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Downfall of Saudi ‘not in Iran’s interest’, says senior admiral

January 17, 2017 at 1:27 pm

Despite speculations, the Islamic Republic of Iran is not after toppling the Saudi Arabian regime, Admiral Ali Shamkhani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC), said.

In a surprise statement, Shamkhani said that the Shia theocratic regime was not seeking to topple the House of Saud, the Saudi royal family. On the contrary, the senior military figure stated that it is in Iran’s interest to ensure that the Saudi monarchy does not fall.

Arabi 21 reported Shamkhani as saying in an interview with an Iranian foreign policy journal that “the fall of the House of Saud does not guarantee a better alternative. Instead it will more likely lead to fragmentation of the country with extremist groups like Daesh seizing control of important areas of Saudi Arabia.”

Shamkhani stressed that Iran has always responded to the growth of extremism by trying to pare it back. He said that Iran defended the territorial integrity of the states in the region, commenting also that the division of countries leads to their control by terrorist groups, which is not in the strategic interests of the Islamic world.

The SNSC secretary also expressed disapproval of Saudi policy in the region claiming that Riyadh’s policy in Yemen and Syria is strengthening terrorist groups.

The admiral, who serves in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy, made these comments as his own organisation supports extremist militant groups around the region.

Iran actively supports not only Shia jihadists in the Lebanese Hezbollah, but also several dozen militia groups in Iraq and Syria. Most notably, Iraq’s paramilitary Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), recently formalised by Baghdad, is based on the IRGC model and supported by Tehran.

Shamkhani also urged Turkey and Saudi Arabia against “cooperating” with the West who be believes is trying to “divide the region”.