The Saudi defense minister said today the US had no
right to indict 14 people - almost all Saudi nationals - in connection with a 1996 bombing of an apartment building that killed 19 US airmen in Saudi Arabia.
Yesterday, US Attorney General John Ashcroft said the United States had indicted the people for a bombing in Khobar, Saudi Arabia that also wounded more than 370 people.
The indictment names 13 Saudi citizens - all said to be members of Saudi Hezbollah, an organization whose members are drawn from the country's Shiite Muslim community and which is outlawed by the Saudi government.
Prince Sultan bin Abdel Aziz said the ``American government has the right to discuss the Khobar explosions, but it does not have the right take any (legal) step whatsoever in this matter. Such steps fall within the jurisdiction of Saudi Arabia.''
AFP