The presence of Iranian military advisors in the region has fostered stability, whereas the Saudi presence has only fanned the flames of extremism, a lawmaker said.
In a recent talk with ICANA, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, a member of Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said Iran has had an advisory role in the region, which has been in line with its policy to promote stability, while Saudi Arabia's approach has only caused instability and terrorism wherever it has entered.
The lawmaker made the statements in response to Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir's claims of Iran's support for terrorism
The Saudi role in inciting extremism, for instance in the UK, by funding Wahhabi fanaticism has been globally publicized.
Falahatpisheh said Jubeir's remarks were intended to undermine the strength of the Islamic Republic before the international bodies, noting that the same bodies have always acknowledged the positive role of Iran in confronting terrorism and denounced the oil kingdom's policies that give rise to spread of killings and lawlessness.
In a jab at Saudi Arabia's influence peddling in the United Nations with its petrodollars, he said, "Although the UN is affected by the wealth of Saudi Arabia, the body cannot refrain from condemning its interference."
The United Nations has placed Saudi Arabia on a draft blacklist of countries that kill and maim children in war, Reuters reported on Oct. 4. The draft includes the US-backed Saudi coalition of Arab countries that has bombed Yemen for more than two years in a devastating war that has killed over 13,000 people.
Essentially a naming-and-shaming mechanism, the blacklist is one of the most politically sensitive documents published by the United Nations.
In June 2016, the former UN secretary-general, Ban Ki-moon, said he temporarily removed the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen from a UN blacklist for violating child rights because its supporters threatened to stop funding many UN programs.
"With its military intervention in Yemen and Bahrain, Saudi Arabia has only exacerbated tensions in the region," Falahatpisheh said, calling on the regime to change its tack instead of accusing Iran.
