Zarif:

Saudi Arabia blames Iran for consequences of its ‘wars of aggression’

Rasa - Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says Saudi Arabia is blaming Iran for the consequences of its "wars of aggression," taking Riyadh to task for its destabilizing role in the region.

News ID: 434646

Date: 06 November 2017 - 22:22

RNA - In a post on his official Twitter account on Monday, Zarif said Saudi Arabia was engaged in “wars of aggression" and destabilizing behavior, but blamed Iran for the consequences.”

He also referred to crimes committed by the Saudi-led military coalition fighting against the Houthi Ansarullah fighters in Yemen, saying that the coalition had so far killed thousands of innocent people in Yemen.

Iran's foreign minister blamed Riyadh's military campaign in Yemen as the main reason behind the spread of cholera and famine in the country.

He also countercharged Saudi Arabia of interfering in domestic affairs of Arab countries, an accusation that Saudi Arabia has leveled against Iran on many occasions, noting that the repression of dissidents in Bahrain by the Al Khalifah regime took place following a visit to Riyadh by US President Donald Trump.

In another tweet, Zarif implied that Saudi Arabia had been even behind the recent resignation of Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who accused Iran of interference in Lebanon’s affairs..

Hariri announced his resignation in a televised statement on Saturday, citing many reasons, including the security situation in Lebanon, for his sudden decision. He also said that he sensed a plot being hatched against his life.

Hariri accused Iran and Hezbollah resistance movement of meddling in Arab countries’ affairs; an allegation the two have repeatedly denied.

A few hours after the announcement of Hariri’s resignation in Saudi Arabia, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi vehemently rejected his remarks and said his resignation and rehashing of the “unfounded and baseless” allegations regularly leveled by the Zionists, Saudis and the US were another scenario to create new tensions in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East.

“The sudden resignation of Mr. Hariri and its announcement in another country are not only regrettable and astonishing, but also indicative of him playing in a court that the ill-wishers in the region have laid out,” Qassemi said.

On Sunday, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, said the country’s prime minister had been under pressure to resign his post.

Nasrallah noted that the announcement of Hariri’s resignation came after a number of visits to Saudi Arabia, adding that the text and style of his resignation clearly showed that it was not his own text and was a Saudi text dictated to the Lebanese prime minister.

847/940