January 20, 2002	Sunday	Ziqa’ad 5, 1422

DUBAI, Jan 19: The United States is seeking control of Afghanistan and the containment of Iran and of Pakistan’s nuclear programme, Saudi Arabia’s former ambassador in Kabul charged in comments published on Saturday.

Osama bin Laden “is only a card in the game played by the United States and of which it has convinced the world to justify intervention in Afghanistan”, Mohammad Al-Oteibi told Al-Hayat in a rare Saudi rebuke of US foreign policy.

“If the United States had wanted to arrest (Osama) bin Laden, they could have done so easily without taking the trouble to launch this fanciful war ... they could have caught him long ago,” he said.

The “war on terror” was intended “to impose (American) hegemony on the country (Afghanistan) and to set (Americans) up there to achieve their objectives” in Asia, the former envoy said.

These objectives included containing “the threat of the Pakistan nuclear programme and Iran”, as well as “the exploitation of the riches of Afghanistan and the republics of central Asia”, Oteibi told the London-based Saudi-owned newspaper.

He added that Riyadh was not to blame for the rise of the Taliban.

“The appearance of the Taliban was the work of Pakistan and the United States,” said Oteibi, who was in Kabul during the 1990s.

Both countries sought to use the Taliban against Iran, the ex-ambassador said.

“Through their erroneous interpretation of Islam, the Taliban achieved the objectives of the United States and the West ... and gave the enemies of Islam the opporunity to work against this religion and accuse it of terrorism,” Oteibi alleged.—AFP