Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has warned Iran that regional neighbors have ‘significant’ capabilities to respond to Tehran’s aggression.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud has warned Iran that its tolerance for attacks by his country and neighboring Gulf states is limited, calling on Tehran to “recalculate” its strategy immediately.
The foreign minister told a news conference on Thursday that Iran had carefully planned its strategy to hit regional neighbors despite denials from Tehran diplomats, warning that Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states had “very significant capabilities and capabilities” if they “choose to do so”.
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“Some level of precision in this targeting – you can see it in our neighbors and in the kingdom – indicates that it was premeditated, premeditated, preorganized and well thought out,” Prince Faisal said.
“I will not say what constitutes and what does not constitute a defensive measure by the Kingdom (of Saudi Arabia) because I think that is not a wise way of signaling to the Iranians,” the foreign minister continued.
“But I think it’s important for Iranians to understand that the kingdom, not only its partners under attack and beyond, have significant capabilities and capabilities that they can bring to bear if they choose to do so,” he said.
“The patience that is being demonstrated is not unlimited. Do they (Iranians) have a day, two, a week? I’m not going to telegraph,” he added.
“I hope they understand the message of today’s meeting and quickly recalculate and stop attacking their neighbors. But I doubt they have that wisdom.”
Prince Faisal’s warning followed an early-morning meeting of Arab and Islamic foreign ministers in the Saudi capital to discuss the widening war in the region, which saw Iranian attacks on Gulf energy sites including Qatar’s Ras Laffan gas facility, where significant damage was reported, and the United Arab Emirates’ Habshan gas facility.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “strong condemnation and condemnation of the brazen Iranian attack targeting Ras Laffan Industrial City”, located 80 km (50 miles) northeast of the Qatari capital Doha, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facility, which produces 20 percent of the world’s LNG supply.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had earlier warned that oil and gas facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE would face retaliation for an Israeli attack on Iran’s South Pars gasfield.
Iranian state media reported that facilities related to the country’s massive offshore South Pars field, located off the coast of southern Iran’s Bushehr province, had come under attack.
Saudi Arabia’s defense ministry said on Wednesday that its air defenses had fired four Iranian ballistic missiles aimed at Riyadh and two toward the country’s eastern region.
Air defense units in the UAE deal with 13 ballistic missiles and 27 drones, according to the country’s defense ministry, but operations at the Habshan gas facility have been suspended as officials respond to incidents caused by debris that fell after the missile was successfully intercepted.
The Saudi foreign minister told a news conference on Thursday that while the war will end one day, it will take much longer to restore relations with Iran, as trust has been “completely shattered” by Tehran’s tactics to target its neighbour.
“We know that Iran has been building this strategy for the last decade and beyond,” Prince Faisal said.
“This is not a response to an evolving situation in which Iran is improving. It is built into their war plan: to target their neighbors and try to use that to pressure the international community,” he said.
“So when this war finally ends, for there to be any rebuilding of trust, it’s going to take a long time. And I have to tell you, if Iran doesn’t stop … immediately, I think there’s going to be almost nothing that restores that trust,” he said.
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