- RIYADH -- Saudi Arabia, Washington's
troubled chief ally in the Gulf, adamantly opposes a planned US war on
Iraq for fear of a major Middle East shake-up and unprecedented chaos,
analysts said Monday. The kingdom, the launchpad for US forces in the 1991
Gulf War to evict Iraqi troops from Kuwait, today does not see enough justification
for a war of far-reaching consequences on the regional political map, they
added.
-
- "The kingdom believes that invading Iraq and changing
the regime would only create a Karzai-style government in Baghdad,"
said Anwar Eshki, head of the Jeddah-based Middle East Center for Strategic
and Legal Studies. "This will have far-reaching dangerous consequences
in the future. It will only breed more conflicts in the region. For this
and other reasons, Riyadh does not and will not support military action,"
Eshki told AFP.
-
- Saudi Arabia, which is home to around 5,000 US troops,
has so far rejected all demands from Washington to take part in a threatened
war on neighbouring Iraq to topple the regime. In the aftermath of the
September 11 attacks on the United States, carried out mainly by Saudis,
such a refusal has collided with increasingly strident anti-Saudi views
in Washington.
-
- The Riyadh government cabinet has warned of a human tragedy
if Washington attacks Iraq, and called for resolving the crisis through
diplomacy. "The thing the kingdom fears most is an incomplete US operation
... This would certainly result in a bloody situation of (large numbers
of) refugees and (armed) conflicts," political analyst Jamal Khashoggi
said.
-
- "The war, if it happens, will be at our doorsteps.
We will certainly be affected," Khashoggi, deputy editor-in-chief
of the English-language Arab News, told AFP. He said war would allow the
United States to maintain a military presence in the region, "an unwelcome
precedent", particularly among popular Arab opinion.
-
- The Saudi stance has been accompanied by overtures from
Iraq, which are unlikely to have pleased the US administration. Iraqi Vice
President Taha Yassin Ramadan said Thursday Baghdad was ready to restore
relations with Saudi Arabia, broken off over the 1991 Gulf War, when Riyadh
judges fit.
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- http://jang.com.pk/thenews/aug2002-daily/27-08-2002/world/w5.htm
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