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Rouhani: Saudi summit with Trump ‘was just a show’

May 23, 2017 at 3:38 pm

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran on 9 May 2017. [Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency]

Newly re-elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani yesterday slammed the latest summit with the US President Donald Trump in Riyadh, describing it as “just a show” which had “no practical or political value”, news agencies reported.

“The summit in Saudi Arabia was just a show with no practical or political value of any kind,” he told a press conference in Tehran.

Commenting on the deals signed between Trump and the Saudis, worth more than $460 billion over ten years, Rouhani said:

You cannot solve terrorism just by giving your people’s money to a superpower.

Rouhani stressed that getting rid of terror in the Middle East cannot be achieved without the cooperation of Iran.

Read: Trump tells Middle East to ‘drive out’ Islamist extremists

“Who can say regional stability can be restored without Iran? Who can say the region will experience total stability without Iran?” asked.

During the summit, which included Arab and Islamic states, Trump said: “From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms and trains terrorists, militias and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region.”

He called for isolating it. “Until the Iranian regime is willing to be a partner for peace, all nations of conscience must work together to isolate it,”