Saudi Arabia yesterday sought to distance itself from a student who carried out a fatal shooting at a US naval base as it seeks to repair its image of being an exporter of Muslim extremism.
The Saudi Arabian military student reportedly condemned the US as a “nation of evil” before going on a rampage on Friday at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida, killing three people and wounding eight.
The shooting marks a setback in the kingdom’s efforts to shrug off its long-standing reputation for promoting religious extremism after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in which 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudis.
Photo: EPA-EFE / US Navy / Patrick Nichols
The hashtag “Saudis stand with America” gained traction on social media after Saudi King Salman telephoned US President Donald Trump to denounce the shooting as “heinous” and pledge cooperation with US officials to investigate the incident.
The king said in the phone call on Friday that the shooter, who was gunned down by police, “does not represent the Saudi people,” a sentiment echoed by other officials.
“Like many other Saudi military personnel, I was trained in a US military base, and we used that valuable training to fight side by side with our American allies against terrorism and other threats,” Prince Khalid bin Salman, the king’s younger son and the deputy defense minister, wrote on Twitter.
“A large number of Saudi graduates of the Naval Air Station in Pensacola moved on to serve with their US counterparts in battlefronts around the world, helping to safeguard the regional and global security. [The] tragic event is strongly condemned by everyone in Saudi Arabia,” he wrote.
Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir also expressed his “deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences” over the shooting.
The incident is unlikely to affect Washington’s close relations with Riyadh, with both governments seeking military and diplomatic cooperation to counter Shiite power Iran.
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