Arab News Staff Writer

WASHINGTON, 24 January 2004 — The United States and Saudi Arabia are seeking international support to choke off funding to four branches of a Saudi charity that they say diverted money to help bankroll Al-Qaeda’s terrorist activities.

The branches of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation are in Indonesia, Kenya, Tanzania and Pakistan, the US and Saudi governments said Thursday in a joint announcement.

The United States and Saudi Arabia want the UN to add the four branches to its blacklist of suspected terrorist financiers, which member countries must honor.

“These branches have provided financial, material and logistical support to the Al-Qaeda network and other terrorist organizations,” the US Treasury Department said. Al-Haramain has denied any link to terrorist activities and said it was only involved in charity work for the poor.

“Saudi and US authorities have determined that these Al-Haramain branches have been infiltrated by individuals who have supported terrorists and terrorist organizations like Al-Qaeda,” said an official statement issued by the Saudi Embassy in Washington.

“Nothing can be more evil than the act of collecting money intended for charity and then diverting that money to support the murder of the innocent,” Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar ibn Sultan said in the statement.

“Today, we are sending a message around the world, if you fund or support terrorism, then you are a terrorist and we are coming after you,” he said.

“The branches of Al-Haramain that we have singled out today not only assist in the pursuit of death and destruction, they deceive countless people around the world who believe that they have helped spread good will and good works,” Treasury Secretary John Snow said in a statement.

Saudi Arabia had informed host countries of the Al-Haramain charity that the offices were not Saudi entities and should be targeted under local law, the Treasury Department said.

Officials did not say how much money in charitable contributions at the four branches might have been diverted to support suspected terrorist activities.

At its height, Saudi-based Al-Haramain raised $40 million to $50 million a year in charitable contributions worldwide, said Adel Al-Jubeir, foreign policy adviser to Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard.

Also Thursday, the Bush administration ordered US banks to freeze any assets found in the US that belong to the four branches. It was not known whether the branches have bank accounts or other assets in the United States.

With this latest action, the US has acted to freeze the assets of six branches of the charity. The US and Saudi Arabia have not moved to shut down the charity’s main office in the Kingdom, officials said. Investigations continue, they said.

The two countries acted on March 11, 2002, to block the funds of the charity’s branches in Somalia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Authorities believe contributions were diverted to support terrorism.