RIYADH (AFP) – Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz has rejected charges by the Iraqi government that Riyadh was allowing Saudis to join Iraq's Sunni insurgency, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

In comments that underscored the chilly relations between the two neighbors, Nayef said Baghdad was not doing enough to control its own borders and that Iraqis were sneaking into Saudi Arabia, Al-Watan reported.
“The Iraqi government knows where the (foreign) fighters come from,” said the powerful Nayef, denying claims that Saudis are infiltrating into Iraq.
“The kingdom wants only the good and stability for Iraq, in all aspects, but if there is someone in Iraq working against its interest and expecting the kingdom to support him, this will not happen,” the newspaper quoted him as saying.
“The kingdom would not allow any harm against Iraq's government and people.”
On Thursday Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said Baghdad has no intention of making goodwill gestures towards Saudi Arabia because Riyadh sees them as a sign of weakness.
Maliki and other government officials have in the past accused Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia of not doing enough to stop Saudis crossing the border and joining the Sunni insurgency that has killed thousands in Shiite-dominated Iraq in the past six years.
“There will be no other initiatives on our part as long as there is no sign from Saudi Arabia that it wants to have good ties,” he said.
Relations between the two sides have worsened since the toppling of the regime of Iraq's Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003 unleashed years of bloody reprisals between Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis.
Diplomatic ties had been severed by Saddam on the eve of the 1991 Persian Gulf War and were renewed in 2004, but the kingdom has not reopened its embassy in Baghdad, citing security concerns.
Washington, which is aiming to remove all U.S. troops from Iraq by the end of 2011, has been perturbed by the cool relations and has urged Riyadh to post an ambassador to Iraq and become involved in rebuilding the war-shattered country.