DUBAI — CIA Director John Brennan told Al Arabiya News Channel on Saturday in an exclusive interview that “there was no evidence” of a Saudi involvement in Sept. 11.
“Subsequently the Sep. 11 commission looked very thoroughly at these allegations of Saudi involvement, Saudi government involvement and their finding, their conclusion was that there was no evidence to indicate that the Saudi government as an institution or Saudi senior officials individually had supported Sep. 11 attacks,” he said.
The director said “it is good” that these 28-page report will “come out.”
“Indeed subsequently the assessments that have been done have shown it was very unfortunate that these attacks took place but this was the work of Al-Qaeda,” he added.
He also said “over the last 15 years, the Saudis have become among our best counterterrorism partners.”
Brennan described Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Deputy Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, second deputy premier and minister of defense, as “strong partners in this fight against terrorism.”
Asked if he had contacts with Tehran, Brennan said “zero.”
“I continue to be very concerned about Iran’s support for terrorist activities and terrorist groups, especially the Quds force and their activities inside Iraq, Syria, and other countries throughout the region,” he added.
Saudi Arabia has long expressed its concern over Iran’s involvement in both Syria and Iraq. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, chief of the Quds Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, was already seen rubbing shoulders with a Shiite paramilitary group during Iraq’s recent operation against Daesh to liberate the militant group’s stronghold in Falluja.
Saudi Arabia has also criticized Iran’s support to Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
“Iran still has a long way to go before I’m going to be convinced that they are interested in countering and destroying terrorism,” he said.
Brennan said he is not “convinced at all he (Gen. Soleimani) is trying to take sectarian tensions down” as he “has been taking a leading role for Iran and Quds force inside of Iraq and Syria and other areas.” — SG
