Saudi FM: Iran the main sponsor of terror

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister says Iran is the prime sponsor of international terror and the biggest threat to stability in the Middle East.

“Iran remains the single main sponsor of terrorism in the world,” Adel al-Jubeir tells delegates at the Munich Security Conference. “It’s determined to upend the order in Middle East… [and] until and unless Iran changes its behavior it would be very difficult to deal with a country like this.”

Jubeir says “Iran is the only one in the Middle East that hasn’t been targeted by Islamic State and al-Qaeda,” implying there was a relationship between the regime and terror groups.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir, speaks on the last day of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, Sunday Feb. 19, 2017. (Matthias Balk/dpa via AP)

He also claims the Iranians took advantage of the goodwill of the nations that negotiated a nuclear deal with them in 2015. They “stepped up the tempo of their mischief” while the negotiations were taking place, he says, and continue to do so today.

“I believe that Iran knows where the red lines are if the red lines are drawn clearly, and I believe that the world has to make it clear to the Iranians that there is certain behavior that will not be tolerated, and that there will be consequences,” Jubeir tells the conference. “And those consequences have to be in tune with the financial side.”

He says that extending a hand to Iran won’t work. “For 35 years, we have offered Iran our friendship and support, and got nothing but death and destruction.”

Jubeir adds that he is “very optimistic about the Trump administration.”

— AP and Times of Israel staff