Alwaght- An investigation by Britain into the foreign funding and support of terrorists groups operating in the country may never be published as it adversely mentions Saudi Arabia.
The inquiry, commissioned by former Prime Minister David Cameron, is thought to focus on British ally Saudi Arabia, which has repeatedly been highlighted by European leaders as a funding source for extremist terrorists, and may prove politically and legally sensitive, the Guardian reports.
The investigation was launched as part of a deal with the Liberal Democrats in exchange for the party supporting the extension of British airstrikes against ISIS into Syria in December 2015.
Tom Brake, the Lib Dem foreign affairs spokesman, has written to the prime minister asking her to confirm that the investigation will not be shelved.
However, 18 months later, the Home Office confirmed the report had not yet been completed and said it would not necessarily be published, calling the contents “very sensitive”.
A decision would be taken “after the election by the next government” about the future of the investigation, a Home Office spokesman said.
Saudis fund terror spreading institutions
In his letter to May, Brake wrote “As home secretary at the time, your department was one of those leading on the report. Eighteen months later, and following two horrific terrorist attacks by British-born citizens, that report still remains incomplete and unpublished.
“It is no secret that Saudi Arabia in particular provides funding to hundreds of mosques in the UK, espousing a very hardline Wahhabi interpretation of Islam. It is often in these institutions that British extremism takes root.”
The contents of the report may prove politically as well as legally sensitive. Saudi Arabia, which has been a funding source for fundamentalist Wahhabi preachers and mosques, was visited by May earlier this year.
Last December, a leaked intelligence report in Germany suggested that Saudi Arabia supports extremist Wahhabi groups in the European country.
The report, by Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence agency accused Saudi-based of funding mosques, religious schools, hardline preachers and conversion or “dawah” groups to spread the ideology.
US also covering up Saudi involvement in terrorism
Earlier this year, hundreds of relatives of individuals killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks sued Saudi Arabia in US court, seeking to take advantage of a law passed by Congress last year that allows victims of such attacks on US soil to sue state sponsors.
The complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan, alleges that the Saudi government, through its ministries and officials and a vast network of charities linked to the government, provided financial, practical and material support to al-Qaeda terrorist group.
During his recent visit to Saudi Arabia, President Donald Trump struck deals worth hundreds of billions of dollars and kingdom is now waiting for him to repeal the 2016 law that allows relatives of 9/11 victims to sue the kingdom for their deaths.
Saudi officials have been quietly lobbying the administration and Congress to overturn the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which led more than 800 families to file the suit. Britain’s Prime Minister May, who signed billions of dollars in arms deals with the Saudis, is also under pressure from Riyadh not to release the damning report.
