JEDDAH, 15 March — Interior Minister Prince Naif confirmed yesterday that the United States’ move to freeze assets of two overseas offices of a major Saudi Islamic charity was taken in consultation with the Saudi government, a newspaper reported yesterday.
“The measures by the US treasury secretary to freeze the assets of two offices of Al-Haramain Charitable Foundation was taken on the basis of a US-Saudi agreement,” Prince Naif told Al-Hayat newspaper.
The foundation’s deputy director general, Mansour Al-Qadi, said Wednesday that his organization had not received anything to prove statements attributed to US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill on the issue.
O’Neill said on Monday that Saudi Arabia and the United States had frozen assets of the Somali and Bosnian branches of the Riyadh-based charity.
O’Neill accused the charity of funneling money to the Al-Qaeda terror network, which is accused of masterminding the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the United States.
Qadi said that until Wednesday morning no action had been taken against the foundation’s two offices, or against the offices it has in the United States, located in Oregon and Missouri.
The organization, the largest Saudi charity society, has more than 50 offices around the world. In 1999 it poured some SR230 million ($61 million) in aid into more than 50 countries.
Qadi denied accusations that the foundation, or any of its offices, has links to terror organizations. “Our work is purely humanitarian and to provide aid to the needy,” he said. The foundation is under the direct supervision of Minister of Islamic Affairs Saleh Al-Sheikh.
Qadi said Al-Haramain was planning to take legal action against the American government for leveling false accusation against the organization that it financed terrorist acts.
In an interview with Asharq Al-Awsat, Oqail ibn Abdul Aziz Al-Oqail, the foundation’s director general, said the US Treasury Department had not informed his organization of its move to freeze the assets of the two offices.
In Somalia, Al-Haramain takes care of more than 2,700 orphans, finances over 100 schools and distributes thousands of tons of foodstuffs annually, Oqail told the Arabic daily. “We have spent about SR100 million in Somalia on various projects during the past 10 years,” he explained.
