About the attitude of Saudi Arabia if Iran gets a nuclear weapon, Prince Saud said 'That will be a dangerous thing to have a nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapons are not something that one looks forward to have next door. But the Iranian government has assured us that they are not seeking nuclear weapons if that is the case, then we sure of the good sense of the Iranian government in avoiding suspicious activities that will tend not to give credence to this assurance. We hope they will convinced of the soundness of the policy of having a Middle east including the Gulf region free of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Of course as I have said many times before, the double standards in the issue of nonproliferation is being viewed particularly in the Middle East, by giving a blind eye towhat is happening in Israel, and giving strong and restrictive policies against everybody else. It is what has unbalanced the issue of nonproliferation in the Middle East. We hope there will be equality in treatment. We hope that the best way to have that resolved is to have no WMD in the Middle East. God knows Israel does not need it. It is the only country that is guaranteed in security by almost every country including France so we don't see why they need nuclear weapons in the face of such guarantees of security and territorial integrity. On the first longer foreign trip of King Abdullah since his accession to the throne recently, Prince Saud said 'It's not a matter of choices, this instead of that. We have a long and historic relationship with the United States that is very sound and very beneficial for both of our countries that will remain as it is and will not change. As for his trip to the East, it's not a surprise. We have very important relations with all the countries that we visited in Asia. This visit aims to solidify this relationship and to start it on a basis of full understanding of where we are going, and what we are trying to achieve, and how best to advance the interests of our peoples with each other. So it was case of priorities, that now there is a change of priority. We do not have a global policy, we are a small country. We have interests. After all these countries that we visited in the East make up half theworld. So it is not a surprise that the visit was taken, nor is there a hidden meaning in it for any purposes. --more 15 37 Local Time 12 37 GMT www.spa.gov.sa/337349