RIYADH, 15 December 2002 — The Kingdom, which shares a long border with its northern neighbor Iraq, is to test a siren warning system nation-wide next week, a newspaper reported yesterday.
Sirens throughout the vast the Kingdom will sound at midday next Saturday to “verify safety and readiness” for use in case of emergency, an unidentified official source at the Civil Defense Department told Okaz. The test was “not related to the existing circumstances in the region, or an indication that a possible US war on Iraq is imminent,” the source said.
The test will be conducted in three phases, first indicating the approaching danger, second its occurrence and third its clearance.
“The tests will be conducted at the same time through the department’s operation rooms all over the Kingdom,” he said.
The source urged the public not panic upon hearing the siren. “This is just a testing of the system,” the source said, adding that such tests are conducted all over the world to make sure the system is in order. Saudi Arabia, whose territory was used as the launching pad for the US-led campaign against Iraq in 1991 to liberate Kuwait, has so far resisted US pressure to play an active role in a threatened war against Baghdad.
