The pro-Western Gulf monarchies, which lined up behind a U.S.-led military coalition that drove Iraqi occupation troops from Kuwait in 1991, have publicly opposed any military campaign to disarm Iraq.
Saudi Arabia said it would not let the U.S. launch attacks on Iraq from its territory.
"Thank God Iraq has accepted ... We hope Iraq will cooperate with the United Nations' envoys," Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef, a brother of King Fahd, said in remarks to al-Riyadh Arabic daily published Thursday.
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Gulf Arabs welcome Iraq's acceptance of U.N. terms
BY ISA MUBARAK
Reuters
DUBAI - Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies have breathed a sigh of relief after Iraq accepted a new U.N. resolution on disarmament and urged their neighbor to cooperate with the world body to avert a new war in the region.
The pro-Western Gulf monarchies, which lined up behind a U.S.-led military coalition that drove Iraqi occupation troops from Kuwait in 1991, have publicly opposed any military campaign to disarm Iraq.
Saudi Arabia said it would not let the U.S. launch attacks on Iraq from its territory.
"Thank God Iraq has accepted ... We hope Iraq will cooperate with the United Nations' envoys," Saudi Interior Minister Prince Nayef, a brother of King Fahd, said in remarks to al-Riyadh Arabic daily published Thursday.
"We pray that the Iraqi people will live in peace and that this apprehension (about war) that has gripped us all will be eliminated," he added.
Iraq Wednesday accepted the resolution which paves the way for the unconditional return of weapons' inspectors to the country probably Monday after a four-year absence.
KUWAIT CAUTIOUS
Kuwait, which has said it would let U.S. troops use its territory against Iraq, cautiously welcomed Baghdad's decision.
"It is the first positive step in the right direction, but is not the end," Information Minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah said in comments carried by the official KUNA news agency. "We feel relieved ... and hope other positive steps would follow."
But Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammad al-Salem al-Sabah appeared more cautious.
"Let us wait and see. Iraq in the past accepted resolution 687 and then kicked the international inspectors out," the agency quoted him as saying late Wednesday.
In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), a Foreign Ministry spokesman said that by cooperating with the inspectors, Iraq would rob the U.S. of any pretext to use force to disarm it.
"A new war will have dangerous repercussions for the security and stability of the region and the whole world," the unnamed spokesman said.
"The UAE hopes ... that this will prepare the path to resolve the crisis peacefully...and lead to lifting of the (U.N.) sanctions," the spokesman told the state-run news agency.
Qatar, which analysts say was a likely launchpad of any U.S. strike on Iraq, said U.N. inspectors must avoid any provocative act and complete their work quickly in preparation for lifting the sanctions, imposed for Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Destruction of Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction is one of the main conditions for lifting the sanctions.
The Gulf states -- grouped in a loose political and economic alliance -- sit on 45 percent of the world's proven oil reserves. The alliance, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Oman. |
