By John K. Cooley

A T H E N S, Greece, Oct. 10 - Saudi Arabia has been never much of a
combatant in past Arab-Israeli wars, but it has become one of Israel's
toughest critics in the current Palestinian-Israeli crisis. And now, it
has become the first major Arab state to warn of possible action against
the Jewish state.
The warning, from Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz, was
coupled with an assurance that the kingdom would not use oil as a leverage
point against the West, as it had when tensions heated up in the past.
In October 1973, Saudi King Faisal sanctioned the Arab oil embargo to
punish the West for its support of Israel in the Arab-Israeli war.
Prince Abdullah, who effectively runs the Saudi realm for his ailing
elder brother King Fahd, spoke Monday while visiting Palestinian wounded
hospitalized in Riyadh. Saudi broadcasters quoted him as saying the
kingdom would "respond" if Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak carried out
pledges to use force against Syria and Lebanon if border violence flares
again.
"Barak must think carefully," said Abdullah, who generally avoids
political statements and weighs his public words carefully, "before taking
the slightest intolerable step … and no one can imagine that the Saudi
kingdom and the entire Arab-Islamic nation would remain still."
The Saudi crown prince did not specify what action the world's
largest crude oil producer might take.

Other Arab Countries Join In

Apparently trying to match its bigger neighbor and rival Saudi Arabia,
Yemen's leadership has publicly proposed sending weapons and armed
volunteers to help the Palestinians.
Past Israeli-Saudi friction, mediated by the United States, has
occurred over small Saudi-claimed islands in the Red Sea and the Straits
of Tiran, on the southern approaches to Israel's port of Eilat. Israel
occupied one Saudi-owned island, but later evacuated it after the 1967
war.
In early Arab-Israel conflicts, from 1948 onward, Saudi military
contingents either were not mobilized, or in the 1967 and 1973 wars, did
not make it to the front lines. However, Saudi armed forces were deployed
in Syria in 1973 and suffered some casualties.
Saudi Arabia cut its oil exports to punish Britain and France for
helping Israel in the 1956 Suez war, and to hurt the United States and
other Western nations for the same reason in the 1967 war. Temporary but
severe Saudi and other Arab and Iranian oil cutbacks helped to more than
double world oil prices in 1973.
Prince Abdullah was quoted on Monday as saying Saudi Arabia would not
use oil as leverage point during the present crisis. "It would not be in
the interest of world oil consumers, our friends or ourselves," he added.
In Saudi Arabia's almost equally oil-wealthy neighbor Kuwait, which
expelled Palestinians and derided Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for
siding with Iraq during the 1990-91 Gulf conflict, rulers were among the
first to send help to the Palestinian wounded and homeless in the latest
round of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

A Call to Freeze Ties With Israel

For the fourth day today, thousands of Kuwaitis and other Arabs marched in
Kuwait City to protest normalization of ties with Israel by other Arab
leaders, a theme heard throughout the Arab Gulf states. Calls for a freeze
on all ties with the Jewish state struck especially sensitive nerves in
Qatar and Oman, which have permitted Israeli trade missions - but not
diplomatic ones - to operate in their capitals.
Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates are also sites of
American military and naval facilities and pre-positioned U.S. equipment.
U.S. and British air forces based in the Gulf and Saudi Arabia regularly
patrol over Iraq, attacking what they say are air defense targets there.
All of the Arab monarchies, as well as Yemen, have agreed to attend
an Arab summit on Oct. 21-22, possibly to be held in Cairo, to discuss the
conflict. Iraq, not invited to previous Arab summits since the Gulf war,
was asked to this one. President Saddam Hussein, who never leaves Iraq, is
likely to send one of his vice presidents.

Transportation Issues

Israel's closure of the Palestinians' Gaza airport after an attack on
Israeli workers there has made it necessary to ship blood donations,
medicines and other emergency supplies through the land border between
Egypt and Gaza, and over the Jordan River bridges from Jordan. In Jordan's
capital, Amman, local authorities have defended the Israeli Embassy and
U.S. installations against angry demonstrators.
Saudi Arabia led recent cash donations. King Fahd and Crown Prince
Abdullah contributed $10.7 million to the Palestinian cause, Saudi media
have reported. Billionaire businessman Prince Walid bin Talal bin Abdel
Aziz, who owns properties and has large investments in the United States,
gave another $2.4 million.
Sultan Qabus of Oman ordered funds collected and medical aid for the
Palestinians. In Abu Dhabi, the UAE government said a first group of 50
severely wounded Palestinians would arrive by hospital plane Wednesday for
treatment. All UAE state employees were directed to contribute a day's pay
for the "brave intifada," or uprising, Dubai radio reported. Oct. 14 has
been declared "Palestine Day" in all UAE schools.
Satellite television stations, including the independent and often
nonconformist Al-Jazira channel in Qatar, beamed insistent demands for
actions to support the Palestinians into Gulf homes and schools.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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