John
Simpson exclusive interview with Saudi Foreign Minister
Saudi
Arabia, one of the most powerful countries in the Middle East region,
has made its strongest public attack on American policy towards
Iraq so far.
In
an exclusive interview with the 大象传媒's World Affairs Editor John
Simpson, broadcast on last night's 大象传媒 ONE Ten O'Clock News
(Monday 17 February 2003), Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi Foreign
Minister, said that any unilateral military action by the United
States would appear as an "act of aggression".
Prince
Saud al-Faisal was speaking from the Arab League foreign ministers'
meeting in Cairo.
The
full interview can be seen on Simpson's World on 大象传媒 News 24 this
weekend (11.30am Saturday; 2.30am & 2.30pm Sunday; 12.30am Monday).
The
following extracts have been drawn from the interview.
If
any of this material is used 大象传媒 Ten O'Clock News and News 24's
Simpson's World must be credited.
Prince Saud: We have told them that war will be a tremendous threat
- a dangerous thing to do. If the choice is you destroy Iraq in
order to get Saddam Hussein, it is a self-defeating policy, isn't
it? I mean, you destroy a country to get a person out - it doesn't
work.
Q:
Would you class an American attack as being aggression?
Prince
Saud: If the attack comes through the United Nations Security Council,
obviously it is not aggression聟 Independent action in this,
we don聮t believe are good for the United States.
It
would encourage people to think - as you said - that what they聮re
doing is a war of aggression rather than a war for the implementation
of the United Nations resolutions.
So
we are ardently hoping that, urging the United States to continue
to work with the United Nations.
Q:
And not to create an act of aggression?
Prince
Saud: And not to create an act of individual aggression, of individually
taking charge of the duties of the Security Council.
Q:
And if the United States did it on its own?
Prince
Saud: It would appear as aggression.
Q:
You've had a difficult 12 or 13 years in Saudi Arabia, haven't you?
I mean, it's these last years since the start of the first Gulf
War have been the years in which fundamentalism has really started
to take serious ground in Saudi Arabia.
Prince
Saud: Our worry is the new emerging fundamentalism in the West.聟
Q:
In the United States? You almost said it.
Prince
Saud: Well, in the United States and in the West. Fundamentalism
in our region is on the wane. There, it's in the ascendancy. That's
the threat.
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