JEDDAH, 7 March — US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill declared yesterday that he had no doubts Saudi Arabia would not allow terrorist funding from within the Kingdom.
“The government of Saudi Arabia has been very good in its cooperation with the US on the issue” of a global clampdown on terror group finances, he told a press conference in Jeddah.
Referring to the suspicions raised against some Saudi businessmen that they had funded terrorist organizations, he said the United States did not possess sufficient evidence to publicize their names.
The US official said he had found “a wonderful spirit of shared interest and cooperation” in the Kingdom and other Gulf states in the fight against funding terrorism.
“We are absolutely together in our determination... to work against illegal activities,” O’Neill added.
O’Neill offered not a word of public criticism of Riyadh, despite reported negative comments in briefings to US journalists traveling with the secretary.
The US official held extensive talks Tuesday and yesterday with Finance and National Economy Minister Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assaf, Hamad Al-Sayyari, governor of Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency, and other top officials.
The discussions focused on measures to fight sources that fund terrorism and on bilateral economic cooperation.
“What is important about this visit is to be engaged with the governments of the Gulf, and to learn from them what they are doing and the ideas they have about fighting terrorism,” he said.
O’Neill also discussed ways of preventing Islamic charity money from reaching terrorists. “We are working with countries around the world with the focus of ensuring that charitable money gets to its intended recipients,” he said.
O’Neill has heard criticism during his trip — which has so far taken him to Bahrain and Kuwait and winds up tomorrow in the United Arab Emirates — that multiple suspect lists issued in the United States, Europe and elsewhere sometimes unfairly or incorrectly contained Arab nationals.
O’Neill cited progress by the Gulf states on one issue — regulating Islamic charities more closely to ensure that donations they raise are not diverted to militants.
He said Bahrain had a draft proposal for regulating Islamic charities that he described as “a full-fledged regulation, in some ways...tighter than what exists in the US” where the tax-collecting Internal Revenue Service sets rules for the operations of charities.
