ASSAD TARGETS THE HOUSE OF SAUD

Excerpted from: Eurasia Security Watch No. 138, November 2, 2006
American Foreign Policy Council, Washington, DC

The already-chilly relations between Saudi Arabia and Syria are about to get
even frostier. According to a new expose in a leading Gulf paper, the
government of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus is gearing up to unleash a wave of
attacks against leading Saudi figures. Syria's intelligence service, the
report says, is recruiting Saudi, Algerian and Moroccan extremists who live
in Syria and Jordan to target key members of the House of Saud, including
Prince Bandar Bin Sultan, the Kingdom's former Ambassador to Washington and
current head of the Saudi National Security Council. The Syrian campaign
appears to be motivated by revenge; observers say officials in Damascus
blame recent acts of violence in the Ba'athist state on Saudi and
Saudi-influenced extremists. (Kuwait Al Seyassah, October 20, 2006)