RIYADH, 23 March 2003 — The Kingdom yesterday urged the United States and Iraq to halt what it termed an illegitimate war which risked igniting further Arab anger. Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal also said the United Nations should help Iraqis take control of their country when the conflict ended.
“Stop the war... Let’s sit down, let’s have a breather after what we have seen... Let’s have diplomacy work, that would be the message we would send to both,” Prince Saud said.
“(Iraqi President) Saddam Hussein now knows what his country faces. If he asks the people of Iraq to sacrifice their lives... perhaps he should also begin to think of what sacrifices he can make for his country,” he told a briefing for selected foreign reporters.
His comments appeared to suggest that the Iraqi leader should step down, but Prince Saud repeated that the Kingdom would not offer Saddam asylum if he went into exile.
Prince Saud said he did not believe that the US and British military had the necessary knowledge to rebuild Iraq or reunite its complex society. “I hate to imagine... these youthful American and British military personnel dealing with these issues about which they have heard nothing,” he said. “It just seems to me that it will be a very tough situation to handle unless the United Nations comes to the fore.”
Prince Saud said the United Nations should be an arbitrator capable of deciding what conditions should apply in Iraq after the war, even though it could not prevent the conflict.
The prince said the Kingdom had no plans to influence who should be the next leader of its Arab neighbor, and the United States should consider including members of the existing Baathist government in its reconstruction.
“The government we would like to see in Iraq after the war is the government formed by the Iraqi people,” he said. “The Iraqis are people who can handle themselves, their country. They should be allowed to do their work.”
The prince voiced concern about reports that Turkish troops had entered northern Iraq and said it was vital that other foreign powers did not get involved in the fighting. Turkey has denied the reports.
Saudi Arabia, he said, has prepared humanitarian aid for up to 24,000 Iraqi refugee families at its northern town of Arar, to be given to them in their own country. He said he hoped that Arab anger that flared in violent protests in several capitals since the war started would be defused, provided there was no occupation of Iraq or exploitation of its resources by outsiders.
“This (anger) is what we are trying and hoping to avoid in this country. We are working hard to prevent it... We will work very hard toward having a soft landing,” he said.
