A year ago, former British Prime Minister David Cameron had said that security cooperation with Saudi Arabia would help keep Britain safe.
European and American officials were quoted as saying the same. Undoubtedly Saudi Arabia’s vast counter-terrorism experience is a valuable asset. Security agreements between various countries have helped in the detection of detecting dangerous terrorist cells in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Kuwait. These agreements have also helped Europeans identify terrorists and take measures against people suspected of plotting acts of violence. Saudi Arabia’s history with terrorism dates back to the late 1970s, ever since the occupation of the Grand Mosque in Makkah. It expanded in the mid-1990s when specific types of operations took place, namely the explosions in Alyia and then Alkhobar Towers.
The situation worsened in this millennium, with the Kingdom suffering from both Sunni and Shiite terrorism. It was targeted by Al-Qaeda founder and chief Osama Bin Laden, Yusef Al-Ayeri and Seif Al-Adel. It was also targeted by Iranian intelligence, Hezbollah factions and Imad Mughniyeh; nothing was sacred to them as they even conducted operations against one of the holiest cities in Islam, Makkah.
Interior Minister spokesperson Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said one of the two members of the terrorist organization, Daesh, who carried out two terrorist acts in Germany last month used a Saudi phone number when opening a new account on a social networking site, assuming the terrorist is currently residing in a country suffering from conflict, not in Saudi Arabia.
“Calls and meetings were held to exchange information between experts from both countries through security cooperation channels, to study the communication means between the terrorist member and one of the perpetrators of the terrorist acts in Germany, through a social networking application that was activated using a Saudi phone number,” Turki said.
Saudi updates have become a very sensitive issue for the West, and human rights activists have become highly sensitive when discussing events in the Kingdom. We do not witness the same reactions when executions take place in Iran, unlike when Saudi Arabia executes terrorists, 90 percent of whom were Sunnis. Even Israeli media has supported Iranian executions.
The western media is being unfair; it thinks Saudi Arabia is behind every disaster in the world. Even if the story does not go beyond using a Saudi number to register a new account on a social networking site, the West rushes to put the Saudi government and society in the dock. There is a gap between governments and the media. Security apparatuses in the region and the world know that cooperation with Saudi Arabia will help expose extremist organizations. This is because Saudi Arabia’s experience in the war against terrorism is rare and exceptional, and because countries in the region such as Yemen, Syria and Iraq are suffering from turbulence.
The Kingdom is enticing for the media because it is a vast and rich country that abides by the Islamic laws or Shariah, and all its citizens wear traditional Arab dress. The world is no longer divided into East and West. However, this is a simple idea that can be accepted before jumping to conclusions and wanting to know about the whole world in one click.
Saudis are neither angels nor demons. Extremism is a dilemma that affects the whole world. It is a transnational problem that cannot be solved by clinging to a trivial pretext such as a phone chip to blame the Kingdom for every problem in the world.
European and American officials were quoted as saying the same. Undoubtedly Saudi Arabia’s vast counter-terrorism experience is a valuable asset. Security agreements between various countries have helped in the detection of detecting dangerous terrorist cells in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain and Kuwait. These agreements have also helped Europeans identify terrorists and take measures against people suspected of plotting acts of violence. Saudi Arabia’s history with terrorism dates back to the late 1970s, ever since the occupation of the Grand Mosque in Makkah. It expanded in the mid-1990s when specific types of operations took place, namely the explosions in Alyia and then Alkhobar Towers.
The situation worsened in this millennium, with the Kingdom suffering from both Sunni and Shiite terrorism. It was targeted by Al-Qaeda founder and chief Osama Bin Laden, Yusef Al-Ayeri and Seif Al-Adel. It was also targeted by Iranian intelligence, Hezbollah factions and Imad Mughniyeh; nothing was sacred to them as they even conducted operations against one of the holiest cities in Islam, Makkah.
Interior Minister spokesperson Maj. Gen. Mansour Al-Turki said one of the two members of the terrorist organization, Daesh, who carried out two terrorist acts in Germany last month used a Saudi phone number when opening a new account on a social networking site, assuming the terrorist is currently residing in a country suffering from conflict, not in Saudi Arabia.
“Calls and meetings were held to exchange information between experts from both countries through security cooperation channels, to study the communication means between the terrorist member and one of the perpetrators of the terrorist acts in Germany, through a social networking application that was activated using a Saudi phone number,” Turki said.
Saudi updates have become a very sensitive issue for the West, and human rights activists have become highly sensitive when discussing events in the Kingdom. We do not witness the same reactions when executions take place in Iran, unlike when Saudi Arabia executes terrorists, 90 percent of whom were Sunnis. Even Israeli media has supported Iranian executions.
The western media is being unfair; it thinks Saudi Arabia is behind every disaster in the world. Even if the story does not go beyond using a Saudi number to register a new account on a social networking site, the West rushes to put the Saudi government and society in the dock. There is a gap between governments and the media. Security apparatuses in the region and the world know that cooperation with Saudi Arabia will help expose extremist organizations. This is because Saudi Arabia’s experience in the war against terrorism is rare and exceptional, and because countries in the region such as Yemen, Syria and Iraq are suffering from turbulence.
The Kingdom is enticing for the media because it is a vast and rich country that abides by the Islamic laws or Shariah, and all its citizens wear traditional Arab dress. The world is no longer divided into East and West. However, this is a simple idea that can be accepted before jumping to conclusions and wanting to know about the whole world in one click.
Saudis are neither angels nor demons. Extremism is a dilemma that affects the whole world. It is a transnational problem that cannot be solved by clinging to a trivial pretext such as a phone chip to blame the Kingdom for every problem in the world.
