LONDON, 9 October 2004 — Saudi Arabia has emphasized the need to settle all outstanding international conflicts including Palestine and Iraq within the purview of ongoing efforts to eradicate terrorism, saying these issues are serving as fuel for terrorists.
Addressing a security conference in Berlin on Thursday night, Prince Turki Al-Faisal, Saudi ambassador to Britain, highlighted the plight of Palestinian people reeling under the Israeli occupation forces as well as the worsening security situation in Iraq.
The ambassador stressed the importance of strengthening international cooperation against terrorism and promoting cultural understanding between peoples. “Terrorism poses the biggest threat to world peace and security,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted the prince as saying. “All religions reject terrorism and killing of innocent people, and promote tolerance, cooperation and mutual kindness,” the ambassador said.
He highlighted Saudi Arabia’s efforts to combat terror since the Sept. 11 events. “Saudi security forces have questioned more than 1,500 people and arrested hundreds of suspects,” he added.
While participating in a dialogue during the conference, Prince Turki said Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries were following a system of reforms and development. “The Arab world rejects reforms imposed from the outside,” he added.
He urged the international community to live up to its responsibility toward protecting human rights and promoting tolerance, and ridding of double standard while dealing with Arabs and Muslims.
German Interior Minister Otto Schily said the abuses by US soldiers at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison were a huge setback to US ties with the Muslim world and urged the West to try to win back “hearts and minds”.
He said he feared the photographs of the abuses meted out by US soldiers at the prison near Baghdad, including graphic images of sexual humiliation and physical violence, would have an effect “for a long time to come.” Schily said he feared “the hearts and minds” of Muslims had not been won back and that extremists were profiting from the incidents in their so-called holy war.
