Saudi King urged US to attack Iran: secret files

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WASHINGTON, Nov. 28 (agencies): Saudi King Abdullah had urged the United States to attack Iran in order to stop its nuclear programme, according to the leaked US secret diplomatic cables published by the New York Times Sunday.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia made the "exhortations" during a meeting with US senior officials in April 2008.
"The King, Foreign Minister, Prince Muqrin, and Prince Nayif all agreed that the Kingdom needs to cooperate with the US on resisting and rolling back Iranian influence and subversion in Iraq," said one of the leaked cables.
"The King was particularly adamant on this point, and it was echoed by the senior princes as well. Al-Jubeir recalled the King' s frequent exhortations to the US to attack Iran and so put an end to its nuclear weapons programme," said the cable.
Some 250,000 US diplomatic cables were made public Sunday by Wikileaks, a whistle-blower website. Many of the files were classified. Four media outlets, including New York Times, Britain' s Guardian, France's Le Monde and Germany's Der Spiegel, have attained the documents from Wikileaks in advance.
Another report adds: The Saudi king considers President Asif Ali Zardari the greatest obstacle to progress in Pakistan, according to scathing comments reported by the New York Times in leaked US diplomatic cables.
"When the head is rotten it affects the whole body," King Abdullah was quoted as saying.
Zardari is deeply unpopular at home. Tainted by corruption allegations and nicknamed "Mr 10 Per cent," he spent 11 years in jail on charges ranging from corruption to murder, but has never been convicted.
His spokesman on Monday dismissed the reported insult from one of Pakistan's closest allies.
Zardari considers King Abdullah "his elder brother", Farhatullah Babar told AFP from Colombo where the Pakistani leader is paying an official visit.
"The so-called leaks are no more than an attempt to create misperceptions between two important and brotherly Muslim countries," Babar said.
Pakistan has condemned the staggered release of up to quarter of a million confidential American diplomatic cables by whistleblower website WikiLeaks, calling the leaks an "irresponsible disclosure of sensitive official documents.
Meanwhile: The US has strongly criticised the release by the website Wikileaks of thousands of extracts from US diplomatic messages.
Among the revelations is a report Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah urged the US to destroy Iran's nuclear facilities.
The founder of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, said the US authorities were afraid of being held to account.
But the White House said the release was "reckless" and put the lives of diplomats and others at risk.
One Republican congressman called for Wikileaks to be designated a terrorist organisation.
Peter King, a member of the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said the latest release "manifests Mr Assange's purposeful intent to damage not only our national interests in fighting the war on terror, but also undermines the very safety of coalition forces in Iraq and Afghanistan".
Meanwhile, Pakistan's foreign ministry condemned what it called "the irresponsible disclosure of sensitive official documents".
The US Department of Defence says it is making its computer systems more secure to prevent future leaks.