TASEK PAUH blogspot

March 3 - The leaders of Iran and Saudi Arabia have agreed o fight the spread of sectarian strife between Sunnis and Shias in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East.

Saudi's King Abdullah and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also discussed the war in Iraq in their first ever face-to-face meeting on Saturday.

(Picture - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran and Saudi's King Abdullah compete to lead the Muslim world)

Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'ite Iran are among the most influential nations of their respective branches of Islam.

"The two parties have agreed to stop any attempt aimed at spreading sectarian strife in the region," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters without elaborating.

Saudi Arabia has led a diplomatic drive in recent months to counterbalance what is regarded as Iran's growing influence in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories.

While Saudi Arabia is a key US ally in the Middle East, Iran is a fierce opponent of Western influence in the region.

Nuclear challenge

The United States and its regional allies, including Israel and Saudi Arabia, suspect Iran's nuclear energy programme aims to develop weapons, an accusation Tehran denies.

Saudi official, speaking before Saturday's meeting, said the kingdom would try to convince Tehran to comply with UN resolutions and suspend enrichment.

Iranian state radio said talks would also cover "Iran's nuclear case".

Saudi Arabia, Iran and Syria have accepted Iraq's invitation to a regional conference in March on easing tensions in Iraq. Agencies

Labels: Iran, Luar Negeri, Saudi

Kavkaz, February 15 - A Saudi wing of al-Qaeda has issued a call for attacks on the oil facilities of nations which supply oil to the United States, inciting Canada, Venezuela and Mexico. The call was made by the al-Qaeda Organisation in the Arabian Peninsula in Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Jihad), their online magazine, on Wednesday.

"It is necessary to hit oil interests in all regions which serve the United States, not just in the Middle East. The goal is to cut its supplies or reduce them," it said.

Canadian energy sector officials said they were taking the threat seriously but hadn't raised security levels.

"Targeting oil interests includes production wells, export pipelines, oil terminals and tankers and that can reduce US oil inventory, forcing it to take decisions it has been avoiding for a long time and confuse and strangle its economy," the al-Qaeda publication said.

The group was behind February 2006 attack on the Abqaiq oil facility in Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil processing plant.

A Canadian minister said the al-Qaeda group's message was being regarded with importance.

"We take the threat seriously. We've always said that we're not immune to possibilities of terrorism," Stockwell Day, public safety minister, said.

Canada is the biggest exporter of crude oil to the United States, followed by Mexico, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela.

In Mexico, Maximiliano Cortazar, a presidential spokesman, said that the government was trying to confirm the veracity of the threat.

The al-Qaeda group also vowed new attacks in Saudi Arabia.

"For some time now, we have been preparing some quality attacks which will shake the foundations of the crusaders [Westerners] in the Arabian Peninsula," said the magazine, after a nearly two-year absence following a Saudi clampdown.

Al Qaeda leaders have repeatedly called for attacks on oil installations to block supplies to the West, for what they see as a US-led war against Islam. Agencies

Labels: Berita, Luar Negeri, Saudi

Riyadh, January 30 - Saudi Arabia and Iran are working together to try to calm the crises in Iraq and Lebanon, the Saudi foreign minister said Tuesday, despite Washington's efforts to isolate Tehran and limit its influence in the Middle East. The mediation is an unusual step by two rivals, Saudi Arabia and Iran, that compete for regional influence.

(Picture left - Shiite men listen to a cleric retelling the story of the killing of Imam Hussein, grandson of Islam's founding Prophet Mohamed, at a Shiite community center in Manama, Bahrain, on Monday, Jan. 29, 2007. Many Shiites from eastern Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in the mostly Sunni Arab Gulf visit Bahrain, the only Shiite-majority country outside Iran and Iraq, for colorful, mournful events marking Ashura that virtually shut down the island. AP Photo/Hasan Jamali)

President Bush has rejected calls that the United States win Iran's help in easing Iraq's bloodshed and resolve the political crisis in Lebanon that erupted into violence last week. Instead, he has vowed to break what he called Iranian support for militants in both countries.

Saudi Arabia's willingness to work with Iran likely indicates the growing alarm in the kingdom's leadership over the two simultaneous crises, which have inflamed Sunni-Shiite tensions throughout the Middle East.

At the same time, Saudi Arabia has given tepid support to a new U.S. strategy in Iraq but has expressed skepticism over whether it will succeed. Besides sending 21,000 additional U.S. troops to Iraq, the new strategy takes a tougher stance on Iran.

Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal of largely Sunni Saudi Arabia said Tuesday that Iran had apprached his country to "cooperate in averting strife between Sunnis and Shiites in Iraq and Lebanon."

"Saudi Arabia wants only peace in the region," al-Faisal said.

A Saudi envoy is in Iran, which is majority Shiite, studying all the efforts being exerted to calm the situation and defuse the crises in Iraq and Lebanon" and "exploring what Iran can contribute," he said.

The Shiite Muslim Hezbollah — which Iran is believed to support with money and weapons — has been waging a campaign of street protests for the past two months in an attempt to bring down the Western-backed government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. Last week, the protests erupted into clashes between supporters of the two sides that raised fears in Lebanon and across the Middle East that the country could explode into a sectarian civil war between its Shiites and Sunnis.

Saudi Arabia has close ties to Sunni politicians in the government's ruling coalition and has strongly backed Saniora.

Hezbollah has demanded a new national unity government that would give it and its allies more than a third of the Cabinet seats, enabling them to veto major decisions. Weeks of talks between the government and opposition have stalemated.

In Iraq, Iran is believed to back Shiite militias that have been blamed in killings of Sunni Arabs and it has close ties to Shiite parties that dominate the government. Saudi Arabia has strong tribal links to Iraq's Sunni Arab minority. AP

Labels: Berita, Iran, Luar Negeri, Saudi

Saudi warns 'interfering' Iran

AlJazeera.net, January 27 - Saudi Arabia's king has said Iran is putting the Gulf region in danger and has advised Tehran leaders to know "their limits".

In an interview published in Kuwait's al-Seyassah newspaper on Saturday, King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud said attempts by Iran to spread Shia beliefs in Sunni communities would fail. (Picture left - Larijani, right, visited Riyadh this month to reassure Saudi Arabia over Iran's nuclear programme -AFP).

King Abdullah said: "Saudi leaders and the Saudi state have always known their limits in dealing with nations, east and west. I explained this to Ali Larijani [Iran's nuclear negotiator] and advised him to pass it on to his government and its followers, with regard to foreign dealings."

King Abdullah also said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict should be solved by "Arabs alone".

"We don't want anyone to trade in our issues and become stronger through them," he said.

Larijani visited Riyadh this month to seek help with Washington and reassure Saudi Arabia over Iran's nuclear programme.

The US, which sees Saudi Arabia as an important ally in the region, has accused Iran of intending to make a nuclear weapon. A charge Iran denies.

The US also says Iran is "interfering" in Iraq by backing Shia military groups in the country and criticises Tehran for backing Lebanon's Hezbollah, a Shia group which is leading a move to topple Lebanon's government.

Iran is known to support Hamas, the ruling Palestinian party and a largely Sunni organisation.

Hamas has refused to recognise Israel and has been shunned by Western governments. Agencies

Labels: Berita, Iran, Luar Negeri, Saudi, U.S.

The US defence secretary has said he wants to raise the US military's profile in the Gulf.

Robert Gates arrived in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, on Wednesday (17 January) on a visit to discuss the new US strategy in Iraq and win Saudi support for its approach to Iran, which is accused of trying to build nuclear weapons.

Iran has said its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes only, ignoring UN Security Council demands that it halt uranium enrichment work.

The UN has imposed limited sanctions on Iran over the issue.

Gates, who will hold talks with King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, said: "I think we can always use Saudi co-operation on these issues in the Gulf region."

Abdullah and Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdul Aziz, the Saudi defence minister, received Gates on Wednesday at a desert camp at Rawdhat Khuraim.

"Prince Meqrin bin Abdul Aziz, the head of Saudi's intelligence services, was also present, the Saudi press agency reported.

Patriot deployment

The visit comes against the backdrop of the US president's decision to deploy a Patriot missile defence battalion to the region. The Bush administration says it is intended as protection against any possible Iranian ballistic missile threat.

The move was announced last week as part of the US strategy for the region, which includes the deployment of an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq.

Gates flew to Saudi Arabia from Afghanistan, where he said that US commanders had also asked for more troops.

Donald Rumsfeld, Gates predecessor as US defence secretary, visited Saudi Arabia in April 2003. alJazeera.net

Labels: Iran, Iraq, Luar Negeri, Saudi, U.S.