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Iran takes aim at Israel-Saudi ties, nuclear deal
Iran’s Supreme Leader has taken aim at the growing ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, while also branding the US untrustworthy over last year’s nuclear deal.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on all Iranian state matters, said via social media: “Revelation of Saudi government’s relations with Zionist regime was stab in the back of Islamic Ummah [Islamic world].”
Khamenei appears to have been referring to a rare visit last week to Israel by a delegation of Saudi Arabian academic and business leaders, headed by former General Anwar Majed Eshki. Although he holds no official office, Eshki is considered to be close to Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and is a former ambassador to the US. He met with the Director General of Israel’s Foreign Ministry Dore Gold, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai and several Knesset members.
Over the weekend, Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Iran’s proxy Hezbollah, made similar public criticism of Saudi “normalisation” of ties with Israel and for “taking its relationship with Israel from a clandestine connection to a public one”. Although Saudi Arabia and Israel do not have any established diplomatic relations, the two countries and other Gulf states share similar concerns over Iran’s regional ambitions.
Meanwhile, Khamenei also took aim at the US a year after a deal was agreed between Iran and the P5+1 powers (US, UK, France, Russia, China and Germany) over Tehran’s nuclear programme. The accord requires Iran to significantly reduce its nuclear development over the next ten year in return for a major easing of sanctions.
Khamenei said: “The nuclear deal, as an experience, once again proved the pointlessness of negotiating with the Americans, their bad promises and the need not to trust America’s promises.”
He claimed that Washington wanted a united approach regarding ISIS but that any arrangement would be “deadly poison”. Khamenei also suggested via social media that the US could have been behind the recent coup attempt in Turkey.