Al-Jubeir: No country supports war against Iraq

Adel Al-Jubeir

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(CNN) -- Iraq was one of the top items on the agenda of Tuesday's discussions between Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar bin Sultan and President Bush at the president's Texas ranch. The White House said Bush made his case of why the world would be better off without Saddam Hussein, but he did not raise the possibility of a military attack against Iraq. CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer discussed the Saudi view of such a military action with Adel Al-Jubeir, a foreign policy adviser to Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.

BLITZER: Why do the Saudis this time not see Saddam Hussein as an imminent threat to Saudi Arabia because 11 years ago, as you of course remember, you did perceive Saddam Hussein as a major threat?

AL-JUBEIR: Quite the contrary. We see Saddam Hussein as a threat. We see him as a menace to the region. We believe that he must be brought into compliance with the U.N. resolutions. He must give up his weapons of mass destruction program. He has signed agreements to that effect and he should be held accountable to do so.

What we don't see is, we don't see a need at this time for use of force. We believe that there's a process. There are negotiations under way between the U.N. and the Iraqis on letting the inspectors back. Let's pursue that. If we can succeed in achieving the objective of having inspectors on the ground and dismantling his weapons of mass destruction program, we would have done so without firing a single bullet or losing one single life.

BLITZER: But you heard Vice President [Dick] Cheney say that might be too late. Delay could cause enormous casualties, enormous death.

AL-JUBEIR: Well, we have, I believe and I can't speak for the vice president, but he was talking about the doctrine of pre-emption, whereas what we talk about in this case is that an issue of pre-empting an attack against Iraq. We still think that war at this time is not advisable. There is no country in the world that supports it. There is no legal basis for it. There's no international sanction for it. There is no coalition for it.

There are two wars currently going on in the region, one in Afghanistan and one between Israel and Palestinians. There's a third war going on in terms of the war against terrorism. We really don't need a fourth war in the region at this time.

BLITZER: You heard the vice president, though, make the case that by removing Saddam Hussein from power in Baghdad that would help the U.S. in the war on terrorism and potentially help solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as well.

AL-JUBEIR: I think our view is that it's the other way around. You need to settle the Israeli-Palestinian problem. You need to tone down the anger that's directed at the U.S. in the region, and then you need to pursue a legal process to bring Saddam into compliance. And if that doesn't work, then you pursue other options, but you don't put the cart before the horse.

BLITZER: This 21-year-old Saudi citizen, Saud Al-Rasheed, the FBI wants to question him. He surrendered himself to Saudi authorities the other day. Perhaps, U.S. officials say, he has some relationship with the 19 hijackers. Will you make him available to U.S. investigators?

AL-JUBEIR: He was on vacation in Cairo when he saw his pictures on television. He came back to Saudi Arabia. He handed himself into the authorities. He's being questioned. Everything that we have in terms of information we will pass on to the United States. If the United States has any questions, which I'm sure they have, they will. There is a process that we have between our two countries that allows them to do so, where they get the information they want without violating issues of national sovereignty.

So I have no doubt in my mind that the American authorities will be fully satisfied with the information they receive from this individual, and this is not to say that he is guilty or that he is in any way related, because we really don't know that yet, and it appears that he may not be.

BLITZER: All right. Adel Al-Jubeir as usual thanks for joining us.

AL-JUBEIR: Thank you, my pleasure.