PUTRAJAYA: Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Adel Ahmed Al-Jubeir has said that the RM2.6 billion ‘donation’ which former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak claimed to have received had nothing to do with the kingdom’s government.
Malaysian Foreign Minister Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said this was what Al-Jubeir told him when they met at Wisma Putra.
In the meeting, which also touched on the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) issue, Saifuddin said: “He (Al-Jubeir) stated that the (RM2.6 billion) had nothing to do with the Saudi Arabian government.”
He said both he and Al-Jubeir had also met at the 73rd United Nations General Assembly in New York last month, and the latter had told him that Riyadh would cooperate with Putrajaya in its investigations into 1MDB and that the “donation” had nothing to do with the Saudi government.
“Today, he repeated it again,” he told reporters after Al-Jubeir paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
In 2016, while attending the 13th Summit of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Istanbul, Al-Jubeir had reportedly said that donation had come from Saudi Arabia.
He had also reportedly said that the Saudi government was aware that the Malaysian attorney-general had looked into the matter and had confirmed this.
In January that year, the attorney-general at the time, Tan Sri Mohamed Apandi Ali, had cleared Najib of any wrongdoing during investigations into SRC International Sdn Bhd and the M2.6 billion which was said to have been deposited into the then prime minister’s personal accounts.
On another matter, Saifuddin said he had told Al-Jubeir that Malaysia would not participate in the Saudi Arabia-led coalition of forces against Yemen.
He said the duo also discussed the proposal to close the King Salman Centre for International Peace.
“That idea has not been carried out and we will not be carrying it out,” he said. — Bernama