The United States is to remove almost all of its forces from Saudi Arabia and transfer its regional air command centre from that country to the al-Udeid air base in Qatar. The news of America’s first big geopolitical dividend of the conquest of Iraq was confirmed yesterday in Riyadh by Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, after talks with his Saudi opposite number, Prince Sultan. It seals a longstanding wish of Washington and the ruling Saudi monarchy and – both sides profoundly hope – will remove a grievance fuelling radical Islam in the region. Saudi Arabia is a key American ally in the Gulf, yet the country is the guardian of Islam’s holiest shrines. As many as 10,000 American military personnel have been deployed, centred on the state-of-the-art air command facility at Prince Sultan air base, 70 miles from Riyadh. But this has allowed Osama bin Laden, a Saudi himself, to justify the al-Qa’ida terror attacks as a means of freeing the country that has responsibility for Mecca and Medina from de facto colonisation by the American infidel. Members of the Saudi establishment have often been accused of covert support for his position. Full Story
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