The Saudi royal family has appointed Prince Turki al-Faisal as their new ambassador to the United States, following the resignation of the super-slick Prince Bandar, and al-Faisal says he’s going to bridge the gap with the US.

LONDON, 24 July 2005 — The Kingdom’s nominee for ambassador to the United States said he would try to bridge a “gap” in relations and defend compatriots accused of complicity in the Sept. 11 attacks.

“Opinion polls... suggest that there is a big gap between the two peoples resulting from the events of Sept. 11, 2001,” in which 15 of 19 hijackers were Saudi, Prince Turki Al-Faisal said.

“Hence, one of my top priorities there will be to bridge this gap between the two peoples... building on Crown Prince Abdullah’s (April) visit to the United States, which was successful by all standards.”

So what’s up first on Prince Turki’s gap-bridging agenda?

Prince Turki, who is currently ambassador to Britain, said he would seek to defend Saudis against whom lawsuits have been filed for alleged involvement in the Sept. 11 attacks, and who number around 200 individuals and institutions.

“We have to follow this up with the courts... The US judiciary, like the Saudi judiciary, is independent. If these courts closed these cases, we would have achieved what we are seeking. Otherwise, we will continue to exercise self-defense,” he said.

Prince Turki al-Faisal is the former head of Saudi intelligence, and was a close friend of Osama bin Laden. He was reported to have attended a meeting with Al Qaeda and Taliban representatives in Kandahar in 1998, at which an agreement was made to pay Al Qaeda hundreds of millions of dollars in return for a promise not to attack Saudi Arabia.

Here’s more on Turki al-Faisal’s connections to Al Qaeda: Saudi Intelligence Linked to Al Qaeda.

He looks like just the man to heal those rifts and bridge those gaps.