Mohammed Alkhereiji • Arab News Staff

JEDDAH, 29 July 2003 — Prince Sultan, second deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, responded angrily on Friday to a US congressional report implying that Saudi Arabia had a role in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The US Congressional report raised suspicions but failed to reach a definite conclusion about whether Omar Al-Bayoumi, a Saudi who knew two of the Sept. 11 hijackers while living in San Diego, was connected to the Saudi government.

“All members of Congress know Saudi Arabia and the American government under the leadership of President Bush has said officially that the Kingdom is not a party in these affairs,” Prince Sultan said.

“We are confident about ourselves and if it’s just a matter of talk, then there is no problem.

“But if it gets more serious than that then our view will be different,” he said.

Earlier, Prince Bandar ibn Sultan, the Kingdom’s ambassador to the US, said: “It is unfortunate that false accusations against Saudi Arabia continue to be made by some for political purposes despite the fact the Kingdom has been one of the most active partners in the war on terror,”

“The idea that the Saudi government funded, organized or even knew about Sept. 11 is malicious and blatantly false,” he said.

“Saudi Arabia has nothing to hide. We can deal with the questions in public, but we cannot respond to blank pages,” he added, referring to 28 pages in the Congressional report that have been blanked out and that are said to contain information damaging to Saudi Arabia.

Oil and security analyst Nawaf Obaid also believes that the claims in the Congressional report are baseless.

“It is unsubstantiated and circumstantial, especially in its reference to Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the claims about Omar Al-Bayoumi’s ties with the Saudi government are laughable at best,” he told Arab News.