Crown Prince Floats Islamic Occupation
Force for Iraq
Feb. 20 —
The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia has recently transmitted a secret
proposal to the Bush administration, using one of his own sons,
Prince Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah as an emissary, rather than officials
from the Saudi Embassy in Washington, sources told ABCNEWS.
The
Saudis are proposing that after Saddam Hussein's fall, Saudi Arabia
should lead a coalition of Islamic nations to occupy Iraq while a
transitional Iraqi government is established, with Turkey playing
the leading role in the Islamic force.
Senior government officials told ABCNEWS that according to the
Crown Prince, an Islamic occupation force would defuse the
anti-American hostility that is sweeping the Middle East and putting
pressure on moderate Arab governments that are allied with the
United States.
The Saudis would then be free to crack down on the extremist
Jihadis in the Kingdom who are allied with al Qaeda or are
sympathetic to Osama bin Laden.
Right now, Saudis feel a full scale crackdown would look like the
Kingdom is doing American bidding, at a time when President Bush is
very unpopular there.