Crown Prince Abdullah address Saudi attitude towards US policy

Speaking about the US and the Palestinian issue, Sauid Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud said "I have great concern about America's credibility and I care about how America is perceived...As your friends and as your allies, we are very proud of our relationship with you. In the current environment, we find it very difficult to defend America, and so we keep our silence. Because, to be very frank with you, how can we defend America?" the New York Times reported today.

The New York Times reported that Crown Prince Abdullah said Saudi Arabia had not discussed a change in the American military presence in Saudi Arabia. "But he did not respond directly to a question about whether Saudi Arabia was seeking to alter or reduce the mission to make the presence less visible."

Crown Prince Abdullah "made clear that preserving the status quo also extended to Saudi politics and society, saying the kingdom had no intention of adopting American-style democracy or heeding American disquiet, say, over Saudi attitudes toward women" the New York Times report said.

Meantime, in another report by the NY Times, Prince Nawwaf bin Abdul Aziz, the kingdom's director of the intelligence service said Saudi Arabia would not support an American military campaign against Iraq or any other Arab or Muslim country saying "Some days you say you want to attack Iraq, some days Somalia, some days Lebanon, some days Syria," he said. "Who do you want to attack? All the Arab world? And you want us to support that? It's impossible. It's impossible."