LOS ANGELES, Dec 5: Some key US Senators have come up with calls for Saudi Arabia to testify before the Congress’s judiciary committee over the issue of financing for terror networks, triggering a new round of controversy in the already bitter relations.

Leading the band, Senator Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania, said on Wednesday he doubted Saudi Arabia’s sincerity in the “war against terrorism”.

“Ask (Adel-Al) Jubeir (Saudi foreign policy adviser) if he’d be willing to testify before the judiciary committee, which is investigating funds going to terrorists,” Specter said in an interview to Fox News.

“I doubt comments made by Jubeir about Saudi cooperation in the war against terror financing would stand up to the congressional sniff test,” he said.

On the other hand, Fox News quoted Al-Jubeir as saying he would not be willing to speak before a committee.

But he did offer to have the Saudi diplomats call the senator on Monday to schedule a meeting in which they can sit down and talk about issues of concern.

The verbal exchange over airwaves follows a press conference by Al-Jubeir on Tuesday in which he acknowledged that the kingdom had been lax about auditing the funds of charities, many of whom were accused by the US of financing terrorist groups.

But US lawmakers allege the Saudis are destabilizing the relationship through their own actions and words, expecially citing remarks by Saudi Interior Minister Prince Naif Ibn Abd Al- Aziz in which he blamed Jews for the Sept 11 attacks.

“Who committed the events of Sept 11? . . . I think [the Zionists] are behind these events,” Prince Naif was quoted in an interview by Kuwait’s Al Siyasa newspaper.

“It is impossible that 19 youths, including 15 Saudis, carried out the operation of Sept. 11,” Naif said, according to a translation distributed by the Middle East Media Research Institute.

Al Jubeir, 40, said the 15 Saudis implicated in the Sept 11 attacks were deliberately chosen by Osama bin Laden to “give the operation a Saudi face and drive a wedge between our two countries”.