The United States should maintain its military presence in Saudi Arabia because it promotes stability throughout the Gulf region, US National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice has stated. "We think the military arrangements between us and the Saudi government are good for stability in the region," Rice told Asharq Al-Awsat daily, in an exclusive interview published Sunday.
"We are friends and strategic partners and we can obviously discuss our presence any time. But this presence has served us well, and we believe it will continue to be in our joint interest," the NSA said.
An estimated 5,000 US troops and an undisclosed number of US warplanes have remained in the Saudi Kingdom after the 1991 Gulf War, from where they patrol an air exclusion zone over the southern part of Iraq.
Washington and Riyadh denied recently published media reports claiming that the US may be asked to withdraw its troops from the Kingdom.
Rice said US-Saudi relations, which have been strained by attacks on the Kingdom by American media and Congressmen since the September 11 bombings in the US, remained "very good."
"Saudi Arabia and the United States have been friends for a very long time. We are strategic partners and share many interests," she said.
"During this war on terror, we have been able to rely on this close friendship to cooperate in an excellent way," Rice said, adding "American media are free to say what they like."
Rice said the United States wanted to discuss with Saudi Arabia the fate of around 100 Saudi prisoners from the war in Afghanistan held at a US military base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"We have not yet made a decision with regard to those held in Guantanamo, and it is an issue we want to discuss with the Saudi and other governments," she said.
"We are trying to get as much information as possible from these people... which could prevent a new attack... After all, the next attack might not occur in the United States," she conveyed.
Iraq
Regarding US policy on Saddam Hussein, Rice said, "The Iraqi people deserve better than what they have. We’re very clear about this." However, she said President George W. Bush "has not decided on a specific way of dealing with Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi regime, but he has made clear that this regime is bent on acquiring mass destruction weapons and we can’t allow that."
The Baghdad regime "boasts of defying the desire of the international community that it should behave in a way that does not threaten its people," she pointed out.
Rice said the United States did not plan to engage the Iraqi opposition in an effort to overthrow the Iraqi leader, as it helped Afghan opposition forces topple the Taliban militia. "We will not try to apply the Afghan model to other countries. It would be wrong to follow such a logic," she affirmed. "But we do support those who oppose him [Saddam], and there are many who oppose him in various parts of the country."
Asked what Saddam ought do to in order to avoid war, Rice replied, "Saddam knows what he must do. He must stop threatening his neighbors, repressing his people and pursuing mass destruction weapons."
"We will see" what happens if he continues to reject these demands, she added.
Speculation regarding Baghdad being a target of a future phase of Washington’s "war on terror" emerged, when President bush signaled out Iraq, Iran and North Korea as an "axis of evil" in his State of the Union address last Tuesday. (Albawaba.com)
