Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirms that U.S. forces are leaving Saudi Arabia
Published:
30 April 2003 y., Wednesday
In a joint news conference with Saudi Defense Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz, Mr. Rumsfeld said the United States is grateful for the cooperation Saudi Arabia has provided.
The key command center for U.S. air operations in the Gulf region was transferred from Saudi Arabia to Qatar on Monday.
As many as 10,000 U.S. troops were stationed in Saudi Arabia during the war with Iraq. The kingdom was also a staging area for U.S. attacks against Iraq during the Gulf war in 1991 and for enforcing the no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq.
However, Saudi Arabia refused to allow about 100 U.S. aircraft in the kingdom to be used for direct attacks against Iraq during the latest conflict, mostly because of public opposition to the war among Saudi citizens.
The spokesman for the 22-member Arab League, Hisham Yousef, told VOA the Arab world applauds the decision to remove U.S. forces from Saudi Arabia. Mr. Yousef said the issue of foreign troops on Arab soil is sensitive. U.S. officials have said future American military relations with Saudi Arabia would be in the form of training and military exercises.
Šaltinis:
voanews.com
Copying, publishing, announcing any information from the News.lt portal without written permission of News.lt editorial office is prohibited.
The most popular articles
On 9 August, Daiva Valerija Čekanauskas-Navarrette started her duties as the new Lithuania’s Honorary Consul in the United States.
more »
On 10 August in Washington, Lithuania’s Ambassador Žygimantas Pavilionis presented his credentials to President of the United States of America Barack Obama.
more »
Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs sent letters of condolences to his Russian counterpart S. Lavrov and Minister of Transport, co-chairman of the Intergovernmental Lithuanian-Russian Commission for Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technical, Humanitarian and Cultural Cooperation I. Levitin, expressing his condolences regarding the victims of violent forest fires in Russia.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė sent congratulations on behalf of herself and the people of Lithuania to the President of Macedonia, Gjorge Ivanov, on Macedonia's national holiday, the Day of the Republic.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė sent congratulations on behalf of herself and the people of Lithuania to the President of the Swiss Confederation, Doris Leuthard, on the Swiss National Day.
more »
On 29 July in Vilnius, at a convention of country chairmen of the Lithuanian World Community and the Lithuanian Youth Union, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis invited world Lithuanians to engage actively in the discussion on the strategy of “Global Lithuania”.
more »
On 27 July, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis sent a letter to Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and External Trade Össur Skarphéðinsson congratulating Iceland on the start of EU membership negotiations.
more »
On 26 July, Lithuania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Audronius Ažubalis sent a letter to Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle expressing his condolences to the families and relatives of the victims , who died during a techno music festival in Duisburg.
more »
President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė received letters of credence from Mr. Nguyen Hoang as the Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam and Mr. Deepak Vohra as the Ambassador of the Republic of India.
more »
President Dalia Grybauskaitė received Eastern European political business and public women leaders.
more »