[R-G] 2 articles on Saudi Arabia

[Usman Majeed]

>From Dawn

US allowed to use Saudi bases
http://www.dawn.com/2003/02/27/top15.htm

WASHINGTON, Feb 26: The United States and Saudi Arabia have reached new
agreements on expanded use of Saudi military facilities in an invasion of
Iraq, The Washington Post said on Wednesday , citing senior US officials and
diplomatic sources.
The newspaper said the cooperation includes full use of the air command and
control centre at Prince Sultan Air Base, southeast of Riyadh, the Saudi
capital. 
In addition, the agreements will allow the United States to fly refuelling
aircraft, surveillance planes and battlefield radar aircraft from Saudi
airfields, the newspaper said.
The United States also will be allowed to base fighter jets at Saudi
airfields, according to The Post.-Reuters


Saudi Arabia sees no need for OIC meeting
http://www.dawn.com/2003/02/27/top17.htm

RIYADH, Feb 26: Saudi Arabia sees no point in holding an emergency summit of
the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) on Iraq, as proposed by
Qatar, a Saudi official said on Wednesday.
"Saudi Arabia thinks that such a meeting would have no use for Arabs and
Muslims and would lend nothing new to the Iraq issue," the official said.
Most OIC member states were anyway discussing Iraq on the margins of the
116-strong Non-Aligned Movement summit in Malaysia, the official said.
Forty-eight Organization of the Islamic Conference members, including Iraq
and 15 heads of government, held crisis talks in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday,
urging Baghdad to comply with UN weapons inspectors.
The informal gathering precedes a planned emergency session of the 57-member
OIC in Qatar on March 5.
According to sources at OIC's secretariat in Jeddah, only 16 OIC member
states have agreed to holding an extraordinary summit, contrary to Qatar's
claim that 27 had already consented to such a meeting. -AFP


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"The most potent weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the mind of the
oppressed." 
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