Saudi Arabia rejects blame for US September attacks
Saudi Arabia, Politics, 9/11/2002

The Saudi defense minister prince Sultan Bin Abdul Aziz on Monday, on the first anniversary of the September 11 attacks on the US, repeated that the attackers of "September 11 incidents" being Saudi citizens does not make the Saudi Arabia responsible for this "bad day." Prince Sultan stressed that Saudi Arabia from which came some 15 out of the 19 attackers of September 11, 2001, denounces up such actions and is not responsible for them.

The Saudi News agency quoted prince Sultan as saying that those attackers "are Saudi individuals and others who violated the Islamic Sharia and nationalism. They hold their responsibility themselves and not we. They are Saudis who fought their country first, before the fought others; everyone knows what they had done in Saudi Arabia."

He continued that some of these "groups went to defend communism ( in Afghanistan) and they have turned upside down, and they were criminals and not of good manners. This was a fact and therefore we are in Saudi Arabia did not give shelter to criminals, rather our religion prevents us doing so, and also our Arab nationalism." He continued that Saudi Arabia's "leadership and people are against terrorism and criminal acts" and that "Islam gives up such acts and denounces it. Any criminal or terrorist acts is considered a violations to the Islamic Sharia and the humanitarian logic of mankind."

Sultan's statements were made after his meeting with members of the scientific committee of the Saudi Arab literary Encyclopedia. He said that the kingdom was the first to fight terrorism. The prince's statements came after the leader of al-Qaida organization Osama Bin Laden unprecedentedly claimed responsibility for the attacks of September 11 in a tape broadcast by the Qatari al-Jazeera TV on Monday. The video tape showed one of the attackers Abdul Aziz al-Omari reading his own will saying "This act of mine is a message to everyone who hears it. It is also a message to all "non believers" and to America to get out of the Arab peninsula and to stop supporting the "coward Jews in Palestine."

Previous Stories:
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  Sanaa hands over to Riyadh a Saudi belongs to al-Qaida   (2/28/2002)
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