Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud Al-Faisal, in an interview aired today by the U.S. television channel CNN, stressed the Kingdom's desire to find a peaceful solution to the Iraqi crisis. Saudi Arabia, he said, works for peace, and does not plan for war; it therefore has no plans to join any military action against Iraq. No attacks will be launched from Saudi territory, and no fighter planes will be allowed to refuel at Saudi airfields.

Prince Saud urged Iraq to cooperate as soon as possible with the UN inspectors, doing what they ask of him, and quickly, saying that if Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, it should show them, and if not, it should account for them. Referring to the anticipated presence of hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops in a post-war Iraq, he commented that if, as expected, the war leads to instability in the region, there is likely to be chaos.

Turning to the Palestinian issue, Prince Saud noted that U.S. President George W. Bush had affirmed, during the meeting in Texas with Crown Prince Abdullah and on a number of other occasions, that he is working to implement the concept of two states existing side by side in security and peace.

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