Saudi Arabia Denies Claims of Saudi Support for 9/11 Attacks

The Saudi embassy in Washington reacted to recent reports regarding financial support from prominent Saudi princes to Al-Qaeda and the September 11, 2001 attacks in the U.S. One of the accused in these terrorist attacks, Zakariya Moussaoui, had accused the Saudi royal family of financially supporting Al-Qaeda in court. The Saudi embassy stated that this accusation was made to tarnish U.S.-Saudi relations and is untrue, emphasizing that Zakariya Moussaoui is a 'mad criminal' whose lawyers had previously presented evidence of his mental instability to the court. The American newspaper The New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing Moussaoui, that he testified in front of the victims' lawyers that some prominent Saudi princes financed the attacks. Nearly three thousand people were killed in the September 11, 2001 attacks. Moussaoui, who was sentenced to life in prison, also mentioned names such as Prince Turki al-Faisal, the then head of Saudi intelligence, Bandar bin Sultan, the then Saudi ambassador to the United States, and Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the famous Saudi billionaire. Some of these figures were recently dismissed by King Salman, the new king of Saudi Arabia, including Bandar bin Sultan from his position in the National Security Council. Zakariya Moussaoui also claimed that he met with the Islamic affairs officer at the Saudi embassy and they plotted to shoot a missile at the plane carrying the U.S. president. He was arrested before the September 11 attacks due to immigration-related charges and later confessed that he intended to crash a Boeing airplane into the White House. Saudi Arabia has so far attempted to keep this information from being disclosed. The New York Times further questioned whether the disclosure of this information would affect U.S.-Saudi relations, quoting Karen Elliott House, author of a book on Saudi Arabia, stating: 'No, it will not have an effect.' She, a former Wall Street Journal reporter in Riyadh, explained that 'there has been a hypothesis that the Bush family has always tried to support the interests of the Saudi royal family. Even the Obama administration continued this policy and has prevented the full report on the September 11 attacks from being made public until now.' Elliott House continued, 'I hope the new report increases the pressure for the Obama administration to release the full report on the September 11 attacks. I do not think these accusations against Saudi princes will affect the relations between the two countries.' In recent years, victims of the September 11 attacks have claimed that Saudi Arabia and a charity connected to officials in the country knowingly assisted Al-Qaeda. Of the 19 hijackers involved in the September 11 terrorist attacks, 15 were Saudi citizens. Zakariya Moussaoui is a French citizen with Moroccan parents.