9/11 Widow at Ground Zero Urges Trump to Press Saudi Arabia on Accountability

A woman who lost her husband in the September 11 attacks used the annual remembrance ceremony in Manhattan to criticise Saudi Arabia and question its close ties with the United States, calling on President Donald Trump to press Riyadh to stop denying its alleged role.

Terry Strada, whose husband Tom Strada was killed in the 2001 attacks, told the gathering at Ground Zero that a quarter of a century had passed without justice for the part she said Saudi Arabia played. She said the kingdom had fostered a culture of anti-American terrorism and sent agents to support the hijackers, drawing applause from the crowd.

Strada said successive administrations, including leaders present at the ceremony, had chosen to protect the Saudis rather than stand with the families of those killed. Describing the years since as a series of betrayals, she said President Trump could still change course and tell the Saudis to stop lying, adding that if they wished to remain friends with the United States they could not keep denying the pain and destruction suffered by the families.

Addressing Vice President JD Vance, who was in attendance, she asked him to carry that message back and urged him to stand with the families, the survivors and Americans. Fifteen of the 19 hijackers who carried out the attacks were Saudi nationals, and the Saudi government has long denied any involvement.