* Saudi Arabia opposes exiled Faqih’s de-listing-envoys
* Faqih says he’s committed to peace, criticizes Riyadh
* U.K., Faqih’s home, supports de-listing; U.S. opposed
By Louis Charbonneau
UNITED NATIONS, June 30 (Reuters) – A U.N. Security Council
committee is set to remove Saudi dissident Saad al-Faqih from
the United Nations’ al Qaeda sanctions list this weekend if no
council member demands that the 15-nation body intervene, U.N.
diplomats said on Saturday.
The London-based Faqih was added to the U.N. al Qaeda
sanctions list in December 2004, days after the U.S. Treasury
Department hit him with U.S. sanctions for suspected links to
the late Osama bin Laden’s militant network, which was
responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.
“Unless someone calls for the Security Council to take up
the issue, Saad al-Faqih will be de-listed tomorrow at 5:30 p.m
(2130 GMT),” a council diplomat told Reuters on condition of
anonymity. “So far no one has called for the council to act.”
Other diplomats confirmed his remarks about Faqih, formerly
a professor of medicine at a Saudi university. All said it
remained theoretically possible for the United States or another
council member opposed to Faqih’s de-listing to call for
Security Council intervention at the last minute.
But even if the council took up the issue, it was not
immediately clear Faqih’s U.N. delisting would be stopped,
though it would undoubtedly be delayed past Sunday.
Continued…
