RIYADH, March 9: Saudi Arabia has allowed American troops to use two of its northern airports near the Iraqi border for defensive purpose or to be ready for the influx of refugees from Iraq in case of a war, the Saudi defence minister Prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz told the press here.

Earlier news reports had indicated that the Kingdom last week ordered the closure of its Arar airport, some 15kms from the Iraqi border. Flights were diverted to the Sakaka airport in the nearby Al-Jouf area.

Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal has categorically said that in case Saddam Hussein goes on exile, Saudi Arabia would not be ready to provide asylum to him. “We have given asylum to too many people in the past and this is enough,” he told in an interview carried by the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper.

Confirming the reports that the American troops were taking part in joint military exercises with Saudi forces in the northern garrison town of Tabuk, the Saudi defence minister Prince Sultan maintained this was to defend the country from an outside threat, which he said might come from Israel.

“Arar was and will remain non-military, but we are now on the threshold of war,” Prince Sultan told reporters.

“We have called on the help of the Americans in a technical matter, so that we can know what is beyond in the desert, so that we don’t get caught by surprise.”

“We have no agreement with the United States in which they could descend or strike (Iraq) and go away,” Prince Sultan said.

“The leadership is Saudi, the force is Saudi. If any of our friends are there, they are there for humanitarian and technological co-operation only. There are no missiles.”

Prince Sultan said the kingdom was preparing to feed and shelter thousands of Iraqi refugees just outside its borders, as it had provided for thousands at a camp it set up in the Saudi town of Rafha when the Gulf War ended in 1991.