Dubai: No country on earth is doing as much as Saudi Arabia to curb terror funding, the Saudi interior ministry spokesperson has said.
Major General Mansour Al Turki told the BBC in an interview that was broadcast on Tuesday that while money from the kingdom had gone towards funding terrorism in the past, the government was putting all efforts into cracking down on it now.
Al Turki told Stephen Sackur on BBC World News’ Hardtalk that individuals in Saudi Arabia had in the past taken advantage of people making charitable donations and led the government to believe that the money was being used to assist those in need.
“Unfortunately those people actually used the money to finance Al Qaida in Afghanistan … but as soon as we saw the situation and got the proof that our money was being misused by these people, we changed things,” said Al Turki.
Al Turki said that Daesh continues to be a threat inside Saudi Arabia today, noting that the kingdom itself was a victim of terrorism.
“We see [Daesh] as a front which was made by those who sponsor terrorism to target Saudi Arabia,” he said. “Just last year they committed almost 15 different terrorist crimes in the kingdom which resulted in more than 65 deaths. They’re failing because we are very much united and we’re doing our job in the security forces to protect our country from their conspiracy. “
The reduction in terror financing is already being noticed by the Saudi public, he said.
“People in Saudi Arabia are starting to complain that the government is really preventing them from fundraising, from collecting any charity, from helping. The country itself, the government, is taking responsibility for that.”
- Charlotte Moore is an intern at Gulf News.
