August 4, 2002	Sunday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 24,1423

TEHRAN, Aug 3: The foreign ministers of the United States’ key Gulf ally Saudi Arabia and longtime foe Iran expressed joint opposition here on Saturday to any US military action against common neighbour Iraq as Washington upped its rhetoric against Baghdad.

“We have always opposed any attack against an Arab or Muslim country and that also means Iraq,” Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told reporters as he was welcomed at the airport by his Iranian counterpart Kamal Kharazi at the start of a one-day visit.

“That is Iran’s position too,” Kharazi said. “We too have the same position. As we have said on various occasions, we are opposed to any attack launched against a Muslim country.”

The Saudi foreign minister said he was bringing a message from Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler, for the Iranian leadership as part of the “continuing political consultations” between the two regional powers.

“This message deals with the Middle East situation and, in general terms, with the whole region,” said Prince Saud, who was due to hold afternoon talks with moderate President Mohammad Khatami after a morning meeting with Kharazi.

“We have a lot of things to discuss and we must consult together on regional issues,” the Saudi minister said.

“We want to continue our discussions with our Iranian brothers as usual.”

The consultations between the two Gulf powers, which were due to be followed on Sunday by a visit here by the top diplomat of another Gulf state — Oman — came as US officials warned Washington was determined to oust the Baghdad regime whatever it did.

US REJECTS IRAQI OFFER: US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Saturday emphatically rejected an Iraqi offer to discuss a return of UN weapons inspectors who fled in December 1998 on the eve of the last massive US-British air strikes on Baghdad.

Under Secretary of State John Bolton hammered home the point in an interview on BBC radio.

“Let there be no mistake. While we also insist on the reintroduction of the weapons inspectors, our policy at the same time insists on regime change in Baghdad,” Bolton said.

“That policy will not be altered, whether the inspectors go in or not.”

The Saudi press, which generally reflects the views of the government, warned Saturday that that policy was rapidly bringing the region to the brink of “catastrophe”.

“If the goal is to change the political map (of the region) and continue the war of change from one country to another, the result will be ... deep problems,” the Okaz daily said in an editorial.

“We warn against going ahead in the policy of change, and strongly caution that the region will never be another Afghanistan,” it said.

“Certainly this decision (to launch war on Iraq) will lead the region into a catastrophe, and its victims will be many.”

Despite US misgivings, Saudi Arabia has moved much closer to Iran’s Islamic regime since the election of the moderate Khatami as president in 1997.

The longtime rivals inked a security pact in April last year during a landmark visit to Tehran by Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz, the first Saudi interior minister to visit Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Khatami visited the kingdom in 1999 and the two nations have also worked together since 1999 to orchestrate oil production cuts by the OPEC cartel that stabilised world prices.

GERMANY WARNS OF CONSEQUENCES: German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder warned on Saturday against launching a strike against Iraq without considering the consequences for the entire Middle East region.

Schroeder, speaking at an election campaign meeting in the German city of Hanover, said he was warning against conducting such an operation “without thinking of the consequences, the political repercussions for the entire Middle East.”

“Whoever gets himself involved in that should know what he is getting involved in and what he wants to do there,” said Schroeder, who is trailing in opinion polls as Germany heads towards a general election in September.

The United States has made clear its aim of toppling Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, accusing him of building up weapons of mass destruction and declaring Baghdad part of an “axis of evil” with Iran and North Korea.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell on Saturday emphatically rejected an Iraqi offer to discuss a return of UN weapons inspectors who fled in December 1998 on the eve of the last massive US-British airstrikes on Baghdad.

Schroeder’s conservative rival for the chancellorship, Edmund Stoiber, refused to be drawn on whether he would back a possible US attack against Iraq, saying it was a “hypothetical question”, while calling for the return of the UN inspectors.

“We have to know: what sort of criminal weapons does Iraq, Saddam Hussein possess — biological, atomic, bacteriological? To that we need inspectors in the country,” he told German television Deutsche Welle.—AFP