Saudis offer to help build Muslim force for Iraq

Riyadh - Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, will today hold talks with the interim Iraqi government to discuss Saudi Arabia's offer to help build a joint force of Muslim nations to establish security in the country.

The Saudi offer, made yesterday, came on the most violent day in Iraq since the US-appointed interim government took office a month ago. More than 100 people died in attacks by insurgents, 70 of them killed in a suicide bombing at Baquba.

The offer was made during a meeting between Saudi rulers and Mr Powell in Jeddah. A Saudi official said the proposal was only in its preliminary stages, but it nevertheless marks a departure from the stance that Muslim nations would not send troops to Iraq.

"We're taking this initiative because we want to help the Iraqi people reclaim their sovereignty as quickly as possible, because there is a tremendous desire in the Arab and Muslim worlds to help Iraq, and because instability in Iraq has a negative impact on Saudi Arabia," Adel al-Jubeir, a leading Saudi government foreign policy adviser, said.

Exact details of what was suggested were scarce, with neither the Saudi foreign minister nor Mr Powell elaborating. However, Saudi troops would not be among those sent, because Iraq has requested that none of its neighbours send military forces onto its soil.

Some of the countries mentioned as possible participants in a security force - Malaysia, Algeria, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and Morocco - lie far outside the region.

Forces currently in Iraq are overwhelmingly from the US - 140,000 of 160,000 - and there are no Arab troops.

"We discussed some ideas tonight with the Saudis that they have been discussing with others about how to facilitate the deployment of troops from Muslim countries," Mr Powell's spokesman, Richard Boucher, said.

"The goal is to help Iraqis establish security. It's a goal that they support, that we support, and we'll keeping talking to them about it." Any country considering sending troops to Iraq will have to consider the increasing violence against foreigners.

Two Pakistani men were the latest victims in a spate of kidnappings, killed by their captors in retaliation for Pakistan considering sending troops to Iraq.

Two Pakistani officials today told the Associated Press that Pakistan's prime minister, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, had discussed the possibility of creating a Muslim force during a visit to Saudi Arabia last week. US-led forces in Iraq have seen the number of countries participating drop from 36 to 31. The Philippines pulled its 50 troops out of Iraq a month earlier than scheduled to secure the release of a Filipino truck driver who had been threatened with death.

The move prompted the US and Australia to accuse Manila of making matters worse by giving in to terrorist demands.

Earlier this week, Mr Powell urged nations with troops in Iraq not to go "weak at the knees" in the face of kidnapping and bombing campaigns by insurgents.

The infiltration of militants from Iraq has been a major Saudi concern over recent weeks. Saudi officials said the kingdom was normalising relations with Iraq for the first time since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.

The Iraqi prime minister, Iyad Allawi, is today in Jeddah and will meet Mr Powell. Mr Allawi will then return to Iraq in time for the country's national conference in two days time.

in a telephone to crown prince Abdullah from his Texas ranch yesterday, the US president, George Bush, thanked him for meeting Mr Powell.

"The two of them discussed the situation in Iraq and Saudi efforts to fight terror on its own soil," a White House spokesman said. US and Saudi officials declined to describe the proposed Muslim force as a supplement to the troops in Iraq. They said that, if the Muslim force developed, it could replace US-led troops as security conditions improved.

The UN secretary-general, Kofi Annan, has been informed of the initiative, a senior Saudi official said. It was not clear whether a UN security council resolution would be required to authorise a Muslim force.

The Arab League has been reluctant to confer legitimacy on Mr Allawi's government because of the continuing US troop deployment in Iraq.

League spokesman Hossam Zaki yesterday said the organisation's general stance on the deployment of troops was that any request "should come from a legitimate Iraqi government, the force should not be part of the occupation of Iraq, and should be authorised by a UN security council resolution and under UN leadership." -- Guardian News

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