Iran urges Saudi Arabia to stop letting “hallucinations” govern its actions in the Middle East

Bahram Qassami, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson (photo by AFP)

Iran says Saudi Arabia should stop letting “hallucinations” govern its actions in the Middle East, urging Riyadh to change its regional and international policies.

“It behooves Saudi Arabia to seriously revise its behavior in the region and it is necessary that good judgment replace hallucinations,” said Bahram Qassami, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, on Friday.

Qassemi was responding to yet another accusation by Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir against the Islamic Republic. Speaking in the Japanese capital of Tokyo on Friday, the Saudi official accused Iran of carrying out acts of “aggression” in the Middle East. Just on Wednesday, he had made similar accusations in the Chinese capital.

Reacting to the latest accusation, Qassemi said, “Baseless accusations and claims by the Saudi officials, especially Mr. Adel al-Jubeir, against the Islamic Republic’s constructive and positive role and efforts in the region has, unfortunately, become excessively hackneyed and dull.”

Jubeir went as far as claiming that Tehran was smuggling arms into Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, and said he hoped Iran would change its policies.

Qassemi responded by saying, “The Islamic Republic of Iran’s advisory presence in Syria and spiritual and political support for the innocent peoples of some of the region’s Muslim countries, who have been afflicted by unbridled barbarity and violence of Takfiri-terrorist groups is in line with the preservation of stability and security in the region and the world.”

“Today, more than any time [in history], the public opinion has come to find out about the region’s hidden reality and the main sources of instability and insecurity,” he added.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman had said earlier on Friday that the world had learned how Saudi Arabia was in fact behind acts of extremism in the world, including the worst terrorist attack in history, namely the September 11, 2001 attacks in the US.

In his newer remarks, Qassemi said it is Saudi Arabia that has to change its policies both on the regional and international arena, urging Riyadh to cease its military aggression against Yemen and its support for terrorist outfits in the region, especially in Syria.

Saudi Arabia has been waging war on Yemen since March 2015 to help — unsuccessfully — reinstall a former ally who has resigned as Yemen’s president. The war has so far killed about 10,000 people, according the United Nations (UN).

The Saudi regime has also been singled out by intelligence agencies the world over, including Germany’s BND, as the main source of ideological and financial support for Takfiri terrorist organizations. The groups have been staging shocking acts of terror against various targets, including in the Middle East, Europe, the United States, over the recent past.