RIYADH — Prince Turki Al-Faisal, former head of Saudi intelligence, said that Afghanistan's failure to respond to Saudi Arabia's request to extradite Osama Bin Laden for his hostile acts against the Kingdom resulted in the events of Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States and the subsequent US invasion of Afghanistan. Attending the program of "The position" on Saudi Television channel on Wednesday, Prince Turki said that he tried to get Bin Laden extradited to the Kingdom following his hostile acts against Saudi Arabia while living in Afghanistan, but the former Taliban leader Mullah Omar turned down the request. Prince Turki said that there is still Al-Qaeda presence in Afghanistan under the protection of the Taliban while large segments of the Afghan people do not support the Taliban. "When Hamid Karzai was the president of Afghanistan, he made a request to King Abdullah to mediate between his government and Taliban. At that time, a delegation from the Taliban reached the Kingdom, and the delegation was told precisely that Saudi Arabia is expected to play no role in Afghanistan as long as the Taliban maintain their relations with Al-Qaeda outfit," he said, adding, "unfortunately the Taliban delegation did not accept the demand to sever its ties with Al-Qaeda." Prince Turki said that all the countries in the neighborhood of Afghanistan are striving to take advantage of the volatile situation in the country after the pullout of the US forces. "The components of the Afghan people are many in terms of their ethnicity and schools of thought and that have an impact on further complicating the situation," he said while pointing out that the country that has more interest in the stability of Afghanistan is Pakistan. Turki Al-Faisal warned against Iran's ambitions in Afghanistan, saying Iran's aspirations in Afghanistan are not surprising. "The story of Afghanistan did not end with the pullout of the American forces but it would be clear only after we know that who will have the rule and total influence on Afghanistan," he said. Prince Turki noted that his book titled "The file of Afghanistan," which deals with the relations between Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia after the Soviet invasion of the country, will be published soon.
