In a violent confrontation between Iraqi and Saudi troops, according to reports in the Saudi press, a Saudi soldier was wounded and taken captive by Iraqi troops. The Saudi Ambassador to the Arab League, Mr Faisal ibn Hasan Tarad, was quoted in the Riyadh press as saying ?We don?t know if he is alive or dead.? Saudi Arabia was quoted as holding ?Iraq responsible for its continuous aggressive attacks against the Kingdom.? Teheran Times quoted a Saudi press release stating that this intrusion ?has not been the first time that Iraqi soldiers trying to destabilize the kingdom and have intruded into Saudi Arabia.? In June, Saudi troops shot and killed an Iraqi soldier during an Iraqi instigated exchange of gunfire along the Iraqi border.
Iraq, for its part, claimed that the dead Saudi soldier entered Iraqi territory along with ten other Saudis and was killed by Iraqi troops defending the border. Baghdad has also accused Saudi Arabia and Kuwait of taking part in recent US-British bombing raids and violating Iraqi air space in the in the north and the south of the country. Addressing himself to the prospect of rapprochement between Iraq and the Gulf States, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, in an interview with the al-Jazeera satellite television station, said, ?we will never apologize for anything ... apologies do not even cross an Iraqi citizen's mind and even less the government's? Rather the Kuwaiti and Saudi regimes should apologize to Iraq for causing the genocide of 1.6 million Iraqis under the embargo.? Sabri claimed that ?these regimes finance the countries which enforce the sanctions on Iraq and go as far as to bribe any representative at the United Nations who might vote to end or ease the embargo.?
The Teheran Times concludes, based on ?Iraq's war with Iran, its invasion of Kuwait and now its conflict with Saudi Arabia?? that there is a ?suspicious nature of the Baath Party [ruling Iraq]?? The Times declares that it is now ?clear that the underlying reason for Iraq's new aggressive acts is to prevent an Islamic alliance and union against the Zionists.?
Iraq, for its part, claimed that the dead Saudi soldier entered Iraqi territory along with ten other Saudis and was killed by Iraqi troops defending the border. Baghdad has also accused Saudi Arabia and Kuwait of taking part in recent US-British bombing raids and violating Iraqi air space in the in the north and the south of the country. Addressing himself to the prospect of rapprochement between Iraq and the Gulf States, Iraqi Foreign Minister Naji Sabri, in an interview with the al-Jazeera satellite television station, said, ?we will never apologize for anything ... apologies do not even cross an Iraqi citizen's mind and even less the government's? Rather the Kuwaiti and Saudi regimes should apologize to Iraq for causing the genocide of 1.6 million Iraqis under the embargo.? Sabri claimed that ?these regimes finance the countries which enforce the sanctions on Iraq and go as far as to bribe any representative at the United Nations who might vote to end or ease the embargo.?
The Teheran Times concludes, based on ?Iraq's war with Iran, its invasion of Kuwait and now its conflict with Saudi Arabia?? that there is a ?suspicious nature of the Baath Party [ruling Iraq]?? The Times declares that it is now ?clear that the underlying reason for Iraq's new aggressive acts is to prevent an Islamic alliance and union against the Zionists.?