SAUDI ARABIA: Saudi Arabia, a key US regional ally, has said it would not allow the United States to use its facilities for any attack against neighbouring Iraq - even if a strike was sanctioned by the United Nations.
"We will abide by the decision of the United Nations Security Council and we will co-operate with the Security Council. But as to entering the conflict or using facilities . . . that is something else," Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told CNN.
"Our policy is that if the United Nations takes a decision on Chapter 7, it is obligatory on all signatories to co-operate but that is not to the extent of using facilities in the country or the military forces of the country," he added.
Chapter 7 of the UN Charter makes it mandatory for UN member countries to implement any measure immediately as part of international law. Members of the Security Council have been negotiating the wording of a UN resolution on Iraq, which may be voted on in the UN towards the end of this week. The prince's remarks were the strongest Saudi rejection of any assistance to a possible US attack on Iraq.
Prince Saud has in the past indicated the US could use bases in Saudi Arabia for an attack on Iraq if it was sanctioned by the United Nations. He told CNN the kingdom wanted a political resolution to the Iraq crisis and that Baghdad had made a "very clear and unambiguous promise" to Arab states that it would abide by UN resolutions. "We think the road is set for that." - (Reuters)
Michael Jansen adds:
A US-owned helicopter came under fire yesterday shortly after taking off from Sanaa airport in Yemen and was forced to make an emergency landing. The helicopter belonging to the Hunt Corporation of Dallas, Texas, was bound for oil fields in the northern province of Marib when the incident occurred. One passenger was slightly injured.
This is the second anti-Western incident in Yemen in a month. On October 6th an explosives-laden boat rammed a French oil tanker off Yemen, crippling the vessel, killing a Bulgarian crew member and spilling 90,000 barrels of crude oil into the Gulf of Aden.
Yemen has been trying to root out Islamist militants opposed to US involvement in the region since October 2000 when members of al-Qaeda, the movement blamed for last year's attacks on the US, launched a similar strike on the USS Cole in Aden harbour.
Al-Qaeda's founder, Osama bin Laden, was of Yemeni origin and many Yemenis flocked to Afghanistan during the war against the Soviet occupation.
On Saturday, following a fourth shooting attempt on US forces in a month, the Kuwaiti authorities sealed off nearly a quarter of the territory of the emirate. While the government said the closure was designed to protect the public, official sources said the real intention was to ensure the safety of US troops engaged in military manoeuvres. On October 8th, a US marine was killed by two Afghan-returned Islamists on the island of Failaka off the Kuwaiti coast. The public has been barred from more than 1,600 square miles of territory in the northwest, including the area of the Iraqi border.
Hundreds of farmers have been told they will be relocated and popular tourist destinations are to be closed.
A week ago the head of USAID in Jordan, Mr Lawrence Foley, was shot and killed by an unknown assailant. Jordanian security services have not apprehended any suspects.
Hostility towards the US has been rising rapidly in the region since President Bush declared his intention to effect "regime change" in Iraq.
In the most recent opinion survey conducted in seven Arab countries by a US pollster, anti-US sentiment was highest in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates where it stood at 87 per cent. The figure was 78 per cent in Egypt and 61 per cent in Jordan.