Saudis: We did not agree to help Israel strike in Iran
Royal family source denies reports in British paper stating that Israeli, British intelligence heads met with Saudi officials, who agreed to allow Israel to use state's airspace to attack Iranian nuclear facilities. Source also demands report be retracted from Iranian media
Saudi Arabia denied Wednesday morning a report in the British paper Sunday Express saying that Riyadh had agreed to allow Israeli Air Force jets to use its airspace in the event of an attack on the Iranian nuclear facilities.
The Saudi Press Agency quoted a source from the royal family as saying reports that the head of the British Intelligence met with Mossad head Meir Dagan and Saudi officials in London.
According to the report, during their meeting it was agreed that Saudi Arabia would turn a blind eye to Israeli use of its airspace during a strike. The Saudi source also demanded that Iranian media retract the report in the name of journalistic credibility.
On Tuesday, head of Iran's nuclear energy agency said his country would not discuss issues related to its nuclear "rights" at its meeting with six world powers, to take place on Thursday. Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, made clear this included a newly disclosed uranium enrichment plant which has drawn Western condemnation.
"We are not going to discuss anything related to our nuclear rights, but we can discuss about disarmament, we can discuss about non-proliferation and other general issues," Salehi told reporters.
"The new site is part of our rights and there is no need to discuss (it)," he said, adding Tehran would not abandon its nuclear activities "even for a second".
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana has said that the Western powers will demand objective proof from Iran that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only during talks.
"My expectation, or my hope, is that we will be able to get...the guarantees from Tehran, that the program in which they are engaged in is a peaceful program," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters in Gothenburg, Sweden.
The US has already started preparing for the talks to fall through and has already drafted a plan for beefed up sanctions against Iran.
Washington has suggested severing gasoline imports to Iran, which would hit it hard since it lacks refining capacity. But that proposal faces resistance in Europe given concerns it would hurt ordinary Iranians and reunite them behind President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad despite his hotly disputed re-election in June.
