Kingdom Won’t Give Saddam Asylum: Saud

Author: 
Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, Editor in Chief, Asharq Al-Awsat
Publication Date: 
Sun, 2003-03-09 03:00

JEDDAH, 9 March 2003 — Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said yesterday that Saudi Arabia will not give asylum to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein if he decides to go into exile.

“We have given asylum too many people in the past and this is enough,” he said.

In a joint interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, and Al-Mustaqbil satellite TV, he defended a UAE proposal that Saddam step down to avert a devastating war in the region.

“The UAE initiative was not to harm Iraq but to protect the country from the aftermath of a military confrontation,” the prince said, adding that Iraq has not yet given an official reply to the proposal.

Prince Saud warned against the consequences of a military attack on Iraq, adding that it would lead to the division of the country and trigger a conflict in the region.

The minister reiterated that his country was not worried about the establishment of a democratic government in Iraq.

In the hour-long interview, which took place at the Conference Palace in Jeddah, Prince Saud highlighted the Kingdom’s endeavors over the past weeks to avoid a war on Iraq.

According to an AFP report, Prince Saud denied widespread media reports that Arar airport has been closed to civilian flights because US troops were landing there to take part in an anticipated US-led war.

Foreign wire services reported the closure of Arar airport, some 15 km (9 miles) from the Iraqi border, but the minister refuted the reports and stressed that the Kingdom was opposed to any unilateral military action against its neighbor.

“I don’t know where this information came from,” AFP quoted Prince Saud as telling Orbit television.

“The Kingdom has said and said again it does not agree with the use of its territory for any aggression against Iraq or any other Arab country,” the prince affirmed.

A Saudi Arabian Airlines official in Arar said on Friday that the airport was shut for maintenance, and that flights were being diverted to Sakaka airport, some 150 km south of Arar in the Kingdom’s northern Al-Jouf region.

Prince Saud’s denial notably followed a Feb. 26 Washington Post report that the United States and Saudi Arabia had reached new agreements, which would allow expanded US air operations from Saudi territory in the event of a conflict. The paper said there was also a tacit agreement that would allow the United States to conduct bombing missions from Saudi Arabia after an initial wave of US air strikes as long as no public announcement was made.

Meanwhile, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said in remarks published yesterday that a League ministerial committee will go to Baghdad soon for talks on the crisis following its visit to the United Nations.

The Al-Hayat Arabic daily reported that the US administration declined to meet the Arab ministerial group. “The US administration feels that discussions, which may not be successful, are not useful,” the paper quoted informed US sources as saying. An Arab League source confirmed that the visit to Washington, which was initially on the delegation’s agenda, would not take place but did not give any reasons for the cancellation.

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