Top U.S. commanders in third visit to Saudi Arabia this month

ABU DHABI — The stream of U.S. military commanders to Saudi Arabia continues.

A U.S. military delegation led by vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Richard Myers, held talks in Riyad on Wednesday with Saudi leaders. The vice chairman met Saudi Chief of Staff Gen. Saleh Mohaya.

The visit was the third by senior U.S. commanders to Saudi Arabia this month, Middle East Newsline reported. Previous visits included the head of U.S. military training and U.S. Central Command chief Gen. Tommy Franks.

Saudi sources refused to provide details of the latest visit. Iraq, however, has renewed threats against Riyad and its neighbors in wake of the signing of a Saudi security accord with Iran. The United States, which maintains more than 20,000 troops in the Gulf, has not objected to the agreement.

On Wednesday, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein called on the Arabs to expel U.S. troops who protect the regimes in the region. "American soldiers are stationed now in Kuwait and I see in their presence an insult to every young man and woman in Kuwait, before being an insult to every Arab people," Saddam said.

The recently-concluded security pact between Saudi Arabia and Iran has surprised its neighbors and led to charges from Baghdad that Iran has joined with the United States and the moderate Arab states in an effort to contain Iraq.

The Baghdad-based Al Iraq daily said an Iranian missile attack last week on Iraq was meant to express Teheran's wish to dominate the region and serve the wishes of Saudia Arabia and the United States. "By its aggression, Teheran's regime was aiming to gain favor with other parties and prove that it again could become the policeman of the Gulf," the newspaper said in a front-page editorial.

The Iranian firing of up to 66 Scud missiles at Iraq on April 18 surprised members of the Gulf Cooperation Council. GCC sources said the Iran fired more missiles in one attack than during the entire Iran-Iraq war, which lasted from 1980 to 1988.

GCC sources said the Iranian attack was a testament to the size and capability of the Iranian forces as well as its clear superiority over Iraq. The sources said the Iranian capability surprised both Iraq as well as the rest of the Gulf region.

Iran was able to deploy 17 Scud launchers at the same time, far higher than previous assessments. The Iranians fired 22 Scuds an hour while Iraq was able to fire only three to four such missiles a day during its eight-year war with Teheran.