Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi has criticized Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir for backing US President Donald Trump’s stance on Iran, advising Riyadh to revise its foreign policies.
“Saudi officials need to revise their approaches and positions, and instead of expressing extreme fascination and getting overexcited with the US hackneyed and fruitless policies vis-à-vis Iran, they should find a face-saving way out of domestic and regional crises they are grappling with,” the Spokesman said on Wednesday.
He said that Saudi people and government as well as regional nations had fallen victim to Riyadh’s “hallucinatory, wrong and superficial” policies, and called on the kingdom to accept regional realities on the ground without any bias for the sake of its own interests.
“It is very regrettable that the Saudi foreign minister still insists on following the wrong, costly and ineffective approach pursued by the country over the past years and it is continuing to bang the drum of tension, violence and destructive behavior and policies,” Qassemi said.
Speaking at a conference in London on Tuesday, the Saudi foreign minister said his country supported Trump’s stance on Iran after he decided not to certify that Tehran was complying with the 2015 nuclear deal with the P5+1 group of countries in defiance of its allies and the international community.
During his vituperative speech at the White House on October 13, Trump refused to formally certify that Iran was complying with the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), although the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has verified Iran’s commitment to the agreement. The US leader also warned that he might ultimately terminate it.
Senior Iranian officials have warned against any violation of the JCPOA, warning that any breach will have its consequences.
Trump’s refusal to certify the JCPOA came as other parties to the deal criticized the US president’s move, and pledged their commitment to the agreement.
The EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, also insisted that the agreement was working, and that no single country or leader could terminate it as it is a multilateral international agreement supported by UN Security Council Resolution 2231.