Revolutionary unrest threat to Saudi stability — diplomats

Press, 6 December 1979, Page 9

Revolutionary unrest threat to Saudi stability — diplomats

Beirut Revolutionary shockwaves from Iran appear to be threatening the stability of conservative Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest oil exporter, Western diplo- i matic sources have said in Beirut.

The Saudi Interior Minister (Prince Nayef Ibn Abdul Asiz) reported yesterday that the last group of rebel Muslim gunmen who stormed the Grand Mosque in Mecca two weeks ago had surrendered to rhe Saudi security forces. There are still conflicting accounts about the objectives of the gunmen who seized Islam’s holiest shrine at dawn on the first day of the Muslim fifteenth century. The Saudi Government has described them as renegades against Islam. Opposition Saudi sources in Beirut have said the mosque attack was part of moves to oust the Saudi royal family and proclaim a republic. Western diplomatic sources in the city of Jeddah have said there were also disturbances in Medina on the same day as the Mecca at-; tack. Informed Saudi sources' in the Lebanese capital re-! ported yesterday that part of the eastern oil-producing province of the Saudi kingdom had been sealed off after nots there. The sources said there had, heen several demonstrations on November 27 and 29 in

the eastern province. Demon-i strators demanded that Saudi! Arabia stop supplying the United States with oil and back) the Islamic revolution of the] Iranian leader, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeiny. On December 2, the Saudi! Information Minister (MrMohammed Abda Yamani) denied reports that there was! unrest or trouble in several; parts of the country. “Mutiny was confined to the Grand Mosque in Mecca. The rest of the kingdom's! towns, cities, and villages en-i joy stability and security, thank God,” he was quoted by official Saudi Press Agency as saying. Well-informed observers’ of Saudi Arabian affairs have reported that the heavilyarmed Muslim extremists! who took over the Grand 'Mosque in Mecca were from •the Salafiya religious movement demanding a return to strict Islamic teachings, the observers said. The Saudi royal house itself belongs to the ultra-pur-'itan, conservative Wahhabi .sect of the orthodox Sunni Muslim denomination. Political dissent often takes on a

religious guise in Muslim countries. More than 800 gunmen! took part in the attack, and the Western sources said the size and coordination of the operation were known to have worried’ the Saudi authorities. In particular the size of I the arsenal needed to equip' the gunmen indicated the| potential for armed dissent! inside the Kingdom. The Kuwaiti newspaper, i "Al Watan.” reported last ‘week that large arms caches had been discovered by security forces in various parts of Mecca and Medina after the occupation of the Grand i Mosque. Diplomatic sources said’ arms were being smuggled into the kingdom from both North and South Yemen. The Soviet Union recently j signed a friendship treaty (with South Yemen and United States Central Intelligence Agency sources said ' last month that they were ’worried by Soviet deliveries ’of weapons to conservative \ North Yemen. After 15 days of bloody ’fighting with Saudi troops ’in which about 135 people died, the surviving attackers of the Grand Mosque at Mecica now face the prospect of i going on trial for their lives. ! Saudi television yesterday !showed film of the exhausted survivors of the group, many of them wounded. The leader of the attack, Juhaiman Oteiba. was seen glaring at the camera from a hospital bed, looking filthy and bedraggled. Prince Nayef Ibn Abdulaziz said about 60 Saudi soldiers and 75 of the rebels had been killed in the two weeks of fierce fighting at ' the mosque. Saudi officials have said the 170 captured rebels will I be tried, and that those found guilty will be punished in accordance with Islamic law, which provides for the death penalty for desecrating the Grand Mosque.