WASHINGTON — The State Department wants to move its main consulate
in Saudi Arabia.
Government sources said the department has sought to relocate the
consulate in Jedda to a more secure location. They said the department has
determined that the consulate was on a street vulnerable to drive-by
shootings from Al Qaida and other insurgents.
"We've been moving slowly on this issue, but it's clear that the
consulate is not in a secure zone," a source close to the issue said.
The U.S. consulate has been attacked twice in less than two years, Middle East Newsline reported. In
May 2006, a Saudi national fired shots toward the consulate, which injured a
police officer. Saudi police captured the suspect and later identified him
as a psychiatric patient.
Still, U.S. officials suspect that the suspect was a member of Al Qaida.
He was identified as Mohammed Abdul Razik Al Ghamdi. At least five of the
Saudis in the 2001 suicide strikes on New York and Washington were named Al
Ghamdi.
This was the second attack on the Jedda consulate since December 2004.
In the first strike, five Al Qaida operatives penetrated the consulate and
briefly took over the compound. Since then, the consulate has been mostly
closed.
"Whatever the full story, the incident has only served to emphasize the
vulnerability of the consulate site, which was attacked by Al Qaida in 2004
when five local employees were
killed, probably accelerating the plan to move the facility to a more
defensible area near Jedda airport," Simon Henderson wrote in an analysis
for the Washington Institute.
The sources said the relocation of the Jedda consulate was a major topic
of discussion during the Saudi-U.S. strategic dialogue, which took place in
Washington in May 2006. During the meeting, Saudi Arabia pressed Washington
to increase visas issued to Saudi nationals.
"Washington remains concerned that Saudi Arabia is not only allowing the
financing of Islamist terrorism via charitable donations from rich Saudi
individuals, but, despite its denials, encouraging the financing of Islamic
extremists as part of state policy," Henderson said. "[Saudi King] Abdullah
is said by those close to him to think that the United States may be less
able to lead the world in the future, as other power centers gain strength."
