Egypt Joins Saudi Arabia and Syria As Opponents of U.S. Attack On Iraq
by DEBKAfile
28 July 2002
Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak has decided after much agonizing and consultation to keep Egypt out of the upcoming American campaign against Iraq. This exclusive information reaches DEBKAfilefrom sources in Cairo and Madrid Mubaraks last port of call. He has also decided not to permit the US to use Egyptian military bases for the campaign.
The Egyptian ruler thus places himself on the same Middle East square occupied
by Saudi crown prince Abdullah since last year.
In the last ten days Mubarak, hard pressed to make up his mind, sought advice
from friends and allies in Europe. On July 20, he paid an unannounced call on
Saudi king Fahd at his holiday palace on the shores of Lake Geneva, followed
by a visit to the President of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Said Nayanan,
who is vacationing nearby. Four days later, Mubarak came calling on French president
Jacques Chirac in Paris and, on July 26, he held discussions in Madrid with
Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar.
According to our sources, the Egyptian ruler solicited support for his decision
in all those visits.
Mubaraks stance has sharpened the divisions in the Arab world and heightened
instabilities in at least one capital.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria now lead the opponents of an American military
move against Saddam Hussein;
Jordan, Kuwait and Qatar head the proponents.
A. This realignment drops in the middle of a long festering dispute at the top
level of the House of Saud. Fresh rumors picked up by DEBKAfiles Gulf
sources speak of a failed attempt on the life of the ailing king Fahd in Jeddah,
on or around July 14, shortly before he departed for his summer vacation in
Geneva. This incident added fuel to the running feud between the Sudeiri faction
of the royal house, led by Fahd and his full brother, defense minister Prince
Sultan (the leading contender for the succession against Abdullah and father
of the Saudi ambassador to Washington, Prince Bandar), and the group led by
their half-brother, the regent Abdullah.
B. Riyadh now shows an angry face to the Gulf Emirates siding with US action
against Baghdad. The Saudis have stopped attending Gulf Security Cooperation
Council meetings, refusing to sit at the same table as rulers they look down
on as American collaborators. Saudi-Qatari ties have been effectively severed,
with Qatari notables no longer welcome in the oil kingdom, while Saudi relations
with Kuwait have likewise soured.
C. On the flip side of the coin, Jordanian military and businessmen are suddenly
welcome in Kuwait for the first time since the 1991 Gulf War when Jordan sided
with Iraq. Jordan and Qatar have also struck up a warm friendship.
The report of an attempt to murder King Fahd is the talk of the moment in the
Gulf. It is claimed that on July 14, the monarchs bodyguard fought off
a band of 5 to 7 intruders, who gained entry to the palace courtyard in Jeddah
through one of the main gates after setting off a large explosive charge. Three
of the would be assassins were killed; the rest fled when armed reinforcements
poured in from neighboring princely palaces, together with a contingent of the
special Saudi counter-terror force. The bodies were identified as Saudi members
of al Qaeda who fought in Afghanistan, escaped through Iran and arrived home
last January. The identity of one of the dead assailants seriously heated factional
tempers in the royal family; he is said to have been a member of the Wahhabist
Uteiba tribe, loyal adherents of crown prince Abdullah.