MECCA (voa) – Saudi Arabia’s interior minister says his country will oppose any U.S. military strike against Iraq as part of the war against terrorism.
Speaking Saturday in Mecca, Interior Minister Nayef bin Abdel Aziz said the kingdom is against settling issues through war. He also says Saudi Arabia will not be in favor of any war against an Arab country.
Speculation of such action has been mounting since President Bush labeled Iraq, Iran and North Korea as forming an “axis of evil” with particular emphasis on Iraq. President Bush warned the three countries against supporting international terrorism and seeking weapons of mass destruction.
An alliance with Saudi Arabia was crucial in forcing Iraq’s army out of Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War.
Meanwhile, a report out Saturday in the German magazine Der Spiegel quotes European officials as warning that U.S. attacks on Iraq could split the international coalition against terrorism.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer says no one has shown him any evidence yet that the terror campaign of Osama bin Laden has anything to do with the regime in Baghdad.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar, who country holds the European Union’s rotating presidency, says “striking out against so-called rogue states is not the same as fighting terrorism.”
On Friday, Vice President Dick Cheney said he thinks military action against Iraq would be supported, both in the United States and abroad. He declined to discuss any possible measures against Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. But he said if aggressive action was required, he believed it would get the backing of the American people and the international community.
The United States is also seeking to get U.N. arms inspectors back into Iraq and to tighten military-related sanctions against the government in Baghdad.
