MOSCOW, 20 April — Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal accused Israel yesterday of committing war crimes in the Jenin refugee camp and said it was to blame for US Secretary of State Colin Powell’s failure to secure a Middle East cease-fire.
Prince Saud, speaking after talks in Moscow, also said the Kingdom would never resort to using oil as a weapon in the conflict to support the Palestinian cause, and pledged to maintain production levels.
Quoted by Itar-Tass news agency, Prince Saud said it was vital to send "an international peacekeeping force" to the Palestinian territories. "The world community must see with its own eyes what is happening in the Palestinian territories and stop the havoc being wrought there by the Israeli Army," Tass quoted him as saying in an interview. "Events in the Jenin refugee camp and other cities cannot be described in any way other than war crimes," he said.
Tass said the dispatch of "peacekeepers" to the Middle East would be high on the agenda of talks between Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, and US officials in Washington next week.
Arab states initiated a resolution in the UN Security Council on Thursday calling for a "third party" presence in Palestinian areas.
The document, which faces a US veto, seeks an immediate Israeli pullout from Palestinian towns and an end to the siege of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat’s headquarters.
The prince, who met President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, denounced Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s proposal last week to hold a peace conference, but not necessarily with the participation of Arafat. "This is a ridiculous proposal, when some parties are not even invited," he told reporters.
Lack of progress in peace talks, he said, was pitching the region into an increasingly dangerous situation. "If there is no consensus, the Middle East will move toward an abyss from which only Allah knows the way out," he said.
Prince Saud also laid to rest any concern that the world’s biggest oil exporter might back an oil embargo. "This is like cutting off your nose to spite your face," he said. "Oil is not a weapon. Oil is not a tank. Saudi Arabia will continue to produce oil."
The prince told Tass Russia was well placed to promote the peace process alongside the United States, United Nations and European Union. All four sides have had envoys in the region. Russia’s influence has declined in the region in the post-Soviet period.
