Exclusive: Saudi dissident to come off U.N. al Qaeda blacklist (Reuters) - UNITED NATIONS, July 1 (Reuters) - A U.N. Security Council committee will soon remove Saudi dissident Saad al-Faqih from the United Nations' al Qaeda sanctions list, despite strong objections from Saudi Arabia, a U.N. diplomat said on Sunday. The London-based Faqih was added to the U.N. al Qaeda sanctions list in December 2004, days after the U.S. Treasury Department hit him with sanctions for suspected links to the late Osama bin Laden's militant network, which was responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001. The decision to delist Faqih came after the 15-nation council failed to reach a consensus on whether to override the position of the U.N. al Qaeda sanctions list ombudsman, who had recommended removing Faqih from the U.N. blacklist, the diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity. Reporting by Louis Charbonneau; editing by Christopher Wilson