Saudis Again Urge Hussein to Step Aside

Saudi Arabia repeated its call Tuesday for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to sacrifice himself to end the war in Iraq, warning there is a danger that hostilities will escalate into a regional conflict whose outcome cannot be predicted.

“I’ve seen the destruction that looms ahead of us, and I’ve seen that whatever happens, the victor is the loser,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al Faisal said at a news conference. “It is a time of action to stop something we see as catastrophic, before we reach that precipice.”

Saudi officials have been pressing their ideas to resolve the conflict, but Saud has refused to give details. “We have said we have ideas and proposals. But the ideas and proposals cannot be seriously tackled unless both sides agree to the cease-fire,” Saud said. “This is absolutely essential, because to hold negotiations while everybody has his finger on the trigger will put in jeopardy anything that will be discussed.”

Saudi diplomats sought before the war to negotiate an exile for Hussein, but when the U.S. didn’t respond, the Saudis changed their agenda, according to sources close to the government. The Saudis are now concerned with the issue of a postwar government in Iraq, which they strongly believe must not be led by the U.S.

Saudi Arabia has urged “internationalizing” any interim government created after the fall of Hussein and has also pressed for an Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. “You’ve got to internationalize the postwar issue, and you’ve got to move very, very hard on the peace process, or it isn’t going to work,” said one source, who asked not to be identified.

According to the Saudi proposal, the U.S. military would remain to keep peace and search for weapons of mass destruction. But the civil administration would be handed over to international humanitarian organizations. A new Iraqi government would be put into place quickly and be responsible for postwar reconstruction.

The Saudis have said they would oppose a U.S. military-led occupation of Iraq, which the Bush administration envisions could last as long as two years to help the transition to a new government.

Arab leaders have indicated that they might not recognize a military occupation and that they doubt Iraqi citizens would cooperate.

“A military occupation is not the way to solve the problem, and the government should be decided by the Iraqi people,” the Saudi foreign minister said. “It behooves us all to put our trust in the judgment of the Iraqi people rather than make the judgment in their stead.”

For weeks, Saudis have called for Hussein to give up the fight as a means of saving the lives of his citizens. Saud repeated that call Tuesday.

“If the only thing remaining to resolve this situation in Iraq is sacrifice for President Saddam Hussein, and since he’s asking all Iraqis to sacrifice their lives for their country, then the least that can be expected is he would sacrifice himself for his country,” the foreign minister said. “He has to step aside.”

But Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan said that wasn’t going to happen. “Go to hell,” he said Tuesday at a news conference in Baghdad. Addressing his comments to Saud, he said, “You are too much of a nothing to say a word addressed to the leader of Iraq.”

The Bush administration’s recent warnings to Syria and Iran to avoid intervening in the conflict reflect its potential to destabilize the region, Saud said. “War, whenever it happens, has the risk of being expanded and extended, particularly in our region here, particularly with the presence of Israel, which [is] used to [exploiting] all mistakes,” the minister said.

He warned that “those prognosticators and those advisors” who have been advising the Bush administration appear to have as their goal “changing the geopolitical situation in the Middle East [and] an unending war the U.S. has to carry on in order to pacify the globe.”

The present U.S. strategy in Iraq “is not the United States I know. The United States is not an imperialistic country, nor is it a warlike country,” Saud said.

“Far be it from me to suggest what the lessons the United States should learn about the conflict.... Once conflict starts, the best plans of mice and men ... [are] in the hands of the gods of war.”