Saudi Arabia welcomes US findings of probe into Florida shooting
Riyadh pledges continued anti-terror efforts with Washington
Cairo: Saudi Arabia has welcomed the findings of US investigations in a deadly shooting at an air base in Florida late last year, Saudi-owned television Al Arabiya reported Thursday, citing a diplomatic statement.
Last December, a Saudi airman on an aviation training programme in the US, opened fire at the base killing three people, before he was killed.
At the time, Saudi King Salman Bin Abdul Aziz spoke to US President Donald Trump and pledged complete cooperation from the kingdom with US security agencies to unravel the circumstances of the attack.
The Saudi embassy in Washington said it welcomes the announcement by US law authorities of the recovery of critical intelligence from the assailant's telephones.
''As Attorney General William P. Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray noted, Saudi Arabia has fully cooperated with U.S. law enforcement on the investigation, and we are continuing to provide full support to our American counterparts. We also have been coordinating with our American partners to better protect American and Saudi citizens from terrorist threats," the embassy said in a statement.
"As this attack tragically reminds us, the extremists and terrorists that threaten both our nations will not stop in their efforts to target innocent people. At this very moment, Al Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, ISIS and other extremist groups are trying to use the extraordinary challenge of the covid-19 pandemic to elevate their profiles, spread their hateful propaganda and mobilize new global threats," the mission said. "We must stay on guard and never let up in our efforts to defeat terrorism."
The embassy said that Saudi-US partnership is a primary pillar of the global effort to dismantle and defeat terrorist networks.
It noted that the military training the US provides to Saudi military personnel has enabled Saudi forces to fight along their American counterparts against their common foe.
"Our close intelligence and counterterrorism cooperation has saved lives in the United States, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and undoubtedly made the world a safer place," it added. Approximately 28,000 Saudis have undergone military training in the US over several decades, according to the embassy.