JEDDAH, 24 August 2005 — Saudi Arabia said yesterday it hoped Iraq’s draft constitution would guarantee unity and warned that confrontational disputes may lead to the partition of the state along sectarian lines.
“Saudi Arabia... hopes that the constitution will meet the aspirations of the Iraqi people in consecrating national unity and maintaining its Arab and Muslim identity,” said Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal during a news conference in Jeddah.
Prince Saud said the Kingdom hoped the charter, submitted to Parliament on Monday despite lingering differences, would achieve the Iraqi people’s “aspirations for security, stability and prosperity.”
He warned that sectarian stances “will not lead to anything but the partition of Iraq along sectarian lines.” He called on Iraqi leaders to “let national interests supercede sectarian interests.”
Prince Saud said Saudi Arabia had so far shied away from opening an embassy in Baghdad because of the deteriorating security situation, which included a spate of deadly attacks against foreign diplomats.
“The security problem is preventing us from opening a Saudi Embassy in Baghdad. There is no political obstacle,” he said. “When the security situation settles down, we will open our embassy immediately.”
Diplomatic relations were broken off with Baghdad when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Turning to the subject of negotiations for the repatriation of Saudi prisoners held at the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, he said they had reached an advanced stage. “We hope that they will return soon,” he said.
There are still 121 Saudis among some 500 inmates from around the world who have been held at the camp since the US-led war in Afghanistan in late 2001.
Three Saudi detainees were repatriated from Guantanamo earlier this year, and five others in May 2003. The Saudi government is exerting continued efforts to repatriate all its citizens detained abroad. The camp has been the focus of worldwide controversy following allegations that US forces have abused detainees.
The foreign minister confirmed that there were Saudi prisoners in Iraq. “We have asked the Iraqi government to allow us to communicate with them and in helping identify them. The Saudi government can also help in investigations if the Iraqi government requested us,” he added.
“We want to bring the innocent back home and want to identify the guilty and find out how they entered Iraq.” Saudi Arabia has banned citizens who want to join the insurgents from going to Iraq. “It is not Jihad,” Prince Saud said.
The foreign minister condemned both the rocket attacks in Aqaba that occurred on Aug. 19 and the terror acts in Bangladesh on Aug. 17. He said they proved terrorists would not hesitate to use any method in order to achieve their goals in disturbing the peace and threatening international security. “This emphasizes again the need to double international efforts in facing and stamping out terrorism,” said Prince Saud.
Regarding the Palestine issue, he said the Kingdom is following with concern the Israeli pullout from Gaza and looks forward to this first step being followed by other steps to pull out completely from all occupied Palestinian and Arab land to enable the Palestinian people to build their independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.
He said the Kingdom will continue efforts to moderate the increase in oil prices.
Prince Saud blamed the sharp price increase on a shortage of refinery capacity in consumer nations.
“No matter how much production is increased, prices will only be affected if consuming countries have sufficient refineries,” he said.
Saudi Arabia has a “balanced policy to keep prices moderate so that they don’t affect the global economy,” Prince Saud added.
