RASA - “The West’s historic mistakes, namely the instrumental use of terrorism and support for deviant ideologies to counter the genuine and revolutionary Islamic ideology as well as double standard policies in the fight against terrorism, have led to the perilous status quo,” Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani said on Friday.
Elsewhere, he added that the reason behind repeated US requests for negotiations with Iran on regional developments is Washington's sense of danger because of the failure of its calculations and plots.
“However, the factor that has prevented talks with the US is its covert and overt support for governments and groups that directly help the growth of terrorism,” the SNSC secretary said.
He also called for convergence and synergy among Muslim countries in order to repel the major threats against the Muslim world.
The Iranian official went on to criticize Saudi policies and urged officials in Riyadh to attend to the genuine concerns of the Muslim world.
“Unfortunately, some reactionary countries’ overt and covert relations with the Zionist regime [Israel] are a betrayal of the Palestinian cause and the interests of the Muslim world and Muslim nations will certainly not tolerate such attitudes,” Shamkhani pointed out.
Instead of creating limitations for fellow Muslim countries such as preventing their participation in Hajj rituals or setting up coalitions for fratricide and murdering Muslims, some Muslim states must focus on “repelling the real threats of the US and the Zionist regime and [foiling] their plots for partition countries and sow discord,” he added.
Ties between Iran and Saudi Arabia have been tense ever since Tehran strongly condemned the kingdom's execution of prominent Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in January.
Faced with an international outcry, Riyadh jumped on attacks on its two diplomatic missions in Iran by unruly protesters as a pretext to sever diplomatic relations with Tehran.
Thousands of lives were lost in a deadly crush during the Hajj rituals in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca, on September 24, 2015 which outraged Muslims around the globe, holding the Saudi government responsible.
Iran says over 7,000 people, including at least 460 Iranian pilgrims, lost their lives in the stampede in Saudi Arabia on September 24, 2015. Iran had the highest confirmed death toll among foreign nationalities in the Mina stampede. Saudi Arabia claims that nearly 770 people were killed in the incident.
Iran cancelled the participation of its pilgrims in this year’s Hajj rituals in September due to Saudi Arabia’s creation of obstacles in the way of Iranians seeking to perform the ritual.
This as Saudi Arabia has also been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015, with the UN putting the death toll from the military aggression at about 10,000. The offensive was launched to reinstate Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a Saudi ally who has resigned as Yemen’s president.
UN Humanitarian Coordinator for Yemen Jamie McGoldrick said last month that the death toll from the Saudi military aggression could rise even further as some areas had no medical facilities, and that people were often buried without any official record being made.
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