JEDDAH, 11 September 2003 — Saudi Arabia yesterday dismissed as “baseless and untrue” an accusation made by the Israeli chief of staff, Gen. Moshe Yaalon, that Al-Qaeda tried to recruit a Saudi pilot for a major suicide attack against Israel. The denial was issued by an unnamed official and carried by the official Saudi Press Agency.
Gen. Yaalon had said that Al-Qaeda tried to get a Saudi pilot to carry out an attack similar to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States two years ago.
Yaalon has been quoted as saying that the Al-Qaeda terrorist network had wanted to recruit a Saudi pilot to launch an attack in Israel from the Saudi military base of Tabuk, using a civilian aircraft or an F-16 warplane.
Yaalon also said on Tuesday that Israel was concerned Riyadh, which has no ties with the Jewish state, had stationed F-16 fighter jets at a military base in Tabuk not far from Israel’s southern border.
“We worry about it because we found out from Al-Qaeda detainees interrogated by others, not by Israeli intelligence, that Al-Qaeda sought to recruit a Saudi Arabian pilot to use either an F-16 or a civilian plane for a suicide air attack from Tabuk, like on the twins (towers) in New York on Sept. 11.”
Yaalon gave no further details and did not explicitly say whether he was talking about an attack against Israel. He did not make clear whether there was any link with Tel Aviv office blocks known locally as the twin towers.
Saudi Assistant Minister of Defense and Aviation Prince Khaled ibn Sultan said in remarks published on Thursday that there had been no discussions with Washington about withdrawing any Saudi jets deployed at Tabuk, which is home to a major Saudi military base and is about 100 km form Jordan.
