Saudis preach peace as Cook stokes fires over Iraq as

Saudi Arabia will not permit any attacks on Iraq from its soil, it became clear yesterday. The decision is a big blow for military planners, and for the cohesion of the anti-Saddam coalition. Anthony Bevins and Andrew Marshall report.

The United States has decided to do without air bases in Saudi Arabia to launch any air attacks on Iraqi targets, the US Defense Secretary, William Cohen, said yesterday.

Mr Cohen said that the United States had not asked to use Saudi bases for combat aircraft and did not plan to ask. "We have not made such a request and it is not my intent to do so because we don't think it's necessary," he said.

There had already been serious doubts about support for attacks from Saudi Arabia. The Arab News quoted the Saudi Defence Minister, Prince Sultan, as saying that his country was much more critical. "We'll not agree and we are against striking Iraq as a people and as a nation," it quoted the prince as saying.

The West has tried to put a brave face on this. Madeleine Albright, the US Secretary of State, said she was confident of support from Saudi Arabia. "I have confidence and trust that the Saudi government will support us if force is necessary," she said yesterday.

Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, visited Saudi Arabia only last week, and was insistent that the country was supportive.

The governments of neighbouring Kuwait and Bahrain are willing to let the US hit Iraq from their territory, Mr Cohen told reporters aboard the aircraft taking him to Jeddah to see King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia has far more extensive military facilities; and the lack of diplomatic support from Riyadh underlines the disintegration of the coalition formed during the 1990-91 Gulf War.

Comments from Mr Cook, and his US colleague, show that the rhetorical offensive against Iraq is gearing up. "Will it be substantial, will it be sustained, will it be heavy?", a television interviewer asked the US Secretary of State yesterday. "It will be all those things," she responded.

Stoking the fires a little more, Mr Cook alleged yesterday that the brutality of the Iraqi regime was so great that they had shot 1,200 prisoners to solve a problem of prison overcrowding.

"Do remember we are dealing with a very brutal, even psychopathic regime," he told the BBC television Breakfast with Frost programme. "In the last two months, they decided that their prisons were overcrowded. They solved that by taking out every prisoner with over 15 years of a sentence, and shooting them ... A government that behaves with that kind of brutality ... is not a government you can leave in possession of these terror weapons."

Military preparation is also escalating. Western defence sources in Kuwait told Reuters news agency that British support aircraft had started arriving in Kuwait on Saturday with spare parts and support equipment for eight British Tornado bombers which are due to deploy in Kuwait today. Six US F-117A stealth bombers are also due soon in Kuwait.

Mr Cook said Saudi opposition would be studied with care. "We are not asking Saudi Arabia for the capacity to mount strike aircraft from Saudi Arabia," he said. "I don't know that there's that much difference in principle between us," he added. "I mean, I don't want to strike Iraq; I want an outcome which enables inspectors to get on with their vital job of stopping Saddam developing these arsenals of terror."

Tony Benn, the former Labour Cabinet Minister, said yesterday that any massive air attack on Iraq would isolate London and Washington from the majority of world opinion, and would have the gravest consequences. "Despite all that has been said about attempts to find a diplomatic solution," he said, "no American, or British minister has gone to Baghdad, unlike the Russian, French, Turkish and other governments, who have sent senior ministers for talks there."

Mr Benn himself yesterday sent an appeal to Tariq Aziz, the Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, asking him to explore a possible solution to the crisis. He asked whether, if all United Nations sanctions, except for military equipment, were lifted at once, Iraq could immediately agree to allow UN inspectors to operate without restriction in accordance with the UN Security Council resolution.

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