JEDDAH, 18 June 2004 — Interior Minister Prince Naif has said the plight of the Palestinians is the main cause of misunderstandings between Saudi Arabia and Western governments.
“Our problem with the West is perhaps the Palestinian cause. The suffering of the Palestinians is great. And we do not forget that the third mosque of Islam is in Jerusalem,” he said in an interview published yesterday in the French daily Le Figaro.
Prince Naif demanded fair implementation of United Nations resolutions on the Middle East. “Everyone can see the injustice: it is a Palestinian child against an F-16 fighter plane. That is our problem with the West,” he said.
He denied the Saudi government funded extremist Islamic clerics living in the West. “Saudi Arabia does not condone extremism and does not take part in it. It is true that we support people who seem to us to be good Muslims. But they are not extremists,” the minister said.
He said the government would continue to use force to fight terrorism in the Kingdom, but urged intellectuals to use their power to influence young Saudis who have gone astray.
“Young Saudis who commit these crimes are influenced by bad ideas. Intellectuals must explain to them what is true and what is false,” he said.
The prince said the Interior Ministry was using all means at its disposal to fight terrorist actions in the Kingdom and Saudi Arabia did not need outside assistance in a domestic situation.
‘’But we want other countries to help us outside the Kingdom. We want to work jointly with them. We need help in the area of intelligence, especially from the most powerful countries (operating) in Afghanistan and in Iraq.’’
He said the Kingdom was waiting for information from those countries and asked why the United States, for example, was not arresting known Al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq. ‘’It is said that Al-Zarqawi, one of the Al-Qaeda leaders, is in Iraq. The United States has the opportunity to arrest him. Why don’t they do it?’’ he asked.
The US 9/11 Commission has cleared Saudi Arabia of any involvement in the 2001 attacks.
Prince Naif slammed suggestions the Kingdom’s education system was the root cause behind the involvement of so many Saudis in terror operations.
‘’It is a big mistake to say that the cause of terrorism can be found in the education system. This is a false idea spread by certain intellectuals and journalists. How many terrorists are there, 1,000, 2,000 at the most? Yet the entire population studied in our schools and that did not make a nation of terrorists,’’ he said.
The minister said he believed Al-Qaeda was not alone in carrying out terrorist acts in the region, but that the organization led by Osama Bin Laden claimed all the operations. ‘’There are people who are ready to do anything. These terrorists are all over the Middle East and in other countries like Pakistan.’’
He also rejected accusations that Saudi-based charities were financing terrorism. ‘’It is a very small percentage. The perpetrators of terrorist acts were trained outside the Kingdom. Even their ideology, their mentality, they acquired abroad,” he said.
On the closure of charities like Al-Haramain, Prince Naif insisted it was non-Saudis who failed to respect the true aims of non-governmental organizations abroad. It was a small number of Saudis who failed to live up to their commitment to do good through such charities and “give everything to these foreign employees,” he added.
