US President George W. Bush certified Saudi Arabia as an anti-terrorism ally on Friday, weeks after a top US Treasury official sharply criticised the kingdom's record. Bush's move came in a memorandum to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, required under US law to free up aid from Washington to Riyadh, that the White House released to reporters.
"I hereby certify that Saudi Arabia is co-operating with efforts to combat international terrorism and that the proposed assistance will help facilitate that effort," the president said.
His memorandum came a little more than a month after the US Treasury under-secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Stuart Levey, charged that Saudi Arabia has failed to prosecute the bankrollers of terrorist groups.
Levey, the under-secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, told the US network ABC that not a single individual identified by the United States or the United Nations as a terror financier had been prosecuted by Saudi Arabia.
"If I could somehow snap my fingers and cut off the funding from one country, it would be Saudi Arabia," Levey told the television network one day after the sixth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.
"When the evidence is clear that these individuals have funded terrorist organisations, and knowingly done so, then that should be prosecuted and treated as real terrorism because it is," Levey told ABC. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal dismissed the criticism, saying Levey's public rebuke was at odds with private praise from US officials.