RIYADH, 10 August — Saudi Arabia has mobilized pressure groups in the United States to help support the rights of Palestinians in their struggle against Israel, a top minister said yesterday.
“The Kingdom is facing up to the Zionist offensive against the Palestinians through pressure groups in the United States that defend their rights,” Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.
“Our brothers in the Palestinian Authority know the importance of this role and its effectiveness,” added the minister.
According to Prince Sultan, Saudi Arabia is the country that “defends the Palestinians the most and applies pressure in their favor... at the White House and the UN Security Council and everywhere.
“We will not stop until we see Jerusalem liberated and the Palestinian flag flying over liberated territories. We are sure of victory despite the power of Israel and the amount of aid it receives.”
Prince Sultan said Riyadh had, in the past, applied similar pressure on leading powers to intervene in favor of Muslims in Bosnia and Kosovo. “The Kingdom played a determining role in convincing the leading powers to adopt a firm stand against the Serbs in Bosnia and then in Kosovo,” he said.
Saudi Arabia has denounced the continuing Israeli military campaign against unarmed Palestinians. Israeli occupation forces have killed more than 500 Palestinians and injured thousands of others since last September.
Riyadh has granted the Palestinian Authority $30 million in aid since November. The Kingdom has also pledged $250 million to two Palestinian aid funds totaling $1 billion.
In his wide-ranging interview with the London-based Arabic daily, Prince Sultan also talked about Iraq. The Saudi leader urged the Baghdad regime to show its “good intentions” toward neighboring Gulf states. “Saudi Arabia bears no grudges against Iraq and has no objection to seeing it return to the Arab fold,” he said.
He called on Baghdad to show due respect to Kuwait’s sovereignty as a prerequisite for opening a new chapter in Iraq’s ties with Gulf countries.
“Recognizing Kuwait’s sovereignty will not affect Iraq’s dignity, but rather will reflect its good intentions and help bring the present situation to an end,” said Prince Sultan.
Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990 forced Saudi Arabia and other key Arab powers to join the US-led world military coalition that succeeded in ejecting Iraqi troops from Kuwait at the end of February 1991 after a seven-month occupation.
Baghdad still accuses Riyadh and Kuwait of providing facilities to US and British warplanes that launch sorties over the no-fly zone in southern Iraq to keep Iraqi military movements in check. But Prince Sultan denied that US and British warplanes, which bombarded Iraqi positions several times over the past two years, had taken off from bases in Saudi Arabia.
Prince Sultan also underlined the significance of oil as a key source of energy and urged producers to handle the product with responsibility. “Oil should not be manipulated in such a manner that it exposes the world to untold problems,” he said, noting the Kingdom’s efforts to stabilize the international oil market.
