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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Bush's Ephemeral Coalition |
Current rating: 0 |
by Anton La Guardia/Ben Fenton
(No verified email address) |
01 Oct 2001
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Bush's "coalition" against terrorism is looking weaker by the day. Although it constrains his military options, the real problem is that US military action will look more and more like a Crusade to the Islamic world, simply feeding the cycle of terror, rather than reducing it. ML |
Blow for Bush as Saudis deny use of bases By Anton La Guardia, Diplomatic Editor and Ben Fenton in Washington (Filed: 01/10/2001)
SAUDI ARABIA ruled out the use of its bases for President Bush's war against terrorism yesterday, dealing a blow to his hopes of building a strong alliance with Muslim states.
"We do not accept the presence in our country of a single soldier at war with Muslims or Arabs," Prince Sultan Abdul Aziz, the defence minister, was quoted as saying. His comments, in the Arabic-language Okaz daily, contradicted earlier assurances from Saudi officials that Riyadh would permit the use of its bases for military operations in Afghanistan.
The restrictions are likely to be little more than an inconvenience since the United States can use other bases in the Gulf and central Asia, and has deployed aircraft carriers in the region.
But the visible support of Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of Islam and America's most important Muslim ally, would be an important defence against accusations of a new "crusade" against Muslims.
Both the White House and the Saudi ambassador to Washington tried to play down signs of a split. Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the ambassador, said the countries were in "total" agreement.
He added: "We have not been asked for use of the bases in Saudi Arabia. And therefore, it is hypothetical for me to answer it one way or another. The United States government is in the process of putting all its plans together and whatever we've been asked so far, we are co-operating with it."
Andrew Card, President Bush's chief of staff, denied any split but declined to discuss "operational aspects" of the campaign. He said: "We are working with allies all around the world and all around that region and we are confident that we will have the support to do what is necessary to fight terrorism."
King Fahd sent a message to Mr Bush last week expressing the "preparedness and keenness of the kingdom to stand by the side of the government and the people of the United States in the serious endeavour to face and confront terrorism".
The conflicting signals from Riyadh reflect the dilemma the Saudi royal family faces in balancing the need to support its American protectors and defending its role as guardian of Islam's holy shrines. Saudi Arabia is clearly using different terminology in addressing Washington and its own people.
It is possible that Riyadh may yet allow America to use the bases secretly, or at least oversee the operation from the sophisticated command centre at the Prince Sultan air base in al-Kharj. Okaz quoted Prince Sultan as saying there were no foreign forces left in Saudi Arabia, apart from 40 American, British and French aircraft patrolling the airspace in the north of the country.
In fact, America is known to station thousands of servicemen there and has sent 100 more aircraft to Saudi Arabia since September 11. Gen Henry Shelton, outgoing chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said yesterday that America had won broad international support. But there is reluctance among Muslims over military action.
President Pervaiz Musharraf of Pakistan has asked Mr Bush to place the military campaign under the control of the United Nations to dispel "doubts" in the Muslim world. |
See also:
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/10/01/wsaud01.xml
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