Saudi Diplomat Gets Political Asylum in U.S.

WASHINGTON —  A Saudi diplomat who defected to the United States, claiming that his government tried secretly to get nuclear arms, has been granted U.S. political asylum, his lawyers said Wednesday.

Mohammed Khilewi, formerly a senior diplomat at the Saudi mission to the United Nations, was granted asylum by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, according to a statement released by his attorneys, Leon and Michael Wildes of New York.

INS officials would not confirm or deny this, saying that the granting of asylum is a private matter.

Khilewi has been quoted as saying that in 1989 efforts were made to buy nuclear research reactors from China and from Marine Services Ltd. in Alexandria, Va.

The State Department said earlier this month that it had no evidence to support Khilewi’s allegations.