Dressed in traditional female Saudi robes with her platinum blond hair tucked under a black veil, the daughter of one of the victims said she wants her fellow Americans to stop blaming Saudi Arabia for the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington that killed almost 3,000 people.
"We should not focus on blame. I think it's time for people to move forward in the process of healing," Sonia Tita Puopolo said.
She is the only relative of a 9/11 victim to visit the kingdom since the attacks and was asked to speak at the Jeddah Economic Forum on Monday during a session on terrorism.
"I am here to ask for help in forging a bridge of peace, understanding and dialogue," she told delegates.
A picture of her mother Sonia Morales Puopolo, a passenger on the American Airlines flight 11 that crashed into one of the towers of New York's World Trade Center, was included in the forum's programme.
Some Saudis listening to Puopolo's speech sympathised with her loss but said the deaths of civilians in the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, two Muslim nations, had made the healing process more difficult.
US university professor Gregory Payne, who accompanied Puopolo, said the only way to change misperceptions that Saudis and Americans had about each other was to reach out to the young and expose them to each other's cultures.
One month after the attacks, he and Prince Faisal al-Abdullah al-Saud, a former student of his and a member of the Saudi royal family, started a program called the "Saudi American Exchange: Understanding through communication."
The prince was also a classmate of Puopolo at Emmerson College in Boston.
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the deaths of civilians in the US-led wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, two Muslim nations, had made the healing process more difficult
BULL HOCKEY!!
Bet it killed 'em to reveal that personal relationship. This woman IS delusional.
If you Google her, you'll find she attends fashion/ballet/charitable galas, and also attended school in Switzerland. Nothing personal against her, but she travels in circles that float above reality...
It sounds like the Saudis are writing these speeches.