RIYADH, 27 September — Interior Minister Prince Naif yesterday accused the United States of applying a double standard in the Middle East, banning Iraq from acquiring lethal weapons, which Israel is allowed to keep.
Prince Naif also disclosed that the Kingdom had bankrolled the US-led 1991 Gulf War to the tune of $80 billion. "They (Americans) forbid Iraq and (other) Arab states from acquiring weapons of mass destruction which Israel is allowed to have, even though it threatens regional and world security," he told reporters. Having said that, Saudi Arabia does not want any country in the region to hold such weapons, Prince Naif added.
The United States has threatened to attack Iraq and oust Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on grounds that he is pursuing weapons of mass destruction. The Saudi official denounced perceived Western media campaigns against his country and other Arab states, saying they were "orchestrated by the Zionist lobby which works against the American people’s interests."
"Such campaigns will not cause the Saudi leadership and people to swerve from their commitments to their religion, to their nation, and to the world," he said, stressing that Riyadh rejected terrorism. "The most powerful nation in the world is hostile to Arabs and Muslims as a result of the influence the Zionist lobby wields in the United States," the prince said.
Prince Naif defended the aid extended by Riyadh to families of Palestinians killed in the two-year-old uprising against Israeli occupation. "Saudi Arabia helps Palestinian families who lose their children or breadwinners" in the conflict with Israel, said the minister, who heads a Saudi committee for the support of Al-Quds intifada.
He dismissed what he said was a claim by the Israeli newspaper Ma’ariv that he and Riyadh Governor Prince Salman, who heads another committee for support of the Palestinians, backed terrorism. "We have nothing to fear because Saudi Arabia provides aid to families of Palestinian victims of Israeli repression, chiefly families who lost their breadwinners," he said.
Prince Naif also revealed that Riyadh contributed "$80 billion toward the cost of the Gulf War," which led to the eviction of Iraqi occupation troops from Kuwait by a US-led coalition in February 1991. He did not give details.
