ABU DHABI (Reuters) – Saudi Arabia, the birthplace of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, hopes that with his death, an “evil has ended,” the Gulf Arab state’s deputy interior minister said Tuesday.

“We hope that with the death of Osama bin Laden, an evil has ended,” Prince Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz told reporters at a meeting of Gulf interior ministers. “He has been an evil to himself, to his immediate family and to the Arab countries as a whole.”

He added that while bin Laden may be a symbol, Saudi Arabia did not know if he was al Qaeda’s “main driver” or if the global militant network was comprised of a number of separate groups that were unlinked.