The United States has quietly urged Saudi Arabia to end
funding for the Palestinian Hamas insurgency group.
U.S. officials said Saudi Arabia is believed to provide about $50 million a
year to Hamas. They said the Saudi funding was not reduced amid the current
U.S.-led war on terrorism.
Officials said the State Department and Treasury Department have
raised the issue with the kingdom in recent weeks. They said the
Bush administration asserted that Hamas is a terrorist group that can no
longer be supported.
"The issue of funding for groups in the Middle East has been an ongoing
subject of discussion with a great variety of countries," State Department
spokesman Richard Boucher said on Wednesday. "We have worked very closely
with Saudi Arabia on various financing of terrorism questions, too. And so,
yes, all these things get discussed from time to time, and we work on them."
Boucher would not elaborate. But other officials said Saudi Arabia has
disputed U.S. assertions that Riyad finances Hamas insurgency activities.
Saudi officials said the kingdom provides financing to Palestinian
charities.
Earlier this month, the administration said Riyad has cooperated with a
U.S. request to freeze the assets of two branches of a Saudi charity. But
the director of the Al Haramein Foundation said he has not been informed of
any move against his organization, which distributes about $55 million a
year.
Boucher said the United States has also raised the issue of
anti-Semitism in the Saudi media. The discussions were prompted by an
article in the Saudi Al Riyad daily that accused Jews of using the blood of
Gentiles for ritual purposes.
"We do continue to press the Saudi government on this at the highest
levels and the clearest terms possible," Boucher said. "Saudi officials have
promised to address the issue, and we will continue to follow up on it."