Saudis Withdraw Ambassador From Libya

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Saudi Arabia announced yesterday it was withdrawing its ambassador to Libya and ordered out Libya’s envoy in response to reports that Tripoli plotted to assassinate the Saudi crown prince.In Tripoli, the Libyan Foreign Ministry dismissed the plot charge as “falsified.” The ministry said in a statement it would ask the Arab League to investigate. The alleged plot against Crown Prince Abdullah was first outlined by American investigators in their case against a prominent American Muslim activist sentenced earlier this year to 23 years in prison for illegal business dealings with Libya.The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud, announced the measures, saying the Libyans would be sent a communique yesterday demanding that their envoy in Riyadh go home.He said the Saudi Embassy in Tripoli and the Libyan Embassy in Riyadh would remain open, insisting the kingdom did not want the Libyan people to suffer, particularly with the annual Muslim pilgrimage to holy sites in Saudi Arabia starting next month.The government has “limited its action to only these measures…despite the ugliness of what happened, in appreciation for the brotherly Libyan people,” Prince Saud said. It was unclear whether the Saudi envoy had left Tripoli.In Washington, American State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said the Bush administration had repeatedly raised the purported assassination attempt with the Libyans but had not received sufficient explanation “to reach a definitive judgment on the matter.”Regarding another case, Prince Saud said the kingdom will comply with any measures the United Nations imposes against Saudi citizen Adel Batterjee. The American Treasury Department moved Tuesday to block the assets of Mr. Batterjee and another Saudi, London-based Saad al-Fagih, saying they provided support to Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda terror network.The agency submitted the two names to the United Nations for possible inclusion in its list of terrorist financiers. If the names are included, member countries would have to block financial assets belonging to the two men.“Any action that the United Nations takes in that, including freezing assets, will be undertaken by Saudi Arabia,” Prince Saud said. He could not say whether Mr. Batterjee was in the kingdom. The Saudi move on Libya came months after the assassination plot was first reported.In July, Abdurahman Alamoudi pleaded guilty before an American judge to accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars from high-ranking Libyan officials while serving as a go-between for them and Saudi dissidents. Americans were banned from doing business with Libya at the time of the contacts. While Mr. Alamoudi was not charged in connection with the alleged plot against the crown prince, prosecutors cited the plot in requesting Mr. Alamoudi receive the maximum sentence, which he did in October.

Saudis Withdraw Ambassador From Libya

Saudis Withdraw Ambassador From Libya

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