LONDON, Aug 7: Saudi Arabian ambassador to Britain Prince Turki Al-Faisal said Sunday it was wrong to say that Saudi Arabia was churning out extremists rather it was pursuing moderate Islam and playing a role in promotion of world peace.

“Saudi Arabia does not churn out extremists as you would describe,” he told BBC in an interview on Sunday, adding “I think there is a lot of misperception and misunderstanding of Saudi Arabia on all of those points”.

He said: “It is true that 15 out of the 19 people involved in 9/11 were Saudis but those were out of a pool of nearly 2000 Al Qaeda members at the time in Afghanistan who were also composed of other nationalities from all over the world, including your country (Britain).”

The nationals from other countries also participated in committing terrorism, said the envoy. “But the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia follows a moderate line of Islam if you consider its history of 73 years as being one where it has contributed towards stability, world peace, it has engaged its friends everywhere in the world. It has sent its sons and daughters to study abroad. In Britain now we have over three thousand Saudi students going to British universities, both men and women, that does not show at all that we have anything against the societies” in the West or in the East.

Saudi ambassador said since 73 years of its creation his country had changed from “basically a tribal, nomadic, social structure into a settled and urbanised society. That is quite a change.”

Replying to a question on reports carried by the British media on Sunday that suspects in Britain received phone calls and text messages from allegedly Saudi Arabian based Al Qaeda operatives before the London bombings on 7/7, Prince Turki Al-Faisal said: “Well, I think confirming it now will be premature but it is under investigation by both your security forces and our security forces.”

Both Britain and Saudi Arabian cooperation, he said, was “marked by intensive exchange of information on terrorism, on other issues of interests to both countries.”

Fielding another question whether Al Qaeda was operative in the UK, he said “my view is that Al Qaeda is operating on a global scale. It is operating in Britain, it is operating in other European countries, it is operating wherever it finds capability to operate”.

Prince Turki Al-Faisal said he had “absolutely no idea” of how many Al Qaeda members were operating in the UK, adding that the British police “would be much better informed on that than I am”.

Questioned on a raft of fresh anti-terror measures announced by British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Thursday and regarding the possibility of expulsion of some Saudi nationals by Britain, he said: “If there are any Saudi nationals who are doing wrong in this country, we will be happy to take them back in Saudi Arabia.”

“We have our legal system in Saudi Arabia and we will follow our legal system. There could be no exception to our legal system being applied to any citizen in Saudi Arabia so it will have to worked out as to who they are, what they have done, whether they are going to be put in jail or punished in some other way. Those are details that have to be worked out with your government,” said the Saudi envoy.

Answering a question on fighting terrorism, he said “I think a lot needs to be done on a global scale.”

He said the then Crown Prince Abdullah and now Saudi king had a few months back “proposed the establishment of a centre, a world-wide centre, where information on terrorism and Al Qaeda could be gathered and that centre has not yet been established.—APP