Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz on Monday delivered an extremely strong and blunt warning to United States Secretary of State Colin Powell over US policy in the Middle East and set out conditions for Riyadh's assistance in his urgent regional peace mission.
The Crown Prince told Powell that Israel's ongoing military operations were doing serious damage to the United States' standing amongst the world's Arabs, according to his foreign policy adviser, Adel al-Jubeir.
"American credibility and prestige are collapsing very quickly," he said. "The crown prince made very clear that this continuing violence could gravely damage America's credibility and America's interests in the Arab world."
Al-Jubeir said the crown prince had told Powell that Washington had to press Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon harder to end Israel's military offensive against the Palestinians and withdraw its troops from all of the West Bank and Gaza, according to AFP.
Washington "must restrain Sharon," al-Jubeir told reporters accompanying Powell on his high-stakes regional tour.
A high-ranking Arab official said the crown prince had said Saudi Arabia was prepared to intervene or assist in Powell's mission only if three conditions were met: complete Israeli withdrawal, Israel's reconstruction of destroyed Palestinian infrastructure and the deployment of US monitors.
The crown prince, who recently floated a landmark Middle East peace initiative, which was adopted by the Arab League, met with Powell in Casablanca, Morocco on the first leg of the secretary's trip which will take him to Israel Friday. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
