Sputnik — US, France Must Stop Turning Blind Eye to Saudi Radicalizing Programs

As ever, follow the money — and oil.

Saudi Arabia played a key role in preparing the ground for the terror attacks in Paris by financing enormous radicalization programs targeting Muslims in France and other European countries, experts told Sputnik.

However, the French government has not dared to confront Saudi Arabia because it needs Saudi oil and the revenue from huge weapons sales to Riyadh, the analysts explained in interviews on Wednesday.

"Much of the extremism in France is funded by French allies in the Gulf," Institute for Gulf Affairs Director Ali al-Ahmed told Sputnik. "Saudi-French trade and arms contracts have led successive governments in Paris to overlook this Saudi role."

Other Gulf monarchies also purchase French weapons in lucrative deals for Paris, giving French authorities the incentive to tacitly tolerate continued funding for outlets that encourage Islamists, he added.…

Al-Ahmed also pointed out that at the G-20 summit in Turkey following the Paris attacks, the Saudi king skipped the moment of tribute to the Paris attack victims.

"He intentionally skipped it," al-Ahmed asserted.…

[US author and terrorism financing expert Dan] Lazare recalled that in December 2009, Clinton, then serving as US secretary of state, noted in a confidential diplomatic memo that "donors in Saudi Arabia constitute the most significant source of funding to Sunni terrorist groups worldwide."

In October 2014, US Vice President Joe Biden told Harvard University students that "'the Saudis [and] the Emirates… poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of military weapons into anyone who would fight against [SyrianPresident Bashar] Assad," Lazare remarked.

The funding led to massive direct US aid flowing to the Islamist groups such as the Nusra Front and al-Qaeda, Lazare pointed out.…

Sputnik
US, France Must Stop Turning Blind Eye to Saudi Radicalizing Programs