Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement strongly condemning the terrorist attack that occurred near the Notre Dame church in Nice, France, where three people were killed in a knife attack Thursday morning.
“We strongly condemn and denounce the terrorist attack that occurred near the Notre Dame church in Nice, France, which resulted in the death and injury of several people,” MoFA said on its Twitter account.
“We reiterate the Kingdom’s utter rejection of such extremist acts that are inconsistent with all religions, human beliefs and common sense. We affirm the importance of rejecting practices that generate hatred, violence and extremism,” MoFA tweeted.
“We offer our condolences and sympathy to the families of the victims, the government and the people of France, and we wish for the injured a speedy recovery,” the statement said, which was quickly retweeted by Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. Princess Reema bint Bandar Al-Saud.
French President Emmanuel Macron visited the Notre Dame de Nice, where the attack occurred, on Thursday evening.
Also on Thursday, a Saudi citizen wounded a guard in a knife attack at the French consulate in the port city of Jeddah, the French embassy in Saudi Arabia said. The attacker was arrested immediately after the attack.
Neither the Saudi authorities nor the French embassy gave any indication of the motivation for the attack.
France is still reeling from the beheading earlier this month of Samuel Paty, a school teacher. Paty was killed by a teenager of Chechen origin who said he wanted to punish the teacher for showing pupils cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed during a class on freedom of expression. Saudi Arabia on Tuesday condemned cartoons offending the Prophet Mohammed, but held back from echoing calls by other Muslim states for action
