Fahd bin Abdul Aziz
Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz
Naef Bin Abdul Aziz
Salman Bin Abdul Aziz
Ahmad Bin Abdul Aziz
Saudi's Making Way for Net?, Reuters, May 6, 1998
Saudi Arabia will legalize the Internet in the kingdom and allow select local firms to provide direct access, a state science and technology official said Tuesday. But he offered no details on how the tightly controlled state will regulate cyberspace.
Saleh ibn Abdurahman al-Athel, head of the King Abdul-Aziz City for Science and Technology, said provisions for governing the Internet are complete and that applications from companies interested in providing Internet services will be reviewed over the next month.
According to Saleh, a special, government-funded unit has been established to "supervise the whole process of linking Saudi Arabia with the rest of the world through Internet services."
Internet access in Saudi Arabia, where foreign publications are strictly controlled and censored, has been delayed by worries about material considered offensive. Net access in other Arab countries in the Gulf region is provided by state telecom monopolies that block politically, socially, or culturally sensitive sites. Saleh said previously that a study has been completed on preventing material offensive to religious and moral values from entering the kingdom through the Internet.
Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, one of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest investors, recently expanded his Internet interests. Alwaleed, a nephew of King Fahd's who controls a fortune estimated at US$11 billion, has been expanding his holdings in media, telecommunications, and information technology companies through his Kingdom Holding Co. His portfolio includes stakes in Netscape, Apple, and Motorola. Last month, one of Kingdom Holdings' technology companies, SilkiNet, signed a partnership deal with the Kuwait-based communications firm ZakSat to provide regional satellite Internet services.
"Efforts are ongoing to provide the best of modern technology, while ensuring that this does not conflict with the traditions and culture of the region," said Fouad Yashar, SilkiNet's chairman.
Senators Find Gulf Troop Morale Low, AP, May 7, 1998
WASHINGTON - The Associated Press via NewsEdge Corporation : A bipartisan delegation of senators just back from a tour of overseas outposts reported finding extremely low troop morale among U.S. forces deployed in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia but relatively high morale in Bosnia.
"What we have to do is stop wasting money on deployments"' Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, leader of the seven-senator delegation and chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said today.
He recommended pulling back troops from the Persian Gulf, saying his group's three-day visit to Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bosnia and NATO headquarters in Brussels found little interest on the part of U.S. allies in shouldering more of the costs.
At a news conference to describe their findings, members of the delegation agreed completely that morale among U.S. forces sent to confront Saddam Hussein was remarkably low. They said they talked to rank-and-file troops wherever possible, mostly out of earshot of military brass.
"The first and most persistent question was ..., `When do we get home? When do we get home?''' said Sen. Daniel Inouye, D-Hawaii.
"Clearly, I think it's time for us to reduce the deployment in the Persian Gulf and get it down to the point where people do not have to go back. One person told me he had gone back 11 times in the last eight years,'' Stevens said. ``One person said to me, `I did not join the military to become part of the Foreign Legion.'
Stevens said the morale problems did not seem so prevalent among sailors as among Air Force and Army personnel.
About 35,800 U.S. troops are in the gulf region _ including 6,500 Army forces, 9,000 Air Force personnel and 18,300 sailors and Marines on board 28 Navy ships, including two aircraft carriers.
Furthermore, Stevens said officials of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia not only didn't want to do more to support the burden but are willing for the United States to reduce its presence in their countries to levels before last winter's buildup in a confrontation with Iraq over U.N. weapons inspections.
"Saudi officials told us that Saddam Hussein was yanking our chain," Stevens said. Every time he does, the United States overreacts, he added.
Senators said they found troops in Bosnia in a better mood.
"In Bosnia, there is a mission. Morale's a little higher" said Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont.
Still, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said she and Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., would introduce legislation later today to require President Clinton to draw down U.S. troop strengths in Bosnia to no more than 2,500 by February 2000.
"All of us would like to see a clear mission, both in Bosnia and the Middle East" she said.
Around 8,000 U.S. troops are in Bosnia, with another 2,600 support personnel in Hungary.
Several of the senators, including Stevens, said they'd be interested in taking a field trip to Iran, suggesting it might be time to make overtures to the new government there as yet another way to try to isolate Saddam Hussein.
They said the biggest resistance so far has come from the State Department.
Airmen's memorial hits snag, halted at Patrick, Florida Times-Union, May 7, 1998
Officials at Patrick Air Force Base thought they were doing the right thing by
setting aside $90,000 for a memorial honoring airmen killed in a 1996 terrorist bombing in
Saudi Arabia. The only problem is, the money wasn't theirs to spend.
The Air Force was forced to halt construction after finding out taxpayer money cannot be
used to build memorials unless specifically approved by Congress, said Lt. Col. John
Martin, a spokesman for the Satellite Beach base's 45th Space Wing.
"It's kind of one of those obscure rulings that nobody knows about until you try to
do something, and then you run into it," Martin said.
The setback has been a disappointment to families of the five men from Patrick killed in
the blast. "You'd think they would have been aware of this ruling before they started
the project," said Gary Heiser, whose son Master Sgt. Michael Heiser was among those
killed.
Martin said that the money had been approved by the Air Force Space Command in Colorado.
The problem didn't come to light, however, until the funding was questioned by officials
at Eglin AFB who had been told they couldn't use taxpayer money to pay off debt on a
similar memorial, he said. A dozen airmen at the Panhandle base also were killed in the
bombing.
"While I am very disappointed we cannot continue on the path we laid out last year, I
am optimistic this community has the wherewithal to see this important endeavor to its
conclusion," said Brig. Gen. Randy Starbuck, the wing's commanding officer.
Martin said that while the base would be happy for a private organization to take over the
project, the Air Force cannot actively solicit money for the project.
The Air Force had hoped to dedicate the memorial later this year.
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 5, 1998--Globalstar (NASDAQ:GSTRF) announced
today an agreement with Al-Murjan, a Saudi Arabia-based holding company, for the
distribution of Globalstar mobile satellite services throughout the Gulf-states and the
Middle East beginning in 1999.
Under the service agreement, Al-Murjan will act as the sole distributor of Globalstar
mobile satellite services in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Jordan,
Syria, and Bahrain. It will own and operate a centrally located Globalstar ground station
(gateway) and obtain all necessary regulatory approvals for interconnecting the Globalstar
system with those nations' existing wireline and wireless infrastructure. The exact
location of the planned gateway is under study.
"This agreement completes Globalstar's service provider plans for the Middle
East," said Anthony J. Navarra, executive vice president for Globalstar.
"Globalstar now has service provider agreements in 114 nations, covering 90 percent
of Globalstar's business plan."
According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), the number of main
telephone lines in the Middle East region is approximately 6.3 lines per 100 people, while
the number of cellular users, currently 1.2 million users, has been doubling every three
years. The dual-mode (cellular and satellite) Globalstar system has been expressly
designed to extend cellular-type service in regions of the world where it has not been
cost-effective or practical to build out terrestrial cellular infrastructure. Moreover,
Globalstar is expected to offer an affordable means to meet basic telephony needs in
remote regions that have little or no telephone service.
"This project will greatly enhance the development of mobile satellite services in
the Middle East and further satisfy demand for telecommunications," said Mr. Sultan
K. Bin Mahfouz, chairman of Al-Murjan. "Working with Globalstar, we will bring the
benefits of advanced communications to people throughout the region."
Subscribers in the Middle East will use mobile terminals similar to today's cellular
phones, with dual-mode capability so they will be able to switch from satellite telephony
to conventional cellular telephony as required. Some Globalstar users in rural and remote
areas may make or receive calls through fixed-site telephones, similar either to phone
booths or ordinary wireline telephones. Subscriber terminals will communicate through a
Globalstar satellite to a gateway that, in turn, will connect calls into existing
telecommunications networks.
Al-Murjan is a Saudi multinational company with manufacturing and trading operations in
various industries. Al-Murjan's current activities encompass manufacturing, trade and
distribution of consumer products, investments, design and supply of desalinization
plants, supply of equipment to the printing and graphics industries, and operations in the
marine and mineral industries. Al-Murjan conducts activities in Saudi Arabia and in other
regional and international markets.
The Globalstar system, comprising 48 low-earth-orbit (LEO) satellites and a global network
of ground stations, will allow people around the world to make or receive calls using
hand-held, vehicle-mounted and fixed-site terminals. Globalstar will also provide data
transmission, messaging, facsimile and position location services. Globalstar currently
has eight satellites in orbit and expects to launch 36 additional satellites by the end of
the year. Four Globalstar gateways are being used to control and test the satellite
system,
and site work and construction is under way at 20 more gateway sites around the world.
Globalstar, led by Loral Space & Communications, is a partnership of the world's
leading telecommunications service providers and equipment manufacturers, including
QUALCOMM Incorporated, AirTouch Communications, Alcatel, Alenia, China Telecom (HK),
DACOM, Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Elsacom, a Finmeccanica/Elsag Bailey Company, France
Telecom, Hyundai, Space Systems/Loral and Vodafone. For more information, visit
Globalstar's web site at http://www.globalstar.com.
Loral Space & Communications (NYSE:LOR) is a high technology company that primarily
concentrates on satellite manufacturing and satellite-based services, including broadcast
transponder leasing and value added services, domestic and international corporate data
networks, global wireless telephony, broadband data transmission and formatting, Internet
connectivity, digital audio radio services, and international direct-to-home satellite
services.
Saudi Absolves Iran of 1996 Bombing That Killed 19 U.S. Soldiers, The Washington Post, May 23, 1998
By John Lancaster
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, May 23, 1998; Page A26
CAIRO, May 22—For the first time, a senior Saudi security official today publicly absolved Iran of involvement in the June 1996 bombing of a U.S. military housing complex that killed 19 American service personnel, blaming the attack on homegrown Saudi dissidents.
Prince Nayef bin Abdul-Aziz, the Saudi interior minister, told a Kuwaiti newspaper that the bombing "took place at Saudi hands," adding, "No foreign party had any role in it."
Nayef's statement contradicts long-standing suspicions in Washington that the attack was carried out by Shiite Muslim extremists with support from Iran's radical Islamic government. Those suspicions had been fueled in part by the Saudi government, which initially blamed extremists within the Saudi Shiite Muslim community.
Shiites constitute a minority among Saudi Arabia's 12 million citizens, most of whom are members of the main Sunni branch of Islam, and they maintain close ties to religious leaders in Shiite Muslim Iran.
Saudi dissidents in London have long contended that the attack was the handiwork of Sunni extremists who oppose the U.S. military presence in their country and view the ruling Saud family as corrupt. They have accused the government of trying to fabricate a case against the Shiites, and by extension Iran, to divert attention from the depth of opposition among Sunnis. Sunni extremists were behind a November 1995 bombing that killed five Americans and two Indians in Riyadh.
But the Khobar Towers case remains shrouded in secrecy. In his interview with the Kuwaiti newspaper al-Ra'i al-'Aam, Nayef gave no indication whether the government had arrested those responsible for the blast, or even if he knows who they are. Several months ago, Nayef suggested publicly that the investigation was nearly complete. But a deputy said in a statement last month that all the details were not yet known.
Iran has denied any involvement in the blast, and its relations with Saudi Arabia have steadily improved since last May when Iran elected as president Mohammed Khatemi, a relatively liberal cleric who is trying to improve his country's relations with the outside world. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah was warmly received at a summit of Islamic leaders in Tehran last December. And Khatemi's predecessor, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, recently made a two-week trip to Saudi Arabia in the first such visit since Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.
Saudi Arabia welcomes change in Indonesia, Reuters, May 25, 1998
DUBAI, May 25 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia on Monday welcomed political change in Indonesia
and said it hoped the new government would respond to popular aspirations for stability,
the official news agency SPA said.
After a weekly meeting, the Saudi cabinet said it "welcomes the peaceful transfer of
power in Indonesia to the new President Jusuf Habibie", the agency said.
The cabinet also said it hoped Habibie would be able "to realise the aspirations of
the Indonesian people for security and stability, and to return
the situation in the brotherly Moslem country to normal in social, economic and other
areas".
Habibie, Indonesia's former vice-president, took over the reins of government from former
President Suharto last week.
Suharto's resignation followed protests that turned into a wave of riots and looting in
the country, the world's largest Moslem state.
Foreign investors offer Sudan nuclear power station, Agence France de Presse, May 27, 1998
KHARTOUM, May 27 (AFP) - Sudan is discussing prospects for a nuclear power station in
Khartoum state with investors from Saudi Arabia, the Netherlands and Germany, press
reports said Wednesday.
A visiting multinational delegation on Tuesday also investigated other electric power
investment possibilities in Sudan with the power authority in
the capital, whose inadequate system causes regular blackouts lasting for some eight hours
a day.
According to the Khartoum press, the joint foreign team declared that a nuclear power
station with a capacity of 400 megawatts could be shipped to
Sudan from Germany in three weeks and be brought on stream in about six months' time.
The Sudanese capital is in part dependent for electricity supplies on the Er Roseires
hydroelectric dam on the Blue Nile river, some 500 kilometres (300 mile) distant from
city, where four out of seven turbines have long been out of service.
The dam's input to the national grid in Africa's biggest country has been cut from about
300 megawatts to fewer than 100, while Khartoum also relies on two small thermal power
stations. The electricity authority has stated that it cannot afford substantial sums of
hard currency for spare parts needed for maintenance operations.
The state government and legislative council have recently demanded the separation of the
capital from the national grid.
The power supply problem is further complicated by 15 years of civil war which have
wracked Sudan, including rebel activity in Blue Nile State close to
the Ethiopian border.
The Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), fighting to free the mainly Christian and
animist south from domination by the Arabised, Islamic north, has been joined in a
National Democratic Alliance (NDA) by mainly exiled northern politicians ousted in the
military coup which brought President Omar el-Beshir's government to power in 1989.
Northern pro-democracy armed movements have emerged to take part in the armed struggle
against the Moslem fundamentalist-backed regime.
British nurses say tortured by Saudi police, Reuters, May 22, 1998
By Paul Majendie LONDON, May 22 (Reuters) - Two British nurses jailed in Saudi Arabia
over the murder of an Australian colleague protested their
innocence on Friday and said they were tortured by Saudi police.
But the British nursing profession's governing body started its own inquiry into the
controversial case. The UK Central Council for Nurses could strike
them off its register if it finds them guilty of serious wrongdoing.
Saudi Arabia's ambassador in London, Dr Ghazi Algosaibi, also mocked a BBC documentary on
the nurses, saying that its author should be producing detective thrillers in Hollywood.
Lucille McLauchlan, 32, and Deborah Parry, 39, sparked outrage in Britain by selling their
stories to tabloid newspapers who fiercely defended their
decision to publish.
"I was battered, half-naked and starving. They threatened to gang-rape me,"
McLauchlan told The Mirror newspaper on flying home after the sentences
were commuted by Saudi Arabia's King Fahd.
"I would not kill a little bird, let alone a human being," Deborah Parry, 39,
told The Express, saying she would fight until she was proved innocent.
They said they were accused of being lesbians and in secretly written diaries told of
their 17 months in jail.
Parry contemplated suicide and had to be taken to hospital and sedated when she heard news
reports she was to be publicly beheaded.
McLauchlan claimed the Saudi police made them re-enact the murder of Australian Yvonne
Gilford in a video that took two hours to make.
She said Saudi police "were enjoying having me in their power. 'British trash, Islam
rules' they shouted at me. By the end I would have confessed to
anything -- even killing the queen."
"I thought that if I didn't say and write exactly what they demanded, I'd be
repeatedly raped and very likely disposed of somewhere and no one would ever know what had
happened to me."
Parry said she was subjected to violence, sexual abuse, a threat of cigarette burns on her
eyes and being struck across the throat.
"The embassy had been turned away until we'd confessed. It was torture," she
said. "The Saudis should now concentrate on finding the true killer."
The two nurses confessed to Gilford's murder but later retracted their statements, saying
they had been extracted after prolonged abuse by Saudi
interrogators.
McLauchlan, who married her boyfriend Grant Ferrie while in jail last November, was found
guilty of being an accessory to the murder and sentenced to
eight years in jail and 500 lashes. The sentence on Parry has never been officially
announced. Both convictions still stand.
They sold their stories for sums said to total 160,000 pounds ($260,000) between them.
The media watchdog Press Complaints Commission has promised to investigate but McLauchlan
defended the payment, saying she felt totally justified.
"When you add up what has been spent it probably ends up about the same as the net
figure we are being paid for our story. We have not been greedy," she said.
"This is my way of repaying the money everyone has spent on getting me free and
keeping my spirits up visiting me in jail," she added.
Daily Express editor Rosie Boycott defended the decision to publish Parry's story, saying
she was convinced the nurse was innocent.
McLauchlan faces another trial in Scotland next month on charges of fraud and theft dating
from before she went to Saudi Arabia. She was charged with stealing 1,700 pounds from an
elderly patient by using her cash card as she lay dying.
Iran-Saudi warming has limits, Reuters, May 28, 1998
By Barry May DUBAI, May 28 (Reuters) - Better relations between Iran and Saudi
Arabia ease tension in the Gulf but there are limits to how far the relationship can go,
analysts said after a landmark visit by the Saudi foreign minister to Tehran.
The two oil giants and traditional arch-rivals for political advantage have been moving
closer together since the election a year ago of Mohammad Khatami, a moderate Moslem
cleric, as president of Iran.
The noisy rhetoric between Tehran and Riyadh has calmed, and tension has eased.
"Relations are developing steadily and seriously," said a Tehran-based diplomat.
"The initiative came from the Saudis immediately after Khatami's election."
A series of high-profile visits between the two countries over the past six months
culminated on Wednesday in the signing of an agreement to cooperate in a broad range of
fields from oil, business and investment to culture and sports.
Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi Foreign Minister, and his Iranian counterpart, Kamal
Kharrazi, signed the accord after two days of talks in Tehran.
"The whole mood is right for this relationship to develop, albeit cautiously, because
I think the Iranians would be perfectly happy with Saudi involvement in their energy
sector," said Rosemary Hollis, head of the Middle East programme at the Royal
Institute of International Affairs in London.
"They could have a good working relationship. But there must be residual tensions and
suspicions that will always fix limits on how far that relationship can go."
These include their diametrically opposed political systems.
Iran is an Islamic republic achieved after the overthrow of the pro-Western shah; Saudi
Arabia is a deeply conservative monarchy without elected institutions.
Their separate Islamic credentials impose another limit.
Most Saudis adhere to the Moslem faith's dominant Sunni tradition; Iran is the world's
largest Shi'ite country.
These limits are intrinsic to the legitimacy of both governments, which have to be seen to
be acting accordingly.
But they sometimes combine in the cause of Islam in foreign settings like Bosnia, while
they can also be found on opposite sides as in Afghanistan, where Saudi Arabia supports
the Taleban militia and Iran backs the government it ousted.
As the two largest producers in the international oil cartel OPEC, they have found
recently their needs coincide and have acted in concert to halt a fall in oil prices sharp
enough to force sudden budget revisions in all petrodollar economies.
Further cuts in production quotas could be on the cards when ministers of the Organisation
of Petroleum Exporting Countries meet in Vienna next month.
Prince Saud said before returning home on Wednesday that cooperation between
Iran and Saudi Arabia -- urged by King Fahd in February -- would be effective in stopping
the slump in oil prices, Iran's official news agency IRNA reported.
"We reached agreement with Iranian officials to draw up our long-term strategy
concerning the oil prices. We will not allow the price of the vital material to fall from
its standard level with assistance from other oil producers," he said.
One aspect of Khatami's reformist approach causes disquiet in Riyadh and the other
capitals of the Gulf Arab monarchies.
A sometimes violent debate is raging in Iran over his vision of a "civil
society" within the rule of law with a larger influence for the voice of the people.
"If Khatami succeeds in the kind of developments that he wants to see in Iran that
could be a little unnerving for the Saudis," Hollis said.
As Iran shifts to a more tolerant and non-aggressive posture, Gulf Arab leaders may worry
about the pluralism message and trends towards democracy in their own societies.
The impact of closer ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia on U.S. relationships in the
region has yet to be assessed.
"The U.S. really is rethinking its assets and liabilities in the region," Hollis
said. "There is a significant slice of the foreign policy establishment in Washington
exploring how to set about a better relationship with Iran."
The Clinton administration seems to have dropped its old refrain about "dual
containment" of Iran and Iraq.
And the waiver of U.S. sanctions on three large foreign investors in Iran's energy sector
has been interpreted in Europe as an opportunity to go ahead with other business
opportunities in the Islamic republic.
"It's just a question of how the American companies are going to respond and be dealt
with. It's clearly unfair to them that they can't go ahead at the same time," Hollis
said.
"The U.S. is seriously exploring a policy change on Iran. In the aftermath of the
February Iraq crisis, I think the U.S. is less inclined to be the only player -- with
Britain beside it -- to take on Iraq militarily. They have drawn some conclusions from the
unease that their posture created in the region.
"I think it's all building towards the U.S. welcoming a lowering of tensions in the
region as a way of facilitating a slightly reduced military profile for the Gulf."
One of the two U.S. aircraft carriers stationed in the Gulf since the crisis over U.N.
arms inspections in Iraq pulled out last week and other U.S. forces in the region are
being reduced.
I covered up hotel bill, says Saudi adviser, Daily Telegraph, May 21, 1998
SAID Ayas, a former confidential adviser to the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed, is to give police details of how he acted with Jonathan Aitken as an "important channel of communication" between Britain and Saudi Arabia on defence, security and intelligence matters.
He describes himself in a draft witness statement as the prince's closest friend and confidant at the time, having worked with him as a business associate, private secretary and adviser. Mr Ayas also claims to be a close friend of Mr Aitken, with whom he worked in the Prince's company Al Bilal (UK) Ltd until 1992, when Mr Aitken joined the Government as a defence minister and Mr Ayas resigned.
Although the two men had no further business dealings, Mr Ayas said Mr Aitken asked him for help in January, 1993, in a telephone call from the British embassy in Riyadh, where the minister was on an official visit. Prince Sultan, the defence minister, had just cancelled an extension of the Al Yamamah contract, worth £4 billion in exports of British defence equipment - a "devastating blow" to British interests which could have cost 100,000 jobs.
Mr Aitken claimed that it would also weaken the capability of the Royal Saudi Air Force and wanted Mr Ayas to arrange an audience with King Fahd to appeal against the decision. Mr Ayas said he arranged for Mr Aitken and his officials to be flown to Dhahran to meet the Prince for a briefing on the British-Saudi defence relationship.
As a result of that intervention, Mr Ayas said the King flew back to Riyadh for a three-hour meeting at which Mr Aitken persuaded him to overrule the cancellation. During it, Mr Aitken briefed King Fahd on the Iranian military threat to Saudi Arabia, particularly Tehran's acquisition of new Kilo class submarines.
A week later Mr Ayas again acted as an intermediary in arranging a meeting between King Fahd and John Major on the Prime Minister's return from India. This resulted in the Al Yamamah project being restored and increased to include 48 Tornado aircraft, 24 Hawk jets and a large training programme, worth £5 billion.
He said: "I was thanked and congratulated for my part in bringing the project back to life by several British officials (including Sir Alan Thomas and Jonathan Aitken) and by King Fahd." A further consequence was that Mr Ayas was asked by the King to keep in touch with Mr Aitken about the Iranian terrorist threat.
He said: "King Fahd said John Major had promised to share special intelligence with him on Iran. As a result of this instruction from the King, I saw Jonathan Aitken and some of his officials, including Sir Alan Thomas, three or four times in the next six months to discuss Iranian naval threats to Saudi Arabia and British assistance in containing those threats."
Senior Saudi naval officers visited Britain for further briefings in the summer, as a result of which the Ministry of Defence suggested that the Saudis buy Royal Navy submarines and Mr Aitken kept Mr Ayas informed of progress.
In September, Prince Mohammed asked Mr Ayas to arrange another meeting with Mr Aitken to discuss an earlier warning to the King that the Iranians planned to lay mines off the Saudi coast to blow up the royal yacht. He said: "He also wanted to know further details of the help Britain could give on measures to detect and contain Iran's submarines."
The Prince was visiting France at the time. Mr Ayas said: "Mr Aitken came to Paris and stayed at the Ritz Hotel. I booked a room for him there at the request of his secretary because she could not find a room for him in Paris at such short notice."
Mr Aitken and the Prince spoke on the telephone on Sept 18 but decided not to meet at the Ritz because of fears that the hotel was bugged and to meet in Geneva instead. The Prince ordered Mr Ayas to pay Mr Aitken's bill. Mr Ayas said: "He also instructed me to keep Mr Aitken's visit secret and all matters relating to it, including the payment of the hotel bill. I know that Prince Mohammed considered that this was a state matter of discussions of defence, security and intelligence secrets between two government ministers. It certainly did not occur to me that we might be breaching British ministerial etiquette in offering Jonathan Aitken hospitality in accordance with normal Saudi custom."
The next day Mr Ayas was present in Geneva when Mr Aitken met the Prince. He said: "I recall Jonathan Aitken saying the British Government would keep the promise made by John Major to supply the King with any special intelligence on Iranian threats. I recall Prince Mohammad saying that Mr Aitken should pass this intelligence directly to King Fahd using the channel of Prince Mohammed himself, with myself being the link between the two."
Mr Ayas gave Mr Aitken his private telephone numbers and arranged some code words to use for sensitive matters. The channel was used several times that autumn, most importantly in mid-December when Mr Aitken rang Mr Ayas on his mobile phone while the latter was in a London restaurant and demanded an urgent meeting.
Mr Ayas left immediately and arrived at Mr Aitken's Westminster home to be told the British Government required an urgent meeting with King Fahd. He said: "Mr Aitken explained that the Secret Intelligence Service had prepared a report on Iranian terrorism which they wished Mr Aitken to deliver to King Fahd personally. I recall Mr Aitken telling me that the report had been written by Sir Colin McColl, the Chief of the SIS, together with Geoffrey Tantum, a deputy chief of the SIS, and it contained remarkable intelligence captured from the Iranians by a British agent" of a plot to destabilise Saudi Arabia by terrorist bombings.
He said: "I also recall Mr Aitken telling me that the SIS wanted to get the report delivered to and explained to King Fahd privately in a face-to-face meeting because of fears that the Saudi Secret Service had been penetrated by Iranian agents."
Mr Ayas rang Prince Mohammed and arranged an appointment for Mr Aitken with the King the next night. He said: "The arrangements I had set up all worked well." Mr Aitken and Sir David Gore-Booth, the British Ambassador, stayed in the royal palace and Mr Aitken was lent the royal plane to fly to Dhahran to brief the Prince on the SIS report.
"The report was based on a tape recording by a British agent of President Ali Khameni of Iran giving orders to leaders of Iran's secret service on how they should destabilise Saudi Arabia by terrorist bombings of Saudi buildings and of British and US military offices in Riyadh and Dhahran. The report contained remarkable and extremely valuable secret information vital to the national security interests of Saudi Arabia, Britain and the USA."
Again Mr Ayas was instructed by the Prince to keep the visit secret. He said: "King Fahd was overwhelmed by the intelligence that Jonathan Aitken had brought with him." There was a huge shake-up in the Saudi intelligence services and security arrangements in Dhahran and Riyadh. Mr Ayas said the channel was most active during the period when The Guardian and Mohammed Al Fayed tried to expose Mr Aitken's connections with the Saudi royal family and make a scandal out of the payment of Mr Aitken's hotel bill at the Ritz by Prince Mohammed.
Mr Ayas said: "Prince Mohammed instructed me to cover up the Ritz Hotel episode" and to conceal everything that might lead journalists to publish material which would tell those hostile to Saudi Arabia of the existence of the secret channel. I never intended to give evidence in the court case and I have never intended to conspire with anyone to pervert the course of justice in Britain."