Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz has said the kingdom will not allow foreign troops to use its territory to launch attacks against Muslims and Arabs, a newspaper reported Sunday.
The kingdom "will not accept the presence of any foreign troops on its territory to fight Arabs and Muslims," AFP quoted the minister as saying in the Okaz daily at a reception in the northwestern province of Qassim province.
Prince Sultan pointed out that the kingdom, Washington's main ally in the region, has no defense agreement with the United States or any other country.
"We will not accept any soldier to remain in our country to fight Muslims or Arabs," he stressed.
Prince Sultan said all foreign troops, called by the kingdom after Iraq's 1990 invasion of Kuwait, were withdrawn following the liberation of the emirate in 1991.
"Currently, there is no non-Saudi soldier in our country," he said.
But the minister added that "40 American, British and French fighters" have used a Saudi base to patrol a no-fly zone over southern Iraq "because we do not trust the Iraqi regime."
A high-ranking Saudi official on Saturday denied that the kingdom will be a launch pad for military strikes against Afghanistan.
The official, in remarks to Okaz, brushed aside media reports suggesting that the kingdom allowed US warplanes to use Prince Sultan Air Base, in southern Riyadh, to strike Afghanistan, said the official Kuwaiti news agency (KUNA).
US President George W. Bush said Friday that Saudi Arabia -- thought to have been reluctant to help -- was "cooperating with us in terms of any military planning we might be doing." – Albawaba.com
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