ERBIL, Kurdistan Region—The United States has a ‘strong’ partnership with Saudi Arabia in the war against terrorism, said the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In an exclusive interview with Al Arabiya Channel, CIA Director John Brennan said that the US has excellent cooperation with Saudi Arabia. “Over the last 15 years, the Saudis have become among our best counterterrorism partners,” Brennan declared. Brennan described both Saudi King Salman and his deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as “strong partners in this fight against terrorism,” and when asked if he had contacts with Riyadh’s nemesis Tehran, Brennan said “zero.” Speculation as to Saudi Arabia’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks has intensified. However, in Saturday’s interview with Al Arabiya’s Washington Bureau Chief Nadia Bilbassy-Charters, Brennan renounced suspicion of Saudi involvement in the terror attacks stating that “there was no evidence” to support the claim. His remarks came after a 28-page congressional investigatory report was released claiming that there was proof of Saudi officials supporting al-Qaeda leading up to the attacks. In May, John Lehman, a member of the September 11 commission investigating the attacks, told CNN that the classified information contained evidence inferring that as many as six Saudi officials supported Al-Qaeda. Brennan, however, dismissed the claim in his first interview with an Arab media outlet. “The September 11 commission looked very thoroughly at these allegations of Saudi involvement, Saudi government involvement and their findings. Their conclusion was that there was no evidence to indicate that the Saudi government as an institution or Saudi senior officials individually had supported the September 11 attacks.” “It is good,” he added, that this 28-page report will “come out.” Brennan believes that this report is imperative for explaining to the public who is truly responsible for the 9/11 attacks. “The assessments that have been done show it was very unfortunate that these attacks took place but this was the work of al-Qaeda, [al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman] al-Zawahri, and others of that ilk,” confirmed Brennan. “Over the last 15 years, the Saudis have become among our best counterterrorism partners.” Skeptics have drawn comparisons between Saudi Arabia and Iran in their funding of terrorist organizations but Brennan believes that Iran is the more menacing threat. “I continue to be very concerned about Iran’s support for terrorist activities and terrorist groups, especially the Quds force and their activities inside Iraq, Syria, and other countries throughout the region,” he added. Saudi Arabia has long expressed concern over Iran’s involvement in both Syria and Iraq. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, chief of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was seen rubbing shoulders with a Shiite paramilitary group during Iraq’s recent operation against ISIS to liberate the militant group’s stronghold of Fallujah. Saudi Arabia has also criticized Iran’s support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Brennan is not convinced that “he [Gen. Soleimani] is trying to take those sectarian tensions down” as he “has been taking a leading role for Iran and Quds force inside of Iraq and Syria and other areas.”
