Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have condemned Hillary Clinton’s accusations after a mass shooting in Orlando that the two countries are among those that need to stop “funding terrorism”.

Speaking earlier this week in Ohio, Ms Clinton unveiled her plan to defeat Isis and said: “It is long past time for the Saudis, Qataris and Kuwaitis and others to stop their citizens from funding extremist organisations”.

Her comments came shortly after a 29-year-old gunman who pledged his allegiance to Isis and burst into a gay nightclub in Orlando, shooting dead 49 people and injuring 53.

In letters addressed to Fairfax Media, the two embassies in Canberra, Australia, said they strongly objected to Ms Clinton’s call that they should “stop supporting radical schools and mosques around the world”.

“Accusations leveled against the Kingdom of being lax or of supporting extremism fails to recognise the Kingdom's leadership role in combating terrorism,” the Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia wrote, as reported by Canberra Times.

The Saudi embassy said that Saudi Arabia suffered 26 terrorist attacks in the last two years, and has a “national priority” to stop the “men, the money and the mindset that foremost extremism, especially violent extremism”.

It added that the government ensures that mosques do not incite extremism or collect money and transfer it abroad into “the wrong hands”.

The letters from the two embassies come after it was revealed that Orlando gunman Omar Mateen had made two pilgrimages to Saudi Arabia before he opened fire in Pulse nightclub.

Saudi Arabia has faced increasing anger as a classified report from the US government after 9/11, read by a select few politicians and still unavailable to the public, has revealed links between Saudi Arabian officials and the hijackers who took down the Twin Towers.

10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemen’s Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdom’s Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as “inciting people against the authorities”. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabia’s clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his ‘confession’. At Dawood’s trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty

Human rights organizations have criticized Saudi Arabia for using "counter-terrorism" to crack down on peaceful activists, and it has one of the world’s lowest rankings for media freedoms.

The Kingdom also still employs the death penalty: Amnesty International recorded at least 158 executions in 2015 alone.

The Kuwait embassy said it had “come a long way” to help “dry up terrorist funding sources“ since it was liberated in 1991 by a US-led coalition from an Iraqi invasion led by Saddam Hussein, and that Ms Clinton’s comments “do not comply with reality”.

Amnesty International has also criticised Kuwait for passing a recent law to require all citizens to provide DNA samples in the name of combatting terrorism.