Saudi Arabia's Defense Minister Prince Sultan is reported as saying the kingdom will not allow US or other foreign forces to launch attacks from its territory against Arabs or Muslims.
The Arabic-language
Okaz
newspaper said Prince Sultan dismissed as "nonsense" reports that the oil-rich kingdom would allow US forces to launch military action from a US base on its territory against Afghanistan.
"We do not accept the presence in our country of a single soldier at war with Muslims or Arabs," it quoted the minister as saying during a visit to the northern Qassim region.
Prince Sultan's reported remarks were the first made by a senior Saudi official following conflicting recent reports on whether the kingdom would allow the United States to use its territory to launch attacks in reprisal for the attacks in New York and Washington.
Prince Sultan said the situation was now different from 1990-1991 when Saudi Arabia was a launching pad for the US-led military coalition that ended Iraq's occupation of Kuwait.