Free Republic

TEL AVIV — Israeli personnel in recent days were in Saudi Arabia to inspect bases that could be used as a staging ground to launch attacks against Iran, according to informed Egyptian intelligence officials. The officials said Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan and other Arab and Persian Gulf countries have been discussing the next steps toward possible strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites. The officials said the U.S. passed strong messages to Israel and the Saudis that the Americans control radar capabilities over the skies near Iran and that no strike should be launched without permission from the Obama administration.

US says pulling virtually all military from Saudi PRINCE SULTAN AIRBASE, Saudi Arabia, April 29 (Reuters) - The United States said on Tuesday it was ending military operations in Saudi Arabia and removing virtually all of its forces from the kingdom by mutual agreement after the Iraq war. Asked if Saudi Arabia had requested the move, a senior U.S. official told reporters travelling with U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on his tour of the Gulf: "It was by very mutual agreement." "When you no longer have Southern Watch, then its self-evident that you no longer need bodies here," the official...

DOHA, Qatar (AP) -- Saudi Arabia has allowed U.S. troops to use several of its air bases and offered logistical support for U.S ground forces in a possible war against Saddam Hussein, a Saudi dissident group said Saturday. The Saudi Islamic Reform Movement said the move came after an understanding reached by the kingdom and the United States under which Saudi Arabia provides facilities to the U.S. forces in a possible conflict with Iraq.Saad al-Faqih, the London-based representative of the movement, said soon after the agreement was reached six weeks ago, the United States deployed some 9,000 troops in a...