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Saudi Arabia: Iraq major terror base
 Saudi Arabia's interior minister on Sunday called Iraq a major base for terrorism, a sign of growing concerns in this oil-rich kingdom over its violence-plagued neighbor. "There is no doubt that Iraq now forms a main base for terrorism," Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif told the pan-Arab Al-Arabiya television station in the kingdom's capital. Prince Naif said that the situation in Iraq is deteriorating daily, and the country has become a threat in the region. "The situation in Iraq is changing day after day, and this situation has numerous threats," he said before his departure to the United Arab Emirates to attend a meeting to discuss security issues in the Gulf states. "We are going to deal as one department," he said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. There is growing alarm in the region over the situation in Iraq, where US forces are struggling to prevent Sunni-Shi'ite violence from escalating to full-scale civil war. Saudi Arabia has been moving forward with plans to build a fence along its frontier with Iraq to prevent militants from crossing the border. Prince Naif also said that Saudi youth were being lured to fight in Iraq by some parties. US and Iraqi officials have long complained about Saudi extremists crossing into Iraq to join the battle against American and coalition forces. US officials announced last April that Saudis were among the top five nationalities among foreign fighters captured by coalition forces in Iraq. Posted by: Fred 2006-11-13 |
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