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Iran warns Saudi Arabia against ‘reliance’ on ‘collapsing’ Israel

October 21, 2022 at 7:39 pm

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Hossein Salami in Tehran, Iran on 25 November 2019 [Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency]

The Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ Commander in Chief, on Thursday, warned the leaders of his country’s regional rival, Saudi Arabia, against “relying” on Israel, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency reported.

“This is our warning. Your house is that of a spider (fragile). You have relied on Israel, which is on the verge of collapse and this is your fate,” Tasnim quoted Major General, Hossein Salami, as saying in reference to what it described as “Saudi Arabia’s anti-Iran campaign”.

Reuters, however, pointed out that Salami’s statements contradict the recent call made by Ali Akbar Velayati, who is a top advisor to Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on international affairs, for the re-opening of the two countries’ embassies. Velayati’s call for embassies’ re-opening signalled Tehran’s interest in a rapprochement, Reuters added.

“We are neighbours of Saudi Arabia and we must co-exist. The embassies of the two countries should re-open to solve our problems in a better way,” Velayati had said on Wednesday.

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