Germany and Saudi Arabia have agreed an unprecedented co-operation pact to exchange information on possible terrorists, the German embassy in Riyadh confirmed Thursday. The intelligence-sharing will encompass possible terrorist financing and money-laundering, the two governments agreed, in a deal signed Wednesday evening in the Saudi capital.
The agreement was signed by German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and his Saudi counterpart Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz. Schaeuble, who was expected to attend Thursday evening's G8 meeting of interior ministers in Rome, met with the son of the prince, Prince Mohammed bin Naif Abdulaziz, who is a deputy interior minister, and the former intelligence chief, Prince Turki al-Faisal.
The pair also discussed the case of the Saudi scholar Abdullah ibn Jibreen, a member of the Standing Committee for Fatwa and Research. Ibn Jibreen is currently in Berlin, undergoing medical treatment. Some Shiites from Iraq want to see proceedings opened against the Sunni cleric for his fatwas allegedly insulting those of the Shiite faith and for calling Muslims to take up arms in Iraq.
According to the Saudi daily al-Iktisadiya, Prince Naif told the German delegation that the allegations against Ibn Jibreen were false and also that he held no public office in Saudi Arabia. Diplomatic sources said that Schaeuble had assured Prince Naif that the safety of Ibn Jibreen would be guaranteed during his stay in Germany.
Schaeuble was also asked by the Saudi minister about the fate of detainees set to be released from the US military prison at Gauntanamo, in Cuba. The prince also pushed Germany for speedier issuing of visas for Saudi nationals by the German embassy in Riyadh. Schaeuble promised to look in to discussing the proposal with other Schengen passport-free states within the European Union.
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