CAIRO, 26 November 2002 — Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal said here yesterday that the United States was not pressuring the Kingdom to provide military facilities in case of war with Iraq.

“There is no American pressure on Saudi Arabia in this field,” Prince Saud told journalists when asked if the United States had asked Arab countries to cooperate in a possible war against Baghdad.

The prince made the remarks following a meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, to whom he gave a message from the Saudi leadership about the “current situation”.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher and Jordanian Information Minister Mohamed Adwan last week denied media reports that Arab countries, including theirs, had received US requests for cooperation in a possible war against Iraq.

Prince Saud said he hoped Iraqi cooperation with the inspectors “will lead to the application of UN resolutions and end the problem”.

In Iraq, UN experts who arrived in Baghdad yesterday said they will operate “like detectives” in inspecting suspected arms sites.

“We operate like detectives and when we have clues, we have to be flexible and change our plans,” said Melissa Fleming, spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

“One of the most important points of our strategy is the ability to conduct unannounced inspections, we will never reveal where we are going,” she told reporters upon her arrival at the hotel housing the inspectors in Baghdad.

The 11 inspectors from the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and six from the IAEA are due to start work tomorrow.

Fleming warned that “we are here just to test cooperation on the ground. We do not believe any words of any government ... we believe actions, we believe what we can see with our own eyes.

“We have had a lot of promises of cooperation, we believe that this is a good start, but we have suspicious minds, we are here to test cooperation among other things,” said Fleming, a US national.

Mohamed El-Baradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said UN arms inspections set to resume in Iraq will be “a substitute” rather than a prelude for war if Baghdad cooperates with them.