BEIRUT, 30 June — Saudi intelligence chief Prince Nawaf yesterday criticized US President George W. Bush’s demand for the ouster of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat to help bring about peace in the Middle East.
Prince Nawaf, in an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, from Beirut where he is convalescing after a major surgery, reiterated that Saudi Arabia was opposed to any US military strike on Iraq or hostile steps against Iran. Bush’s vision for the Middle East contained “some positive and important points, aside from the condition that the Palestinian leadership be ousted, a condition that is not useful for peace,” Prince Nawaf said.
“It is illegal to oust an elected leadership. The US should have been keener on retaining the legitimate president because he is their representative. How can a president wanted and elected by the people be ousted? Will Americans accept a president who is forced upon them?” the prince wondered.
“The Kingdom opposes any interference in the affairs of the Palestinians, whom we must leave to choose their own president and not the US or any other country to impose a president on them,” the prince added. Prince Nawaf also rejected in clear terms the idea of any participation in an attempt to persuade Arafat to step down as the Kingdom is basically against such a demand.
Addressing a press conference in Jeddah last Wednesday, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal stated that the Palestinian people alone should choose their president. He also pointed out that Bush’s speech had contained a number of positive points such as his emphasize of the Palestinian people’s right to live with freedom and dignity in an independent state and the withdrawal of Israeli forces to pre-1967 borders.
Prince Nawaf said the Kingdom was fully prepared to bring both the parties together. “I also wonder why the US resorts to a difficult course while we already have a just and comprehensive peace initiative proposed by Prince Abdullah, the regent, which was adopted by Arab summit in Beirut in March as the Arab peace plan.” While admitting that there is some progress in the American stand on the issue, the prince warned the US that it would not be in its best interests to be a party in the dispute while it has chosen itself to play the role of a mediator.
On Iraq, the prince said Riyadh was opposed to any US plan to strike at the country to topple the regime of Saddam Hussein, which Washington accuses of developing weapons of mass destruction. “The Kingdom does not support a war or strike against Iraq,” he said, stressing that the nature of the ruling regime in Baghdad was an “internal Iraqi affair. It is true that we don’t see eye-to-eye with the Iraqi regime, but we oppose in principle that a regime is imposed on the Iraqis from overseas or it is changed by force.”
Any US military intervention would “harm their interests and further complicate the situation in the region,” the prince said. Since the Kingdom has very good relations with Iran, it does not support the anti-Iranian posture of the United States, he said.
