Gul In Saudi Arabia

RIYADH - Prime Minister Abdullah Gul who completed his contacts in Saudi Arabia left for Iran on Sunday morning.
Prime Minister Gul had attended the lunch hosted by Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud in the beginning of his contacts in Riyadh. The interdelegationary meetings were held under the leadership of Gul and Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah. After the interdelegationary meetings, Gul had tete-a-tete meeting with the Crown Prince.
Later Gul received Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Suud Al Faisal.
After the meeting Gul was received by Saudi Arabian King Fahd. Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ugur Ziyal, Turkish Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Osman Durak, Foreign Ministry's Middle East Department Deputy Director General Safak Gokturk, Gul's foreign affairs chief advisers Ahmet Davutoglu and Gurcan Turkoglu attended the meeting.
Gul also attended the dinner hosted by Turkish Ambassador Osman Durak in his honour in the evening.
Prime Minister Abdullah Gul stated in his contacts with Saudi Arabian officials that the territorial integrity of Iraq has to be protected and a peaceful solution to the problem has to be found.
Prime Minister Gul mainly took up the Iraqi problem in his meetings with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah and Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal. The sides noted that a solution without war was still possible and that even if the Saddam administration was overthrown, the war will set Kurdish and Shii people fighting and that the chaos would negatively affect the region.
Saudi Arabian officials said that they are not uneasy with the visit of Prime Minister Abdullah Gul to the regional countries, adding that they were open to and support all kinds of formulas which Turkey bring to find a peaceful solution to the Iraqi problem. Saudi Arabian officials also said that they still maintained the decision not to permit passage of U.S. land forces.
At the meetings, the sides reached a consensus of opining on the need of the Iraqi administration to be transparent and to help weapon inspectors for the latter to prepare a correct report and on the need to put pressure on Saddam administration about this issue. The sides expressed their belief that if the report is convincing, the U.S.'s possibility to to carry out an operation against Iraq will decrease.
Prime Minister Gul is expected to make an assesment after completing his visit to Iran and to convey this assesment to the U.S. administration.
Speaking in a joint news conference with Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faysal, Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said that he was very pleased to be in Saudi Arabia. Noting that there is friendship between Turkish and Saudi Arabian peoples, Prime Minister Abdullah Gul said that ''the friendship of our peoples is very deep and it depends on the past. The relations of these two friendly countries will further improve in the future.''
Prime Minister Gul said that he had comprehensive consultations with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Abdullah and his friends and he met with Saudi Arabian King Fahd and he conveyed the greetings of President Ahmet Necdet Sezer and the Turkish people to him.
Gul said that two issues were taken up in the meetings, firstly the further improvement of relations between the two countries in the fields of trade, industry and tourism, adding ''we confirmed our belief to develop these relations and we decided to organize reciprocal visits between the two countries.''
Gul said that the real reason of his visit to Saudi Arabia was related with crisis concerning Iraq which was threatening the region.
''We have discussed things which we, as regional countries, should do to prevent this crisis through peaceful means. I earlier visited Syria, Egypt and Jordan. I'm in Saudi Arabia today and I will leave for Iran on Sunday. We know that we, as regional countries, will be affected most in case of a possible war against Iraq. To this end, I believe that all of us have great responsibilities. We studied on mutual views in order to take necessary steps and we also reached agreement that it would be beneficial to act together related to the issue when it was necessary,'' Gul said.
He noted, ''we, as countries which are still suffering from problems of the Gulf Crisis, discussed the attitude which will be assumed to fulfill this responsibility. We reached agreement that we will exert efforts to prevent a possible war through peaceful means till the very end. We will make an assessment again after visiting Tehran. According to that, we will make decision on steps we will take.''
Al-Faysal said that he shared the same wishes with Gul to further improve the relations in every fields with Turkey and noted that Gul's visit to his country aimed to find a solution to Iraq issue by peaceful means.
Stating that regional countries would be affected negatively in case of a war against Iraq and they would be affected positively if the Iraq issue was solved with peaceful ways, Al-Faysal said that they were launching efforts to find a solution to the issue by peaceful means.
Al-Faysal thanked to Gul for his initiatives and added that they were ready to make contribution to cooperation which could be made on that issue and they would continue to exert efforts on that issue.
Here are the questions asked to Gul and his answers to them:
Question: There are two contradictory attitudes about the Iraqi problem in Turkey. The attitude of AK Party on the one hand and that of generals on the other hand...
Gul: There is a misunderstanding here. A new government was set up after the elections in Turkey and it is in power today. The policy of the government is very clear. The policy of the government is state policy. Therefore there is no difference of policy between the government and military or between president and any other state institution. The government takes the political instruction and decision and everybody implements this decision. Besides there is no difference such as the Turkish Armed Forces or government. Turkey has only one policy about Iraq and this policy is carried out by the government. Our policy is protection of the Iraqi political and territorial integrity.
Question: Did you reach agreement about the concrete ways of solution during your visits?
Gul: We discuss certain views and we convey our views to each other. There are different views. I believe that concrete steps will be taken.
Question: You said that Turkey wants peaceful solution of the problem and you referred to the need to protect the region from danger. Can you give us some clues? Do you think of launching an initiative in Iraq to find a peaceful solution as a result of these contacts?
Gul: I would like to state first of all that the situation got very serious. All of us are aware that the countries and peoples of the region will pay the price of a war that can break out in our region. We believe that all of us have to launch efforts to prevent a military clash. Certainly there are different views. It is early to voice them now, but if necessary Turkey can do everything on its own or with other countries.
Question: U.S. insists on a point about the Iraqi issue, it says that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction. What do you think? Do you really think that Iraq has such weapons?
Gul: All of us have responsibility and the biggest responsibility belongs to Iraq. Unfortunately, Iraq used chemical weapons in the past. This is a reality. Therefore inspections go on in line with the U.N. Security Council Resolution No. 1441. I believe that Iraq has to ease these studies, fulfill openly the U.N. resolutions and launch utmost efforts to ensure that the reports will be clean.
Question: You signed a new decision. In accordance with that decision, is Turkey's opening its airports and ports to the United States the first sign of an attack from Turkish territories to Iraq? Did Iraqi Opposition Center move from Arbil to Turkey?
Gul: Turkey is a country of NATO. Some airports in Turkey were constructed in accordance with NATO decisions. This decision is related with inspection of airports. An agreement which allows soldiers and planes to enter those airports or launch an operation from there was not signed. It is the parliament in Turkey which will give a decision to join a war. There is no such decision on that issue. It is not true that the Iraqi Opposition Center was moved from Arbil to Turkey.
Replying the same question, Al-Faysal said that he fully agreed with Gul's views and answer.
When asked if Saudi Arabia would allow the United States to use bases and ports in his country in case of a possible operation against Iraq and asked if Saudi Arabia would allow land troops to pass through his country, Al-Faysal said that Saudi Arabia earlier answered those kinds of questions and noted that it was exerting efforts to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.
Al-Faysal said that they were not at the level of getting prepared for a war, stating that there were many important developments which caused them to be optimistic on the issue. He added that one of them was statement of U.S. President Bush who said that 'war is the last remedy'.
Al-Faysal said that in accordance with U.N. resolution no. 1441 showing easiness to committee members to fulfil their duties was not causing any obstacles, adding there was also a possibility for a second resolution to be adopted.
Stating that if a resolution foreseeing a war against Iraq would be adopted as a result of studies of U.N. Security Council, they would have to act according to that, Al-Faysal said that it was not possible to predict what a decision would be if a task was wanted from Saudi Arabia.
Al-Faysal added that maybe diplomatic efforts would be given opportunity even after a decision of operation was adopted against Iraq. A war should not be waged just to wage a war, as this will cause very serious damages, he stressed.