US Loses Arab Coalition After Saudi Arabia Backs out

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US Bereft of Arab Coalition After

Saudi Arabia Backs out/Possible Coup

 

22 September: The United States has delayed the start of its

offensive against Afghanistan and Osama Bin Laden, in retaliation for

the terrorist strikes in New York and Washington, because of a

dramatic turnaround of Arab support in the Middle East, DEBKAfile 's

Gulf and Washington sources report.

Saturday afternoon, it became clear that events in Riyadh had dealt

the final deathblow to the US Secretary of State, Colin Powell's

failed efforts to create an Arab front to bolster the Bush

administration's world war on terror.

The reason for King Fahd secret exit from Saudi Arabia, followed by a

large royal party (see earlier DEBKAfile World Exclusive on this

page), is believed by our most reliable sources to be a palace

revolution sparked by differences in the royal family over support

for the US offensive against Afghanistan, Osama Bin Laden's terror

network and other rogue targets. King Fahd and his Sudeiri faction,

including defense minister Sultan, were in favor of letting the US

place assault forces in forward bases on Saudi soil; the

conservative, religious Crown Prince Abdullah, who runs the kingdom

since King Fahd became ill, overruled him, backed by the religious

establishment.

As a result, Saudi Arabia refused to let the US use the kingdom's new

combined air operations command center at Prince Sultan Air Base near

Riyadh, after Air Force Lt. Gen Charles Wald had been dispatched to

the base earlier this week, to take command of US air forces assigned

to the Middle East and Southwest Asia.

His mission was to run the air war from the new, sophisticated air

base opened this summer, a base linked to Al Dhafra in the United

Arab Emirates and Seeb in the Sultanate of Oman. The Saudi base was

also to have been the central command post not only for the 175

aircraft already based in the region for patrolling south Iraq's no-

flight zone, but also for directing attacks from other bases in the

region in the new war offensive.

When General Wald landed in Saudi Arabia with his top aides on

Tuesday, September 18, he was told he had no command base. That was

when the feuding inside the royal house over its role in the American

war against terrorism reached its climax. The monarch's defeat in the

argument inside the palace was apparently the main reason for his

abrupt departure the next day, Wednesday, September 19.

The Pentagon has since then been casting about for replacement bases

of operation and holding up the onset of the scheduled US campaign.

DEBKAfile 's military sources believe that one of General Wald's

options for his command post is the Bahrain. Some of the fighter

craft due to have been based in Saudi Arabia have been moved to

Incerlik, the big air base in South Turkey, after Anakara made all

its bases available for the American war effort, and the Uzbek

military airport of Tuzel, 15 km. from Tashkent. Large-scale air and

commando forces also landed Saturday in Tadjikistan, on the border of

Afghanistan.

The American forces are now laboring to catch up with their schedule

for the operation.

The upset in Riydah also sent the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat

racing to Riydah to meet Crown Prince Abdullah and update his own

strategy with the turn of events in the royal house. DEBKAfile 's

Palestinian experts expect Arafat to turn tail and back out of the

accommodations he broached under US and European pressure – including

his commitment to a ceasefire.

According to DEBKAfile 's Washington sources, the Bush administration

realizes it has been let down by the Arab world, chiefly the Saudis

and President Mubarak of Egypt, in its first steps to launch an

international campaign to defeat world terrorism. It will go ahead,

but not forget in a hurry.

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