JEDDAH, 13 August 2003 — Saudi Arabia yesterday denied a report carried by The Times of London that the Al-Qaeda terror network had smuggled millions of dollars, weapons and hundreds of Arab fighters across the desert border with Saudi Arabia during the past four months.
“The report is baseless. We have not received any information in this respect. The Kingdom’s borders are subject to intense monitoring to prevent smuggling of weapons. We have also taken strong measures to monitor movement of money,” a Foreign Ministry official told the Saudi Press Agency. “The Kingdom will not show any leniency to or ignore Al-Qaeda’s activities. We’ll root out this organization, God willing,” the official said.
He condemned what he called a move “by certain sections of the media” to drag the Kingdom’s name into Al-Qaeda’s activities. “Actually Saudi Arabia has declared a war against this deviant group,” he pointed out and stressed the Kingdom’s determination to fight Al-Qaeda.
