A presidential envoy personally warned Saudi Arabia last week of U.S. fears of an imminent attack, days before suicide bombings killed 34 people, including seven Americans, U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
The disclosure was made after the United States criticized Saudi Arabia saying the kingdom "must deal with the fact that it has terrorists inside its own country" in the aftermath of the bombings.
U.S. officials, according to Reuters, said Bush's deputy national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, went to Riyadh last week to deliver the warning.
His Riyadh visit came after the State Department issued a May 1 warning for Americans to put off nonessential travel to Saudi Arabia because "information indicates that terrorist groups may be in the final phases of planning attacks against U.S. interests in Saudi Arabia."
The U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Robert Jordan, complained on Wednesday that the Saudi authorities did not respond quickly enough to U.S. requests for more security at a compound attacked this week by the bombers.
White House spokesman Ari Fleischer essentially backed up Jordan's criticism.
"As with many countries around the world, the fact is that Saudi Arabia must deal with the fact that it has terrorists inside its own country, and their presence is as much a threat to Saudi Arabia as it is to Americans and others who live and work in Saudi Arabia," Fleischer said.
While saying the United States would push Saudi Arabia to "do more" against terrorism, Fleischer went out of his way to praise Saudi Arabia's cooperation.
Fleischer said the United States was not reassessing its relationship with Saudi Arabia, suggesting this would be what the attackers want.
"The one thing the terrorists want more than anything else is to be able to attack the United States, to attack others in the region and force us into changes in our policies. That will not happen," Fleischer said.
The Saudi ambassador to the United States, Prince Bandar, made the same point in his statement. "The target of the al Qaeda terrorists is Saudi Arabia and the United States and the 70-year relationship that has benefited both our peoples," he said.
He added: "We say to the people of the United States, as your friend and ally, you can rely on us to do our part as we have done in critical times in the past. We will continue to hunt down the criminals, we will continue to cut off their finances and we will bring them to justice."
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia acknowledged gaps in security and revealed that 15 Saudis carried out the deadly car bomb attacks in Riyadh. Asked whether that was an admission of lapses in security, Saud said: "The fact that the terrorism happened is an indication of shortcomings and we have to learn from our mistakes and seek to improve our performance in this respect."
Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal also said this week's attacks were designed to drive away foreigners, but he insisted Saudi Arabia is safer now than before the car bombings.
© 2003 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
