Saudi officials support Trump’s tough stance on Iran

High profile officials from Saudi Arabia publicly supported the US president’s hard-line stance on Iran’s provocations.

On the heels of US President Donald Trump’s decision not to certify Iran’s compliance with a nuclear agreement that resulted in a flood of funds and business opportunities for the Islamic Republic, officials from Saudi Arabia have gone on record supporting this new direction in American foreign relations.

On Tuesday, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told a conference in London that the Trump administration had accurately assessed and called attention to Iran’s efforts to destabilize the region, including funding militant organizations. Iran’s behavior “is not acceptable, and there will be consequences to the Iranians,” Jubeir was quoted as saying in the UAE-based outlet The National. “This is what President Trump has said, and we are very supportive of that,” he added.

Among the reasons Jubeir cited for taking a firm stand on Iranian belligerence is the danger that delays in sanctions would give the regime a chance to develop nuclear weapons with which it could pose a global threat.

Jubeir’s comments were consistent with observations offered on Sunday by Prince Turki bin Faisal al-Saud, who served as chief of Saudi intelligence in addition to his stint as ambassador to the US and UK. Faisal spoke in New York alongside a former director of the Israeli intelligence agency (Mossad), Efraim Halevy, offering insight into Trump’s push to amend or scrap the nuclear agreement and to halt Iran’s other machinations in the region.

“If you want to put pressure on Iran, you have to do whatever it means to do that and decertification is one way of putting in that pressure to make them live up not just to the letter of the deal, but the spirit,” Faisal was quoted as saying by Times of Israel. Faisal also made positive comments regarding the Trump administration’s decision to confront Iranian aggression in the region head-on, and ultimately urged the US to tackle Syria’s brutal dictator Bashar Assad, whom he referred to as the “biggest terrorist.”

In October, Trump decertified Iran’s compliance with the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which is commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal. This move opens the door to permit Congress to renew sanctions on Iran following a 60-day review period.

By: World Israel News

Israel-Saudi relationsSaudi Arabia