Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sunday said that a weak Syria “pleases” Israel, and accused Iran’s longtime rival Saudi Arabia of promoting poverty and terrorism by continuing to bomb Yemeni rebels and supporting armed rebels fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad.
Addressing a conference in Tehran and quoted by The Associated Press (AP), Rouhani suggested that destroying Syria won’t strengthen those governments in the region which support the anti-Assad rebels.
“Does the weakening of Syria benefit its Muslim neighbors? Does the destruction of Syria lead to the strengthening of Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates or other countries? Who is pleased by Syria’s destruction other than Israel,” he declared, according to AP.
Rouhani said the Islamic State (ISIS) and other armed groups are defaming Islam by resorting to barbaric acts and that has led to Muslim states forgetting their common enemy: Israel.
“How many bombs and missiles have you purchased from the U.S. in the past year?” Rouhani asked in an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia. “If you had distributed the same money among poor Muslims, none of them would have gone to bed hungry.”
Iran and Saudi Arabia do not see eye to eye on either Syria or Yemen.
Iran openly backs President Bashar Al-Assad in the Syrian war and is accused of also being behind rebels who overran large parts of Yemen last year and early this year. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, supports rebel groups who are fighting to oust Assad in the Syrian conflict and has led the coalition attacking Houthi rebels in Yemen.
In addition to Syria and the campaign in Yemen, Saudi Arabia was one of the Arab governments that had repeatedly expressed their concern about the terms of the nuclear deal between Iran and the West.
In October, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister urged Iran to stop “meddling” in the affairs of the kingdom’s neighbors, warning that Riyadh stood ready to confront Tehran’s actions.
“We wish that Iran would change its policies and stop meddling in the affairs of other countries in the region, in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen,” Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said.
“We will make sure that we confront Iran’s actions and shall use all our political, economic and military powers to defend our territory and people,” he added, accusing Iran of acting like a “colonizing state” in Syria, and demanding it pull its fighters out of the country and stop supplying arms to Assad.
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