Saudi Arabia expels the Libyan ambassador following accusations of crown prince assassination attempt

Saudi Arabia yesterday withdrew its ambassador from Libya and simultaneously expelled the Libyan ambassador in Riyadh after it accused Tripoli of involvement in the conspiracy to assassinate the Saudi crown prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz, according to the Saudi foreign minister Saud al-Faisal.

Earlier, the US New York Times daily said that the Libyan intelligence led an assassination attempt that targeted the Saudi crown prince in 2003 in order to destabilize the kingdom and that the Libyan leader Muammar al-Qathafi was involved in it.

The New York Times said that the names of the two men who took part in the assassination attempt were the American of Eritrean origin Abdul Rahman al-Amoudi and the officer in the Libyan intelligence Muhammad Ismael who is still held in Saudi Arabia. The two men gave contradictory answers upon investigating them by American and Saudi officials. But al-Amoudi told the Federal Bureau for Investigation (FBI) that the assassination attempt was made with al-Qathafi consent. Accusations refuted by the son of the Libyan leader and described it in an interview with the BBC as "nonsense."