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 | Thursday, April 27, 2000, updated at 16:16(GMT+8) | ||||||||||||
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Saudi Arabia to Continue Helping U.S. Hunt Down LadenSaudi Arabia will continue helping the United States hunt down the Saudi exile Osama bin Laden, who was blamed by the U.S. for masterminding the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa.The issue of Laden was touched upon during the talks here on Sunday between Saudi crown prince Abdullah Ibn Abdul-Aziz and visiting U.S. Defense Secretary William Cohen. "The secretary expressed his concern about Osama bin Laden, and certainly the Saudis we know are concerned about terrorism generally and Osama bin Laden in particular; after all, they removed his citizenship," a U.S. official said on condition of anonymity after the talks. Capturing bin Laden is one of the highest U.S. priorities, and the Saudis have been extremely cooperative with helping put together a profile of bin Laden, he said. During the talks, Saudi Arabia, which provides the base for U.S. forces patrolling a southern no-fly zone over Iraq, also reaffirmed its support for enforcing U.N. sanctions against Baghdad. Cohen is visiting the Middle East and Gulf partly to maintain continued support for U.S. policy on Iraq. A report quoted U.S. officials as saying that the United States had no plans to reduce its forces in Saudi Arabia. "I can assure you, there's been no discussion whatsoever on any level about any reduction of American forces here," U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Wyche Fowler, said. During the Abdullah-Cohen talks, they also discussed February's Iranian parliamentary elections, in which reformist candidates won most seats. Last month, the United States lifted a ban against imports of Iranian non-oil goods -- caviar, pistachios and carpets -- in a move seen as a goodwill gesture. Cohen has visited Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait, and is to go on from Saudi Arabia to the United Arab Emirates and Oman.
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