Saudis slam door on request for talks by Iran

Foreign minister gains international support in call for ‘red lines’ to stop Iran’s destabilising actions in the Middle East

MUNICH // Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister yesterday rejected Iranian calls for dialogue, saying that Tehran was the main sponsor of terrorism in the world, a destabilising force in the Middle East and wanted to “destroy us”.

At the Munich Security Conference, Adel Al Jubeir told delegates: “Iran remains the single main sponsor of terrorism in the world. It’s determined to upend the order in Middle East ... and until and unless Iran changes its behaviour, it would be very difficult to deal with a country like this.” He said Iran was propping up the government of Syrian president Bashar Al Assad, and funding the Houthi rebels in Yemen and extremist groups across the region. Mr Al Jubeir said the international community needed to set clear “red lines” to halt Iran’s actions.

The GCC, especially Saudi Arabia, accuses Iran of using sectarianism to interfere in Arab countries and build its own sphere of influence in the Middle East.

The international community needed to halt Iran’s actions, Mr Al Jubeir said, calling for banking, travel and trade restrictions to change Tehran’s behaviour.

International sanctions on Iran were lifted a year ago under a nuclear deal with world powers, but US republican senators said at the conference that they would press for new US measures over Iran’s missile programme and Tehran’s actions to destabilise the Middle East. US senator Lindsey Graham said he and other senators were preparing legislation to further sanction Iran for breaching UN Security Council resolutions with its missile development programme and other action.

“It is now time for Congress to take Iran on directly in terms of what they’ve done outside the nuclear programme,” he said.

US senator Christopher Murphy, a Democrat and member of the senate foreign relations committee, said Washington had to decide whether to take a broader role in the regional conflict.

“We have to make a decision whether we are going to get involved in the emerging proxy war in a bigger way than we are today, between Iran and Saudi Arabia,” he said.

Israel added to the pressure on Iran. Although Saudi Arabia remains historically at odds with Israel, their foreign ministers agreed that Tehran should be punished for propping up the Syrian government, developing ballistic missiles and funding Yemen rebels.

Israeli defence minister Avigdor Lieberman said Iran’s ultimate objective was to undermine Riyadh.

Turkey’s foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu criticised what he called an Iranian “sectarian policy” aimed at undermining Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

“Turkey is very much against any kind of division, religious or sectarian,” he said. “It’s good that we are now normalising our relations with Israel.”

The tough stances were in response to an appeal from Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for GCC states to work with Tehran to reduce violence across the region.