JEDDAH 14 Sept. (IPS) Iran and Saudi Arabia reiterated Saturday their opposition to American possible and probable attack on neighbouring Iraq, saying any attack on Iraq would cause “irreparable damage on the Iraqi people and neighbouring states”.
The two countries expressed their views during a meeting, in Jeddah; between Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and Saudi Crown Prince Abdollah bin Abdol Aziz.
The embattled Iranian President Khatami had arrived in Saudi Arabia with his family on Wednesday to pay pilgrimage to the Islam’s most holy sites of Mecca and Medina.
The visit is Khatami's second to the Kingdom since he took office in May 1997. His current visit, which ended after the talks with Prince Abdollah, was described by both Iranian and Arab observers as "important", due to the US threat of a military attack on Iraq and the deadlock in Middle East peace talks.
Besides the issue of Iraq, oil prices was the other main topic discussed between the two leaders, with the Saudis reported favouring an increase in the present level of oil output by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which is to meet in Osaka, Japan.
“Though both Iran and Saudi Arabia are strongly opposed to American military intervention in Iraq aimed at toppling the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hoseyn, but each has its own interests that are not necessarily similar, as Riyadh is still US’s main strategic ally in the region while the Islamic Republic is Washington’s main enemy”, said Dr. Alireza Noorizadeh, an Iranian expert on Saudi Kingdom’s affairs.
As the United States has placed Iran among the “evil states”, alongside Iraq and North Korea, in their talks, both Tehran and Riyadh expressed the hope to see that American attack on Iraq is limited to this country and not be spread to other neighbours.
In fact, and based on US treats, many Iranian officials are of the view that their theocratic regime is Uncle Sam’s next target after Baghdad.
In a recent interview with the American ABC television, Hojjatoleslam Dr. Hasan Rohani, the influential Secretary of Iran’s Supreme Council for National Security said “never before Iran was so directly threatened by the United States”.
“The interference by big powers in other states' affairs would threaten the peace and security of other countries, he said adding that if the big powers continue their strong-arm policies the global peace and security would be jeopardised”, Khatami observed during the talks with his Saudi host.
According to Mr. Noorizadeh, the Saudis are still very sensitive about the possibilities of seeing Iran to profit from the fall of Saddam Hoseyn to help the Iraqi Muslim Shi’ites, who form the majority in Iraq, to install an Iranian type of Islamic Republic in Baghdad.
The Wahabis, which constitutes the Saudi’s dominant branch of orthodox Islam, considers the Shi’as, who are in majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain and Azerbaijan and is Islam’s second largest wing after the Sunnis, as “heretics”.
“The Saudi’s are afraid of a repeat of the 1991 and wants Tehran to give them official guarantee that the (Iraqi) Shi’as, led by the Tehran-backed Ayatollah Baqer al Hakim, would not replace Saddam and create an Islamic Republic in Baghdad”, said Mr. Noorizadeh, a prolific journalist and secretary of the London-based Centre for Arab Iranian Studies (CAIS).
It was on Saudi’s strong demand that the Americans decided not to capture Baghdad and remove Saddam in the 1991 Gulf war, after Iran dispatched thousands of Iraqis, trained by the Revolutionary Guards and forming the “Badr Brigades”, into Basrah and fomented an uprising in this large city on the Shat el Arab, in order to march on Baghdad following the collapse of Iraqi armies.
The rebellion was eventually put down ruthlessly by Saddam’s special forces that had crossed the cease-fire lines without being intercepted by American and allied forces.
“In the behind the doors meeting, which was also attended by Saudi ministers of Defence, Interior and the Head of the intelligence and security organisation, both Khatami and Abdollah stressed on the need for strong unity and solidarity among the regional states to safeguard the peace and stability in the region under the currently sensitive circumstances”, the official Iranian news agency IRNA reported, adding that Khatami underlined the key role played by two regional powers.
“Abdollah termed as sensitive the situation in the region, called for stronger solidarity among the regional states, which, he said, should boost the cooperation among them as a way to prevent foreign powers to abuse the difference of viewpoints of regional countries”, IRNA said.
He stressed the need for adoption of strategies to maintain stability and promote security in the region and said it is necessary for Muslim states to build up efforts to preserve peace in the region.
“The Muslim states would stay besides each other whenever they are under threats by big powers”, Abdollah said, noting that the regional states should refrain from doing provocative acts”, a direct reference to Iraq’s invasion of Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990.
For his part, Khatami referred to the exchange of visits between the officials of the two countries and hoped that the already inked security agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia would contribute to the expansion of all-out bilateral ties.
In a gesture that was described by the Saudis as showing Iran’s contribution to American-led war on international terrorism, Tehran had handed over 16 Saudi nationals suspected to belong to “Al-Qa’eda” organisation.
But according to some informed sources, the Saudis have presented Tehran a list of at least 40 other Saudi “terrorists” they believe are still in Iran.
The two sides also condemned Israel’s military attacks on Palestinians and, according to an informed source, denounced American’s “one sided” policy of “all out support” for (Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel) Sharon and the abandoning Palestinian Authority’s Chairman Yaser Arafat, observing that “never the Americans, nor the Israelis, would find better interlocutor than Arafat”.
On OPEC, observers said though cooperation between Tehran and Riyadh, the organisations major producers has helped oil prices firming, but they still differ on strategies, as the Saudis, the world’s biggest producer and exporter with a capacity of more than 8 millions barrels a day, wants to increase its output, while Iran’s pale 3.7 millions bpd are dwindling every month, the country, being under American embargo, is not able to increase its production.
The two men expressed “pleasure” with their good neighbourly relations and stressed on the prime importance of the regular consultations between the two states on the global and regional issues, IRNA added. KHATAMI ABDOLLAH 14902