On the eve of his visit to the UK, Saudi King Abdullah, in an interview with the BBC, said that British anti-terror efforts are inadequate. He said that the Saudis had passed information that might have prevented the July 7, 2005 attacks in London, something the British deny.
This BBC article suggests that the King’s remarks may be linked to a lack of international action on his proposal to develop an international clearinghouse on terrorism-related information. That may be. I suspect another factor is in play—the lack of British action on Saudi requests that certain Saudi exiles (termed ‘dissidents’ by much of the Western press) be expelled from the UK. These, including Mohammed Al-Maasari and Saad Faqih, have been tagged by the Saudis (and in the case of Faqih, by the US government) as sponsors and supporters of terrorism.
Asharq Alawsat runs a news piece on this story: Saudi King says Britain Failed to Act on 7/7 Warning
Saudi king chides UK on terrorism
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has accused Britain of not doing enough to fight international terrorism, which he says could take 20 or 30 years to beat.
He was speaking in a BBC interview ahead of a state visit to the UK – the first by a Saudi monarch for 20 years.
He also said Britain failed to act on information passed by the Saudis which might have averted terrorist attacks.
BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says Whitehall officials have strenuously denied this.
King Abdullah is expected to arrive in the UK on Monday afternoon; his visit begins formally on Tuesday.
In the BBC interview he said the fight against terrorism needed much more effort by countries such as Britain and that al-Qaeda continued to be a big problem for his country.
BBC world affairs correspondent John Simpson says King Abdullah is annoyed that the rest of the world has largely failed to act on his proposal for a UN clearing house for information about terrorism.
…
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.
October:30:2007 - 02:20
Last night Saudi TV 1 (arabic) aired an extensive interview with King Abdullah being interviewed by a British journalist in regards to his upcoming trip to the UK. Under the ‘for what it is worth; category, I thought the King answered candidly to a number of the tough questions and that overall the interview was very well done. As the interview was concluding the King asked for a moment to speak. He wished to advise viewers and the journarlist that he chose not to respond or answer questions pertaining to Iran, Iraq and one other issue which escapes me at the moment as he did not wish to lie or mislead. I don’t know about others but I appreciated his candor.
He also brought up again his desire for an international clearing house to exchange information on terrorism should be stablished.
All in all, it was an interesting interview and well-worth viewing.
Regards,
American_Bedu
October:30:2007 - 05:24
A very interesting piece of information.
Two very important aspects of the interview pointed by Carol/American_Bedu since I just wantched the interview on bbc world on “simpson’s world”. i am looking for the transcripts of the interview actually, so if someone knows pls tell me where i can find them!
October:30:2007 - 06:16
[...] on my way to looking for it i found american_bedu’s blog. i found myself there from here. [...]
October:30:2007 - 17:32
Can anyone provide a link to the full interview? Thanks…
October:30:2007 - 21:18
I don’t seem to be able to find a transcript, but you can watch the interview at this BBC link.