Saudi Peace Push on Iraq Amid Fresh British Unease

abcnews.go.com — By Hassan Hafidh and Dominic Evans

BAGHDAD/LONDON (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia put out peace feelers over Iraq on Sunday as a British minister signaled fresh unease within Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet over joining a possible U.S.-led war against Baghdad.

The United States said it was more than doubling its troop strength in the Gulf region to 150,000 amid signs in Europe and the Middle East that many states were increasingly nervous about a possible rush to war and wanted all other options explored.

Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally and the Gulf region's economic powerhouse, said it did not believe there would be a war and disclosed it had proposed an initiative to fellow Arab states to resolve the crisis.

"There is no doubt that all the reasons point to a war but I personally believe there will not be a war... I see the fleets but, God willing, there will be no war," the kingdom's de facto leader, Crown Prince Abdullah, said in remarks carried by state television.

"Saudi Arabia has presented proposals to its brothers in Arab states and asked them to accept them and for them to be the basis of any summit. I believe if the (proposal) is accepted, then it will solve many problems," he said.

Britain's International Development Secretary Clare Short said on Sunday Britain should not join a unilateral U.S. attack on Iraq and said it was Britain's duty to restrain Washington.

Her comments took on added significance when sources said Blair would meet President Bush after a January 27 report by U.N. inspectors on Iraqi compliance with searches for arms of mass destruction.

POSSIBLE COUNCIL OF WAR

Blair has said the inspectors should be given time to deal with Iraq but British newspapers reported at the weekend that the meeting could turn into a council of war if Baghdad failed to satisfy U.N. teams on questions about its arms programs.

"I think all the people of Britain have a duty to keep our country firmly on the U.N. route, so that we stop the U.S. maybe going to war too early, and keep the world united," Short, one of the most dovish members of Blair's cabinet, told Britain's ITV network.

Blair and Bush are the chief prosecutors in the case against Iraq, saying they have intelligence that Baghdad possesses banned weapons and threatening war unless it comes clean.

Short's remarks underlined increasing disquiet within the ranks of Blair's Labor Party over going to war against Iraq without U.N. authorization or hard evidence against Baghdad.

For many countries, particularly in the Muslim world, the jury is out until clear proof is produced that Baghdad has biological, chemical or nuclear weapons.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak urged Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Sunday to cooperate with U.N. inspectors to avert a devastating war.

"(Saddam) said, 'The weapons inspectors don't talk to us properly'. Put up with it to avoid the annihilation of the people," Mubarak counselled the Iraqi leader in remarks to reporters.

SADDAM URGES NEIGHBORS TO STOP WAR

Saddam himself said only Iraq's neighbors could stop the United States from declaring war on Baghdad.

"Inspection teams are here and our cooperation with them is continuing, but if America wants to look for a pretext for the aggression, only the countries of the region can prevent it," Saddam was quoted by Iraqi state television as saying during a meeting with Turkish Trade Minister Kursad Tuzmen.

Tuzmen carried a letter from Turkish Prime Minister Abdullah Gul urging Iraq to comply with U.N. resolutions in an effort to ward off military action.

European officials have spoken out against a rush to war on the basis of inconclusive weapons inspections, which resumed in late November after a four-year hiatus.

France, a veto-wielding member of the U.N. Security Council, has insisted on an international mandate for any military action, while Germany opposes an attack on Iraq.

U.N. inspectors say they have not found any evidence of active weapons programs in Iraq, but that Baghdad's arms declaration fails to answer a "great many questions."

Iraqi Vice President Taha Yassin Ramadan, in the government newspaper al-Jumhouriya, repeated accusations by Saddam last week that the inspectors were carrying out "intelligence" work, but said Baghdad would continue to cooperate with them.

"We know they are playing an intelligence role. The way they are conducting their inspections and the sites they are visiting have nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction," he said.

Amer al-Saadi, an adviser to Saddam, said two Iraqi scientists interviewed by U.N. inspectors last month had refused to leave the country for further interviews.

Against the backdrop of possible war in Iraq, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries agreed in Vienna on Sunday to raise production to stave off a rise in oil prices threatened by a strike in Venezuela.