JEDDAH, 24 September 2005 — Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said he has been warning top US government officials that Iraq is rapidly heading toward disintegration and there is the risk of a regional war.

Speaking to reporters at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, Prince Saud said he was so worried he is warning “everyone who will listen” in the Bush administration. “There is no dynamic now pulling the nation together,” the prince said.

Iraq’s potential division into a Kurdish state in the north, a Sunni state in the center and a Shiite state in the south would “bring other countries in the region into the conflict,” he explained.

Turkey has long threatened to forcefully prevent Iraq’s Kurds from declaring independence. Shiite Iran could increase its influence in Iraq, where it already enjoys strong sympathy in the Shiite-majority government. “This is a very dangerous situation,” he said.

Prince Saud blamed much of Iraq’s ills on US decisions such as designating “every Sunni as a Baathist criminal.”

While the prince did not refer to the Bush administration directly, he was referring to an order issued by US proconsul Paul Bremer soon after the 2003 fall of Saddam Hussein. Bremer banned all members of Saddam’s largely Sunni Arab Baath Party from holding government jobs.

Prince Saud said he did not believe Iraq was engulfed in full-scale civil war but the trend was moving in that direction.

Asked what Saudi Arabia feared most about the trend, Saud said, “It will draw the countries of the region into the conflict and that is the main worry of all the neighbors of Iraq.”

The Iraq war and occupation have cost nearly 2,000 American lives, countless Iraqi lives and over $200 billion but there has been little progress in stopping a bloody Sunni Arab insurgency that began soon after the 2003 invasion.

Saudi Arabia has voiced fears that the draft constitution, due to be put to a referendum in four weeks, could split apart the country and disenfranchise a Sunni minority that was thrown out from power by the US-led invasion.

Prince Saud said the Sunni-Shiite division was not pronounced under Saddam Hussein, a Sunni, but was inflamed when the postwar US occupation authority disbanded the Iraqi army and banned members of the Baath Party from jobs and leadership positions.

He urged the Shiite majority who now hold much of the political power in Iraq to reach out to the Sunnis and reassure them that they will be treated as “equal citizens.”

He, however, did not see a purposeful US policy to divide Iraq into Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish states but “this is what is going to happen if things continue as they are.”

He did not urge Iraqis to reject the constitution but said the key would be how the document was implemented.

Prince Saud said the Bush administration and his government agreed Iraq should be free, prosperous and united. But he said when he raised concerns about growing political divisions in Iraq, the Americans noted that many doubted the wisdom of holding elections, which turned out well, and they expressed confidence the constitution would also be effective.

Prince Saud repeated apprehensions he made about Iran in a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations on Tuesday. He said Tehran was increasingly interfering in Iraq by providing money and weapons to Shiites in the country. He also voiced his concern that Iran might renege on its pledge to support a nuclear-free Middle East. However, he indicated his preference for dialogue to solve the nuclear issue with Tehran, rather than taking it to the UN Security Council.

He said Saudi Arabia enjoys frank and candid relations with Iran. “Iran has great potentials to become a stabilizing power in the region,” he said. He said Riyadh would continue its dialogue with Tehran on the issue of weapons of mass destruction.

“We are confident that we can reach an understanding, taking into account the interests of all countries in the region.”