WASHINGTON, Feb. 9 — Saudi Arabia's leaders have made far-reaching
decisions to prepare for an era of military disengagement from the United
States.
Senior members of the royal family say the decisions, reached in the
last month, are a result of a continuing debate over Saudi Arabia's future
and have not yet been publicly announced. But these princes say Crown
Prince Abdullah will ask President Bush to withdraw all American armed
forces from the kingdom as soon as the campaign to disarm Iraq has
concluded. A spokesman for the royal family said he could not comment.
Pentagon officials asked about the Saudi decisions said they had not
heard of any plan so specific as a complete American withdrawal. Since the
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers
involved were Saudis, members of both parties in Congress have urged broad
reform in the conservative kingdom.
Until Abdullah actually issues the decrees, it remains to be seen
whether he will be the first son of Saudi Arabia's modern unifier, King
Abdul Aziz ibn Saud, to undertake significant political change.
The presence of foreign — especially American — forces since the
Persian Gulf war of 1991 has been a contentious issue in Saudi Arabia and
has spurred the terrorism of Osama bin Laden, the now disowned scion of
one of the kingdom's wealthiest families, and his followers in Al Qaeda.
Since the Persian Gulf war, when the United States sent 500,000 troops
to the Saudi desert, a security pact has endured to confront and contain
Saddam Hussein in Iraq. Thousands of American engineers have built supply
depots, air bases and a state-of-the-art air operations headquarters south
of Riyadh that were intended to join the two countries in long-lasting
military collaboration.
Even if American troops did leave, Saudi and American officials said,
security cooperation would probably continue, and they noted that the
soldiers could return if the Saudi rulers faced a new threat.
The New York Times Company
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