PROVO — America must stay the course in Iraq until the Iraqi government and people agree they are prepared for U.S. troops to withdraw, the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States said Thursday at Brigham Young University.

"The Kingdom (of Saudi Arabia) has always maintained that since America came into Iraq uninvited, it should not leave uninvited," Prince Turki al-Faisal told a standing-room only crowd of more than 1,000 students and faculty.

Withdrawal now is not an option because Iraq is in a state of ferment, al-Faisal said.

"For America to pack up now and leave would be very detrimental and something that would be unacceptable to our part of the world."

Al-Faisal later told reporters, "There is a huge price being paid, but it is a price not just being paid by Americans. It is also being paid by Iraqis."

The turnout for the speech, one day after President Bush announced he would send an additional 21,500 troops to Iraq, was unusually large for an event sponsored by BYU's Kennedy Center for International Studies.

The audience filled the 866 seats in the Joseph Smith Building auditorium, and more than 200 students stood along the walls or in the back, or sat in the aisles or on the carpeted stairs on the sides of the stage. Many others were turned away at the door.

Al-Faisal praised the strategic dialogue between the American and Saudi governments since the war began.

The Saudis believe cultural exchange is an important step in improving relations and are successfully urging young Saudis to study in the United States. Al-Faisal said there are nearly 12,000 Saudis studying at U.S. colleges and universities, up from 2,000 in September 2005.

The ambassador invited BYU students to visit Saudi Arabia, although he couldn't say when a new program to provide tourist visas will begin.

Al-Faisal spoke for about 10 minutes, then spent 30 minutes more being grilled by students during a question-and-answer session that touched on nuclear weapons in the Middle East, the Palestinian question and education in Saudi Arabia.

He expressed hope that the United States and the United Nations Security Council will accept a 20-year-old Saudi motion to declare the Arab world a nuclear-free zone.

He also called the United States "the big, forceful, huge" bear that can push the Palestinians and Israelis to a peaceful resolution.

American intervention gives leaders on both sides political cover, allowing them to "point to the big bear who is pushing them," al-Faisal told reporters.

"They can use it as an excuse to their people that they have to compromise and agree to difficult discussions."

Mark Patterson, a religious studies and political science major, asked al-Faisal about Saudi elementary school textbooks that encourage children to hate Christians, Jews and others and call them the enemies of Islam.

The ambassador said his country is undergoing a review of textbooks, "so all this intolerant and unacceptable language can be eradicated."

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