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Angela Merkel's deputy accuses Saudi Arabia of sponsoring extremism

Germany's Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel, seen here with Chancellor Angela Merkel, is the most high-profile western politician to accuse Saudi Arabia of condoning extremism.
 

Story highlights

  • Saudi Arabia accused of funding radical extremism by one of Germany's top politicians
  • Saudi Arabia's Ambassador to London has denied that Saudi Arabia supports terror
 

(CNN)Saudi Arabia has been accused of funding radical extremism across the globe by one of Germany's top politicians.

Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag Sunday that it should be made clear to the kingdom that "the time for looking the other way has passed."

"Wahhabi mosques are being funded by Saudi Arabia all over the world. Many dangerous Islamists come from these communities in Germany," Gabriel said.

Critics say Wahhabism promotes a rigid form of Islam that can be misinterpreted by extremists.

Gabriel's comments come after the German intelligence agency BND warned of the destabilizing role of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East in a memo shared in the German media last Wednesday.

The agency report noted that the "current cautious diplomatic stance held by senior members of the royal family might be replaced by an impulsive intervention policy."

German authorities later distanced themselves from BND's report, with government spokesman Steffen Seibert saying on Friday that it was not in line with the position of the federal government.

Gabriel, who is Chancellor Angela Merkel's deputy, is the most high-profile western politician so far to publicly accuse Saudi Arabia of condoning extremism, but it's not the first time the kingdom has found itself subject to such allegations.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in an exclusive interview with France 24 in March last year that Saudi Arabia was among those buying weapons for terrorists and supporting them politically.

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I am shocked. I never imagined all these nations would end up slaughtering each other, is like they are committing collective suicide. Islam is self-destroying, it is collapsing it is their end of the times.

FM

Russia has made clear to Western nations that it has no objection to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stepping down as part of a peace process, in a softening of its publicly stated staunch backing of Assad ahead of talks in New York, diplomats said.

Russia, like Iran, has been a firm ally of Assad and is intervening militarily on his behalf against anti-government forces in the five-year civil war that has claimed more than a quarter million lives. Both Russia and Iran have long insisted Assad's fate should be decided in a nationwide vote.

Western powers, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and others reluctantly agreed to allow Assad to remain in place during a transition period, a compromise that has opened the door to a shift on the part of Russia, Western diplomats said.
"What you've got is a move that will end up with Assad going," a senior Western diplomat said on condition of anonymity.

"And the Russians have got to the point privately where they accept that Assad will have gone by the end of this transition, they're just not prepared to say that publicly," he added.
Several other Western officials confirmed the diplomat's remarks.
The United States, Russia along with Iran, Saudi Arabia and major European and Arab powers have agreed on a road map for a nationwide ceasefire, to have six months of talks between Assad's government and the opposition on forming a unity government to begin in January, and to have elections within 18 months.

FM
Cobra posted:

Russia has made clear to Western nations that it has no objection to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad stepping down as part of a peace process, in a softening of its publicly stated staunch backing of Assad ahead of talks in New York, diplomats said.

Russia has made it clear all along that it has no objections to Assad stepping down. What it Russia is not willing to permit is for Assad to be deposed by a band of foreign powers. How would those powers feel if foreign nations came to demand that their leader be deposed?

Mr.T

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