JEDDAH // Iran is at the centre of conflicts throughout the Middle East and must withdraw its “occupying” forces from Syria, the Saudi foreign minister said yesterday.
Prince Saud Al Faisal also criticised Iranian involvement in Iraq, where Islamist extremists from ISIL have made sweeping territorial gains, and in Yemen, where Tehran is accused of backing Houthi rebels who have overrun the capital, Sanaa.
“Our reservations are about Iran’s policy in the region, not about Iran as a country or people,” Prince Saud said after a meeting in Jeddah with the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
“In many conflicts, Iran is part of the problem, not the solution.”
In Syria, Prince Saud said, Iran had forces “fighting Syrians”.
“In this case, we can say that Iranian forces in Syria are occupying forces”, because they were helping Bashar Al Assad, whom he described as an “illegitimate” leader.
“If Iran wants to be part of the solution in Syria, it has to pull its forces from Syria. The same applies elsewhere, whether in Yemen or Iraq,” Prince Saud said.
Mr Al Assad receives financial and military aid from Iran, although Tehran denies having troops in Syria. The Syrian president is also backed by fighters from Lebanon’s pro-Iranian Shiite movement Hizbollah.
Among the many groups fighting to remove him is ISIL, which itself is being engaged by a US-led coalition that includes Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other Arab states.
The Arab nations have taken part in or given support to coalition airstrikes against ISIL in both Syria and Iraq.
Iran and Iraq have grown closer in the realms of government and security since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003.
ISIL militants have seized large parts of Syria and Iraq and declared a caliphate where they have carried out widespread atrocities, including mass executions, crucifixions and beheadings, and forcing women into slavery.
Such extremism “has nothing to do with Islam”, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia said last week.
* Agence France-Press
