Terrorism finacier Saudi fears return of own militants waging war in Syria
Saudi Arabia’s Cabinet has called for the withdrawal of all foreign militants including the extremist Saudi ones from Syria.
Riyadh is mainly concerned that Saudi militants in Syria could turn their weapons on the kingdom.
Minister of Information and Culture Abdelaziz Khoja said in a statement Monday on behalf of the Cabinet that the kingdom “renews its firm position condemning terrorism in all its forms.”
Last month, Saudi King Abdullah decreed it a crime for Saudi nationals to fight in foreign conflicts. The move was largely aimed at curbing extremist Saudis fighting alongside other foreign terrorists in Syria.
According to recent reports, thousands of militants from Chechnya and Saudi Arabia are fighting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
The reports said some 14,000 militants from Chechnya have joined foreign-backed militant groups in Syria, making them the first in the ranking of the countries the Syria militants originate from.
Saudi Arabia was second in the ranking with 12,000 militants, the reports added.
Meanwhile, nearly 5,000 Palestinians, 4,000 Tunisians and 1000 Jordanians have joined the al-Qaeda-linked groups, al-Nusra Front and the so-called Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the reports indicated.
Most of political commentators believe that Al Saud regime has been using its assets to fund nearly three years of bloody violence plaguing the Syrian nation.
In a recent interview with Press TV, Webster Griffin Tarpley, a US-based author and historian, said that Syria has been grappling with an influx of “foreign fighters, terrorists and adventurists from around the world” since March 2011, adding, “But none of this would have been possible without the funding” from Saudi Arabia.