Saudi, UK Anti-Iran Claims Seek to Conceal Terror Support

Iran's Foreign Ministry said Saudi Arabia and Britain are making claims against the Islamic Republic to cover up their destructive role in supporting terrorism.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Sunday that remarks by British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in a joint press conference in Riyadh against Iran were baseless and an attempt to divert attention away from their support for terrorism and extensive crimes against humanity in the war on Yemen, Press TV reported.

"There is no doubt that despite the opposition of world public opinion and protests by conscientious people against Britain's arms supply for use in the war against the Yemeni people, statesmen in London still insist on the sale of such deadly arms to countries involved in attacking Yemen and supporting terrorists," he said.

  Ridiculous

Qasemi dismissed as ridiculous claims by the Saudi foreign minister about Iran's support for Al Qaeda and other terrorists, saying the Islamic Republic pursues independent security strategies and has no connection with terrorist and extremist ideologies.

Addressing the joint presser on Sunday, Johnson, who alleged at a conference in Rome that Saudi Arabia and Iran were waging proxy wars in the Middle East by supporting rival sides in regional conflict, said he was concerned about the suffering in Yemen where a Saudi-led coalition has been accused of rights abuses.

Without providing any evidence, Jubeir accused Iran of supporting terrorism and interfering in the internal affairs of other countries. He also claimed that Tehran had ties with Al Qaeda terrorists and alleged that the group's leaders have been living in Iran since 2001.

Johnson said London and Riyadh share similar stances on what he described as an Iranian threat, particularly in Syria and Yemen.

Yemen, the most impoverished Arab country, has been under relentless Saudi airstrikes since March 2015, when Saudi Arabia launched its military aggression against the neighboring country to undermine the Houthi government and reinstate Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, the country's fugitive president and a staunch ally of Riyadh.

The Saudi military aggression has left at least 11,400 civilians dead, according to the latest tally by a Yemeni monitoring group.