Saudi Envoy Claims Zionist
Link To Al Qaeda
By Christopher Hart
The Telegraph - UK
6-27-4
The Saudi ambassador to London has reinforced controversial claims by
the kingdom's royal family of a link between "Zionists" and recent
al-Qaeda terror attacks in the country.
In a television interview, to be broadcast today, Prince Turki
al-Faisal is asked about comments made by Crown Prince Abdullah, Saudi
Arabia's de facto leader, that "Zionist hands" have been behind the
attacks.
The ambassador replies: "When you're under attack by people who come
and kill your countrymen and visitors to your country, and you see at
the same time an attack on the kingdom from the outside, from Zionist
circles, it is natural to make a connection."
He declined to expand on his remarks yesterday but his comments were
condemned by Lord Janner of Braunstone, the former Labour MP. "In my
view it is highly offensive and he must realise that the statement is
totally unfounded."
"No terrorism serves the interests of Zionism. The allegation by the
Crown Prince was rubbish and he must know that."
Prince Abdullah made his original remarks when he addressed a
conference of leading Saudi officials and academics last month after
an attack on contractors at the Yanbu oil facility that left six
Westerners - including two Britons - dead.
"Zionism is behind it," he said. "It has become clear now. It has
become clear to us. It is not 100 per cent, but 95 per cent that
Zionist hands are behind what happened."
In his interview today, Prince Turki contends that Saudi Arabia has
been subjected to concerted attacks by "so-called 'experts' with
Zionist connections" for 50 years, and particularly since the terror
atrocities of September 11, 2001.
"Is it beyond any comprehension or understanding that such attacks
come at us from the Zionists on one side and from al-Qaeda on the
other side and not make connection between them?" he asked.
The ambassador also says that the families of victims of terror
attacks committed in Saudi Arabia, including Westerners, can still
insist on the death penalty for their killers under Islamic sharia
law, despite the offer of a state amnesty to terrorists who surrender
in the next month.
He insists that the regime is doing everything it can to root out
terrorists and rejects claims that the Saudi royal family's days are
numbered.
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"Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because fiction is obliged
to stick with possibilities:truth isin't"
Mark Twain
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