Saudi ambassador: UK ignored dissident warnings
The British government has failed to take notice of the danger posed by Saudi dissidents living in London, the kingdom’s outgoing ambassador to the capital has said.
Prince Turki al-Faisal said his repeated warnings about radicals fell on deaf ears, while much of his two and a half years in London was spent “going around in circles” as Whitehall departments refused to take responsibility for the problem.
In an interview with The Times, Prince Turki, 60, said he hoped the authorities would now act on what he had been telling them, but added: “Everybody seems to be on holiday.”
The prince’s criticism focused on the failure to act against Saad Faqih, the head of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, and his former colleague, Mohammad al-Masari.
Mr Faqih, who lives in Willesden, in north-west London, is accused by the US of involvement in 1998 bombing of the US embassy in Nairobi and by the Saudis of being involved in a plot to kill King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
The issue was raised two years ago with Tony Blair but, according to Prince Turki, nothing was done. When Mr Faqih’s name was placed on the UN terror list last year, he tried again.
“We went to them after this and said that putting him on the list means that you have to do the following: stop him from promoting his message; stop him communicating; seize his assets,” Prince Turki told the newspaper.
“The Treasury finally took action against his bank accounts, which obviously he does not keep any money in. He had £20 or something.
“We listed all the obligations now that his name was on the terrorist list. The response we got was, ‘We are studying your proposals’. Basically, ‘Don’t call us we will call you’. It was very disappointing.”
He said the lack of someone willing to take responsibility for dealing with his concerns was frustrating, adding: “When you call somebody he says it is the other guy. If you talk to the security people, they say it is the politicians’ fault.
“If you talk to the politicians they say it is the Crown Prosecution Service. If you call the Crown Prosecution Service, they say, no, it is MI5. So we have been in this runaround for the last two and a half years.”
