Take Heed, King Advises Iran
Arab News

JEDDAH, 1 April 2007 - Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King
Abdullah told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during their talks in
Riyadh on March 4 that he should not underestimate the US military threat
to Iran, according to Newsweek.

The magazine quoted Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal as saying in an
interview that the king said Tehran should take the threat of a possible
US military strike on Iran over its nuclear enrichment program seriously.

In the interview, Prince Saud quoted the king as saying: "Why do you
want to take a chance on that and harm your country? What is the rush? Why
do you have to do it (enrich uranium) this year and not next year or the
year after? Or five years from now? What is the real rush in it?"

The king "speaks to everybody frankly," Saud said, adding that
Abdullah told Ahmadinejad: "You're interfering in Arab affairs," a
reference to Iran's alleged interference in the affairs of other Middle
East countries.

Ahmadinejad listened, then denied any interference. "But we said,
'Whether you deny it or not, this is creating bad feelings for Iran and we
think you should stop,'" Saud told Newsweek.

"Certainly what Iran is doing is interfering in Iraq," the foreign
minister said. "We told them this will not benefit them but will do more
harm than good to them. And we talked to them frankly and honestly on this
issue and they see the danger that what is happening is going to lead to
strife between Shiites and Sunnis."

Saud also said it was "a catastrophe" for Iran to be holding 15
British sailors and Marines it had captured on March 23. Iran insists the
personnel were detained for being in Iranian waters but Britain maintains
they were inside Iraqi waters. "This is just not the time for them to have
a problem like that looming. We tell them that," Prince Saud said.

Yesterday, Ahmadinejad said London had mishandled the aftermath of
the detention of the sailors. Suggesting the diplomatic standoff was not
near a solution, the president underlined Iranian displeasure that Britain
had turned to the Security Council and the European Union for support over
the detentions.

"After the arrest of these people, the British government, instead
of apologizing and expressing regret, over the action taken, started to
claim that we are in their debt and shouted in different international
councils," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by state radio.

"But this is not the legal and logical way for this issue," he said
in a speech to a rally in Khuzestan, a province on the Iraqi border area
where the Britons were seized.

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