice.
"Either he deals with those weapons of mass destruction or his
regime will have to end," Mr. Straw said.
Speaking to the UN General Assembly in New York, Mr. Straw
warned that Saddam had "persistently mocked the authority'' of
the UN and said it was time to "make our minds up'' about how to
deal with him.
"If we fail to deal with this challenge, the UN will be seriously
weakened,'' Mr. Straw said. "We have to be clear to Iraq and to
ourselves about the consequences which will flow from a failure
by Iraq to meet its obligations.''
Mr. Bush, who has accused Iraq of stockpiling weapons of mass
destruction, has proposed a UN Security Council resolution that
would set a short deadline for a resumption of inspections and
threaten action if Baghdad does not comply. Mr. Bush also has
said the United States would act unilaterally if Iraq continued its
defiance and the international community did not respond.
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