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Nukes: Put pressure on Israel
19/04/2006 22:20 - (SA)
Dubai - International community pressure to convince Iran not to develop nuclear arms should apply to Israel as well, Saudi foreign minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Wednesday.
Saud made his comments during a wide-ranging inaugural speech at the second Saudi-British "Two Kingdoms: Friendship and Partnership" conference, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Speaking at the joint opening in Riyadh with British foreign secretary Jack Straw, Saud said: "Our two kingdoms are in full agreement that the volatile region of the Middle East must be free of all weapons of mass destruction.
"If the international community is attempting to convince Iran not to develop nuclear arms, this should apply to Israel as well.
"I am always surprised that when Israel's stockpile of nuclear weapons is mentioned, the international community opts to remain silent and seeks to shroud the fact with an obscure blackout."
Saud said the present crisis between Iran and the international community should be resolved through peaceful negotiations. Economic aid
Saud also said the Saudi government believes that withholding economic aid from the democratically-elected Palestinian government would only compound the misery and suffering of the Palestinian people, who are already living at subsistence level.
"This in turn would lead to further despair, extremism and violence," he said.
Saud said his government supported the Arab League peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which he hoped would be accepted by the conflict parties.
Saud also said Saudi Arabia and Britain were "full partners, with other nations", in the war against terrorism.
"All point to the fact that we are winning that war," said Saud, whose country had been hit by a wave of terrorist violence in 2003. - Sapa-dpa
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