NEW YORK, Nov 24: US lawmakers on Sunday said that the FBI should thoroughly investigate allegations of Saudi royal family links to the Sept 11 terrorists, as reported by the recent issue of the Newsweek magazine, even it mean offending the Saudi government.

Fearing that the terrorists being financed by the Saudi royal family could still be in the United States, Senator Bob Graham of Florida who is Chairman of the US Senate Intelligence Committee said a link between the Saudi government and the hijackers, if true, “raises the stakes substantially of what the threat is in the United States.”

Appearing on NBC’s network’s news programme “Meet the Press”, Graham said such a network could “facilitate the next wave of terror,” he added.

Appearing on ABC network’s “This Week” news show, Saudi officials denied doing anything intentionally to help the 19 hijackers, of whom 15 were from their country.

The Saudi foreign policy adviser to the crown prince, Adel al-Jubeir said on the show “we will be merciless against people in the war on terrorism.”

The FBI is investigating financial records indicating that Princess Haifa al-Faisal, wife of the Saudi ambassador, wrote monthly cheques that ultimately went into the accounts of Omar al-Bayoumi and Osama Basnan.

Al-Jubeir said Saudi investigators have determined that the princess intended to support Basnan’s wife, who asked her for help to pay for her medical treatment while living in the United States. Any notion that the princess backed terrorists is “crazy,” he said.