JEDDAH, 2 February 2006 — Interior Minister Prince Naif censured yesterday the double-standard adopted by Western powers toward Israel’s nuclear weapons.
“This puts a question mark not only before the Arabs but also before the whole world...and this gives justification for every country to think of having nuclear weapons,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the prince as telling reporters in Tunis.
In a wide-ranging press conference in the Tunisian capital after attending a meeting of Arab interior ministers, Prince Naif affirmed Saudi Arabia’s stand on the sacrilegious cartoons published by a Danish daily denigrating the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him).
“Nobody can pressure the Kingdom to change its stand on a basic issue like this,” he added. “Saudi Arabia respects opinion. Everybody has the right to express his opinion. But leading that to the extent of abusing the Prophet is totally unacceptable. It’s not only the Kingdom but also the world’s 1.3 billion Muslims and all religions reject this behavior, because Prophets are sacrosanct and above everything,” he said.
“If such people are free to commit such things, others are also free to reject them totally. I don’t think it is reasonable for international press or any organization or state to oppose the decision taken by an Arab and Islamic country on this issue,” the prince said and urged Vatican and other religious authorities to condemn such sacrilegious acts.
Prince Naif also touched on the victory of Hamas in recent parliamentary elections in Palestine.
“It’s the elections that brought the Islamic resistance movement (Hamas) to power. They should have expected such a scenario before,” he said.
