Deputy Chief of General Intelligence Prince Faisal bin Abdullah al Saud said tough measures were in place to control the movement of people at its boundaries, but said their sheer size meant it was impossible to scrutinise everyone.
"No one can give any guarantees," he told the GDN on the sidelines of the security conference.
By GEOFFREY BEW
SAUDI Arabia has admitted that it cannot prevent all of its home-grown terrorists leaving the country to launch attacks overseas due to the sheer size of its borders.
Deputy Chief of General Intelligence Prince Faisal bin Abdullah al Saud said tough measures were in place to control the movement of people at its boundaries, but said their sheer size meant it was impossible to scrutinise everyone.
"No one can give any guarantees," he told the GDN on the sidelines of the security conference.
"The Saudi Arabian border is thousands of kilometres long and we are still developing technology and the people.
"This (terrorism) is a disease that has been planted and unfortunately is part of our nation.
"The best guarantee we can give is that we are working very hard on our youth, their education and creating prosperity."
Saudi Arabia shares land borders with Yemen, Oman, the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq and Jordan, in addition to the King Fahad Causeway road link to Bahrain.
Prince Faisal, who is part of the Saudi government delegation attending the security conference, says Gulf countries must look more towards themselves as they attempt to tackle the region's security threats.
"We really have to look into ourselves, to be honest and share the information we have and tackle our problems," he said.
"In Saudi we have a clash between the spiritual and the material.
"All of a sudden in the 1970s oil prices came and that is why our young men are going through this.
"They are confused, they are losing their roots and they are trying to catch up with something - but we are recovering.
"In the 70s we invested in our infrastructure.
"Right now the real investment is in human capital, in education and in the young generation - to build them and give them all that they need."
Prince Faisal also believes the Gulf countries should work more closely together if they are to maintain peace in the region.
"We have so many things in common," he said.
"We share the religion, the neighbourhood, the land and the wealth."
