RIYADH, Jan 12: Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz said on Sunday he did not believe there would be war on Iraq and that the kingdom had proposed an initiative to fellow Arab states to resolve the crisis.

“There is no doubt that all the reasons point to a war but I personally believe there will not be a war...I see the fleets but, God willing, there will be no war,” Crown Prince Abdullah said, adding that he had not been informed of any decision.

Asked if there was any Arab initiative to avert a looming US-led military strike, he said: “Saudi Arabia has presented proposals to its brothers in Arab states and asked them to accept them and for them to be the basis of any summit.”

“I believe if the (proposal) is accepted, then it will solve many problems,” he said, but did not elaborate. His comments were carried on Saudi state television.

A British expert also expressed an opinion on Sunday that an invasion was not imminent.

Sir Timothy Garden said war on Iraq was not imminent and the US-British military mobilization was to pressure Baghdad to secure its disarmament.

“I don’t expect an attack on Iraq, I think that we have the mechanisms for applying military and diplomatic pressure on Iraq sufficient to ensure the inspectors carry out their task over the coming year. We would need to keep that military pressure on in order to be successful”, Timothy a top security expert in the Royal Institute of International Affairs said in an interview here on Sunday.

However, he said attack against Iraq might start in beginning of next month. Timothy said from the “beginning of February onward, it is possible to make a military campaign against Iraq.” Two things could trigger an attack against Baghdad, he said.

“One would be if Saddam Hussain became convinced that it is going to happen any way and try preventive strike against the allies forces which of course is always a possibility in these things. That would have in the whole international community coming in to respond in kind”.

Timothy said: “The other is that if he becomes obstructive in the inspectors, then I think this time military force would be used”.

He said there were no such signs at the moment though it was a difficult question when military campaign would be possible as it could be done by different ways.

The mobilization of troops by the allies and recalling of British reservists was to make military threat as credible, he said.

He said the main possibility of troops was an armoured brigade, “the tanks have not gone yet and troops would follow subsequently. So these things are still some way away from troops ready in the region to carry out a grand campaign.”—Reuters / APP