 Crown Prince Sultan, deputy premier and minister of defense and aviation, denied charges that the Kingdom is offering assistance to SomaliaÂ’s Islamic Court Union (ICU).
The allegations stem, in part, from comments made by Jendayi Frazer, the head of the Bureau of African Affairs at the US State Department, during a June 29 hearing at the HouseÂ’s International Relations Committee. Frazer did not directly accuse the Saudi government of funding SomaliaÂ’s ICU, but said that money is flowing from the Kingdom and Yemen in support of the Islamic courts, which recently ousted the faltering transitional government of a country that has been in a state of anarchy since the early 1990s.
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The United States is openly supporting the transitional government factions that oppose the ICU, and has placed the head of the Islamic courts, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, on its list of Al-Qaeda associates. US officials claim that ICU control of Somalia would result in creating a terrorist haven in East Africa. |