Saudi Tribal Leaders Back Riyadh Stand : Strategy: The traditional forces in the remote south form a deterrent to any Iraqi incursion from Yemen.

With one hand on the carved crescent dagger at his waist and the other thrusting a finger at the sky, the elderly Bedouin soldier stood gravely before his prince.

“Najran is with you,” he announced, his finger tracing a solemn circle around the barren landscape. “The south is with you. All these points are behind you, from north to south . . . and Saddam Hussein is sinking in shame. He sold his neighbors for very cheap dreams.”

The armed forces and tribal leaders of Saudi Arabia’s vast southern quarter, outfitted with modern combat fatigues and flowing robes, bolt-action rifles and the decorative belts of desert warriors, this week greeted Prince Sultan ibn Abdulaziz, the minister of defense. They pledged their allegiance to combat Iraq’s invasion of neighboring Kuwait and its threat to the kingdom.

Parading before the prince at a command center at the edge of Saudi Arabia’s vast Empty Quarter, hundreds of soldiers and national guardsmen took turns reciting ancient Arabic battle poetry against a backdrop of Brazilian tanks. Then, they sat on Oriental carpets for a feast of whole roasted sheep and camel rib.

“We are happy that our enemies can see today how our people and our armed forces are massing around our leadership,” said Brig. Gen. Yazeedy, the commander of southern forces in Najran. “May the conspirators die of frustration, grief and regret when they see the people rallying around our king.”

In a country that is at once the most modernized in the Middle East and among the most tied to its tribal past, Saudi Arabia’s tribal leaders constitute a vigorous force in national decision-making. Desert tribesmen make up a substantial portion of the national guard, which is being deployed to back up the regular armed forces to hold off any Iraqi invasion from the north.

Saudi forces in the south, supported by troops from Pakistan and the Afghan moujahedeen (holy warriors), form a deterrent against possible incursions across Saudi Arabia’s historically troubled border with Yemen, which runs along the rocky peaks that jut up from the desert floor just 12 miles south of Najran.

Only a few miles to the east begins Saudi Arabia’s fabled Rub al Khali, or Empty Quarter, a huge expanse of featureless sand and towering dunes that covers much of the southern part of the country. It is one of the most desolate landscapes on Earth.

Najran’s lush date and citrus groves, nourished by deep wells, support a booming agricultural and trade center, a stopping point on the ancient incense- and spice-trading route from the East. Earlier this week, against a backdrop of dozens of tanks, armored personnel carriers and rocket launchers, soldiers armed with modern AK-47 assault rifles stood alongside traditional Bedouin guardsmen carrying old-fashioned rifles and daggers and declared the nation ready for war.

“There is no glory for us, there is no happiness for us, there is no status for us unless we fight a holy war in the way of God,” Awad Abdullah Hassan told the prince.

A judge in Najran’s Islamic sharia court who several weeks ago enlisted in the armed forces in response to the Iraqi threat, he went on: “How else, when our king has called us to obey him in a duty, especially at this time, when the enemy has struck us and massed his forces on our borders? Go on, and we are with you. By God, we will never let you down.”

The prince, who had arrived in his specially equipped Boeing 747, reminded the forces in the south that Arabs and Muslims “reject” Iraq’s incursion into Kuwait.

“What happened from Iraq when it struck Kuwait was a stab in the back . . . and a treachery of which Arabs are ashamed,” he said. “Go on the path of the worship of God, trust your government and the leadership of the Saudi state and its noble and persevering people, and, God willing, we will be victorious.”