JEDDAH, 24 December 2003 — Saudi Arabia will not discuss any loan write-offs with Iraq’s interim US-appointed government, Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said yesterday.
He said the Kingdom would wait until Iraq had an independent government before looking into the possibility of reducing the debt.
“This (debt) has to be discussed with a government with total sovereignty, so... this issue is now premature,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted him as saying.
“There is an international dialogue and we are willing to take part and discuss, but I don’t think there is scope for a serious dialogue unless there is an Iraqi government,” he said.
Financial analysts estimate Iraq’s debt at $108-$123 billion, but that could rise to as much as $166 billion if compensation claims for Baghdad’s invasion of Kuwait are included — more if Iran seeks compensation for an earlier invasion by Iraq.
Iraq is currently run by a governing council installed by the United States after it ousted Saddam Hussein in April. Coalition forces are set to transfer power to an independent Iraqi government by July 2004 and a constitution would be written and elections held by end-2005.
Iraq owes $21 billion plus the same again in unpaid interest to the Paris Club, which groups sovereign creditors in working out debt reduction for poor nations.
On the issue of Iraq joining the Gulf Cooperation Council, Prince Saud said the Iraqi Governing Council announced it had not applied for membership in the six-member regional body.
The accession of Yemen to the GCC would take some time, he said, but added the Kuwait summit, which ended on Monday, decided to strengthen cooperation with Sanaa.
Prince Saud welcomed Libya’s decision to renounce its weapons of mass destruction program as well as Iran’s signing of additional protocols to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). “These decisions go along with the general trend to keep the Middle East free of WMD,” he said, urging the international community to pressure Israel to sign the NPT too.
The prince said there was “nothing strange” about a meeting between Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, and Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad on the sidelines of the GCC summit in Kuwait City.
Any unsolved differences between the two countries would not affect either their bilateral ties or the work of the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Asked whether the Saudi ambassador to Qatar will return to Doha, the prince said: “I believe that things will get settled, God willing.”
While granting that recent US warnings to its citizens in the Kingdom were within Washington’s rights, he objected to “predicting danger when all possible security measures are in place.” He insisted the Kingdom had taken adequate measures to protect expatriates in the country.
Referring to recent calls for elections in Saudi Arabia, Prince Saud said: “Elections are a means not an objective... it is a means to select the best government. I don’t know whether there is anything to fear if there is a different method to achieve the same objective.”
New Minister for Shoura Council Affairs Named
Saudi Arabia has created a new ministerial post and appointed Dr. Saud ibn Saeed ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Muthami state minister and Cabinet member for Shoura Council affairs, the Royal Court announced yesterday.
