President Rouhani Rejects Saudi Anti-Iran Rhetoric


President Rouhani Rejects Saudi Anti-Iran Rhetoric

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Iranian President Hassan Rouhani dismissed the fresh hostile stances the Saudi regime has taken against Tehran, saying he wonders how the kingdom could show hostility towards so many of its neighbors and the regional countries.

Addressing a cabinet session of Wednesday morning, President Rouhani criticized the Saudi officials for seeking to cause trouble for the others and taking hostile stances against the other regional nations instead of trying to fix their own internal problems.

Aside from showing hostility to the Iranian nation, Saudi Arabia is against the Yemeni nation and keeps pounding its neighbor, continues to express enmity toward Syria and Iraq by strengthening Daesh (ISIL) terrorist group, and even interferes in the internal affairs of Lebanon by forcing its prime minister to resign, he explained.

Reminding the Al Saud regime of Iran’s “power and position”, the president noted that even the parties stronger than Saudi Arabia, such as the US, its allies and all of its mobilized forces, have failed to harm the Islamic Republic of Iran.

It is a “strategic mistake and a miscalculation” for Saudi Arabia to opt for friendship with the US and Israel and avoid Iran as a friend.

Reiterating Iran’s support for the regional peace and stability, the president dismissed the Saudi allegation of Tehran’s meddling in the other countries, stressing that Iran has been helping Iraq and Syria in the fight against terrorism at the request of their own governments.

President Rouhani finally recommended the Al Saud authorities to abandon hostility toward the regional nations and exercise respect and courtesy.

The comments came after Saudi Arabia’s crown prince Mohammed bin Salman accused Iran of “direct military aggression”, linking Tehran to the launch of a ballistic missile fired from Yemen towards the international airport in Riyadh on Saturday.

The accusation, which Iran has rejected as baseless and provocative, came a day after a wave of arrests in Saudi Arabia that appeared to complete the consolidation of power by bin Salman, 32.

Yemeni forces say the ballistic missile attack came in retaliation for the continued massacre of civilians and destruction of Yemen’s infrastructure by the Saudi-led military coalition.

Since March 2015, Saudi Arabia and some of its Arab allies have been launching deadly airstrikes against the Houthi Ansarullah movement in an attempt to restore power to the fugitive former President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi, a close ally of Riyadh.

Since then, more than 10,000 people have been killed, millions forced from their homes, and the country facing severe famine and a deadly cholera outbreak.

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