“We
are convinced that the United States and Saudi Arabia are the two
countries that are in the crosshairs of this murderous organization
called al-Qaeda,” Agence France-Presse (AFP) quoted him as saying.
Saudi
Arabia is "determined to fight them,” he said. “We have pursued
them relentlessly and mercilessly since the mid-1990s. We have succeeded
in many areas. We have not succeeded in others.
“But
the bottom line," said al-Jubeir, “is ... we have made great
strides over the years in enhancing, in broadening and in deepening out
counterterrorism cooperation.
“Have
we succeeded? In large part, yes... Have we failed? Yes. On Monday, we
failed. And we will learn from this mistake,” he said.
The
Saudi advisor quickly mitigated that, saying, “Can we ensure that
something like this will not happen again? I don't think we can. Are we
determined to confront it and do whatever needs to be done? You bet we
are.”
‘Unjustified’
Jubeir,
however, hit out at criticism by U.S. officials, including the U.S.
ambassador to Riyadh, that the kingdom had been unresponsive to specific
U.S. requests to step up security at the expatriate housing complexes
targeted in the attacks.
“There
has been a lot of criticism levelled at Saudi Arabia recently,”
al-Jubeir recalled. “I believe that a lot of it is unjustified.”
He
was particularly critical of those U.S. officials levelling anonymous
attacks in the press at his country's vigilance.
“I
still find it surprising,” he said, “that we have ... anonymous
officials who claim that we haven't done what we say we have done.
“I
urge those officials, if they want to be serious, if they want to be
credible, to stand next to me and tell me that we haven't done what we
say we have done ... and I will accept that criticism.”
Al-Jubeir
acknowledged that "we share part of the blame for the criticism
because... there are a lot of things that we have done and have not
talked about...(and) when you don't tell people what you are doing,
people assume that you haven't done enough."
On
Thursday, May 15, the White House implored Riyadh to act more vigorously
in its fight against terrorism.
“We
have had good cooperation with the Saudi government, and I am sure that
in the wake of this terrible incident in Riyadh that we will seek to
intensify our cooperation,” said U.S. National Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice.
Meanwhile,
the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh said 60 Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
agents had arrived to help investigate the attacks.
“There
are approximately 60 (in the team). They will be involved in the
investigation into the bombings in coordination with the Saudi
authorities,” said John Burgess, counsellor for public affairs at the
U.S. embassy.
The
team's stay in the kingdom was "open ended," he added.
No
FBI Role
Meanwhile,
the Saudi interior minister said Saturday, May 17, the FBI team will not
take part in the inquiry into the Riyadh terror attacks.
"They
are not investigators. They will not probe anything ... These officials
came to inspect the incidents only," Prince Nayef bin Abdul Aziz
told Saturday's Al-Riyadh daily.
The
team who arrived late Thursday would inspect the blast sites belonging
to U.S. companies, he added.
He
also denied that British or Australian teams had arrived in the kingdom
following the Monday night attacks which were blamed on al-Qaeda.
“Those
who arrived are only Americans, and no one else came," Prince Nayef
said.
“We
are not concerned about what had been announced. We have agreed for them
to come and look at the explosions only. They will not take part in the
investigation,” he said.
