Posted on 06/24/2002 3:15:25 PM PDT by TheOtherOne
Saudi Defense Min Slams UK Media For "Zionists' Spite"
09:49 ET
Dow Jones International News
(Copyright (c) 2002, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
RIYADH (AP)--Saudi Arabia's defense minister accused the U.K. media of displaying "Zionists' spite" in their attacks on his kingdom after the death of a U.K. man in a car explosion last week.
Speaking late Sunday after a graduation ceremony, Prince Sultan added that the long-standing Saudi-U.K. ties were "strong" and wouldn't be affected by media attacks arising from the June 20 death of the U.K. man.
U.K. media reports after the explosion said Saudi officials had claimed the victim, 35-year-old banker Simon Veness, was killed for his apparent link to selling alcohol, which is banned in this Muslim state, and quoted his colleagues as saying he was killed by Muslim extremists.
Saudi Arabia has yet to officially comment on who it believes may be behind the bombing or what the motive may have been. Saudi officials say the investigation is ongoing.
Prince Sultan said the U.K. media attacks are "out of Zionists' spite at the security and affluence of the kingdom."
The U.K.'s Daily Telegraph said in an editorial Sunday the Saudi government was making "scapegoats" of the victims of "Islamic terrorists."
"The fundamentalist aim of driving out the infidel is furthered directly by terror and indirectly by the Saudi response," the Daily Telegraph said.
Another U.K. newspaper, The Guardian, said Saturday that "behind all the Saudi nonsense about the bootlegging lies a self-defeating refusal to admit that the kingdom faces a lethal homegrown threat from fundamentalists"
Concerns about anti-Western sentiments have surfaced in the kingdom since the Sept. 11 attacks and the ensuing war on terrorism, which many Saudis see as an assault on Islam. But there have been no confirmed reports of violence linked to anti-Western extremists in the kingdom.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires 24-06-02
1349GMT
We have a free press. Do you ??
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