John R. Bradley, Managing Editor

JEDDAH, 2 June 2003 — Saudi Arabia reiterated yesterday before the start of the G-8 summit in Evian its complete condemnation of all forms of terrorism, and highlighted its ongoing campaign to tighten control over the Kingdom’s charitable organizations at home and abroad.

It also made it clear ahead of a US-Arab summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm El-Sheikh tomorrow that the onus is now fully on Israel to act on the terms of the road map for the Middle East.

Saudi Arabia’s fight against terrorism is again the focus of international scrutiny following the simultaneous attacks in three of Riyadh’s Western-style compounds on May 12, in which 25 people — plus nine suicide bombers — died. Yesterday the US State Department announced that a ninth US citizen had died of injuries sustained in the bombings, without giving details.

Both Saudi and US officials have blamed Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qeada terrorist network for the attacks.

“The Kingdom has repeatedly, and in the strongest possible terms, rejected, condemned, deplored and denounced all forms of terrorism, expressed its opposition to terrorism and emphasized its active cooperation with international endeavors to combat terrorism,” the government said in a statement.

Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, joined about a dozen other leaders from emerging or developing nations in an “enlarged dialogue” with heads of state or government from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia and the United States. The crown prince met privately with presidents George Bush and Jacques Chirac and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

The preliminary talks, which focused on international cooperation and development, preceded the annual G-8 summit at the resort in southeastern France near the Swiss border.

The role Saudi charities may have played in allowing terrorist organizations to receive funds has been hotly debated in the United States since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and the Pentagon, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi nationals.

The Kingdom has repeatedly rejected the accusations as being part of a smear campaign, arguing that if Saudi charitable donations did in fact reach terrorists it was because it was impossible to keep track of where every donation eventually ended up.

In its statement yesterday, the Saudi government said it was nevertheless “reorganizing... charitable organizations in order to subject them to more control and accountability and make their operations and activities more transparent.”

The aim, it said, is to ensure that funds donated to such groups do not find their way into the hands of terrorists. The government has already announced stringent new measures to regulate charities, and has been urging Saudi-based charitable organizations to focus more on helping those in need at home.

To control the activities of Saudi charitable organizations abroad, the government plans to enact legislation stipulating that donations going outside the country be channeled through a single authority “to prevent any of these donations being diverted to dubious activities or bodies,” the statement said.

Crown Prince Abdullah is expected to press for Israeli implementation of the latest road map during the US-Arab peace summit.

After Israel agreed to follow the Middle East peace guidelines, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal warned the plan must be fully implemented, adding that the Kingdom would not yet meet directly with Israel.

“The acceptance of the road map by the Israeli government is a positive initial step that needs to be followed by serious measures to implement all its provisions, including the Arab peace plan, without delay,” Prince Saud said.

The grudging approval by the government in Tel Aviv nonetheless officially recognizes for the first time the right to Palestinian statehood, a move hailed by Washington and European officials. The White House called Israel’s acceptance of the blueprint “an important step forward,” opening the way for summit talks.

Saudi Arabia has dropped its initial reservations on the road map and is now hoping that implementation will signal “the real start of a road that would lead to just and comprehensive peace in the region,” a Cabinet statement said.

Riyadh had previously pointed out that the plan does not make equal demands of both the Israeli and Palestinian sides and wanted it to lead into Saudi Arabia’s earlier floated peace initiative, which calls for full withdrawal in exchange for full peace.

The initiative, based on Saudi proposals and adopted at an Arab League summit in Beirut in March 2002, offers Israel normal ties with Arab states in return for its total withdrawal from the territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East War.

The Kingdom, which has remained a staunch ally of the Palestinians in their struggle for freedom over the past decades, has also insisted that resolving the conflict is of “paramount importance” for Saudi Arabia and the region.

In the past few months, Riyadh has welcomed almost every move made by Washington toward achieving peace in the Middle East, but reaffirmed that the root cause of the problem is Israeli occupation and the Jewish state’s refusal to comply with relevant UN resolutions.

The Bush-Arab leaders summit will be followed Wednesday by a meeting between Bush, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas and his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon in Jordan in a bid to push forward the peace plan