Saudi Arabia welcomes release of classified documents of Sept 11 attacks

Nayera Abdallah/Reuters

3 years ago

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 08: Polishing work is done on the bronze parapets surrounding the twin Memorial pools where the names of the 2,983 names of the men, women, and children killed in the attacks of September 11, 2001 and February 26, 1993 are inscribed at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum on September 08, 2021 in New York City. Twenty years after two aircraft hijacked by 10 al-Qaeda terrorists flew into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center, the 16-acre site is now a memorial to the 2,606 civilians, firefighters, and law enforcement officers who died in the towers and in the surrounding area and the 147 civilians who were aboard the airliners. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Saudi Arabia welcomed on Wednesday the release of classified documents relating to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States.

Its U.S. embassy said in a statement that “any allegation that Saudi Arabia is complicit in the September 11 attacks is categorically false”.

President Joe Biden on Friday ordered the Department of Justice to review documents from the FBI’s probe into the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks for declassification and release.

Family members of victims of the Sept. 11 attacks asked a U.S. government watchdog on Thursday to investigate their suspicions that the FBI lied about or destroyed evidence linking Saudi Arabia to the hijackers.

Saudi Arabia has said it had no role in the hijacked plane attacks.

The embassy said that Saudi Arabia has called for the release of all materials related to the United States’ investigation of the attacks.

“As past investigations have revealed… no evidence has ever emerged to indicate that the Saudi government or its officials had previous knowledge of the terrorist attack or were in any way involved in its planning or execution,” the embassy added.

Reporting by Nayera Abdallah; Editing by Chris Reese and Emelia Sithole-Matarise