Saudi prince warns Iran against using
force to pursue rivalry
Send a link to a friend
[September 15, 2016]
DUBAI (Reuters) - A senior Saudi
official, responding to Iranian criticism of Riyadh's management of the
haj pilgrimage, urged Iran to end what he called wrong attitudes toward
Arabs and warned it against any use of force in its rivalry with the
kingdom.
Mecca province governor Prince Khaled al-Faisal, in remarks likely to be
seen as a reference to Iran, added that the orderly conduct of the
pilgrimage this year "is a response to all the lies and slanders made
against the kingdom".
The remarks carried by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) on
Wednesday evening follow an escalating war of words between Shi'ite
Muslim Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia since a crush at the annual haj
pilgrimage a year ago in which hundreds of pilgrims, many of them
Iranians, died.
SPA quoted Prince Khaled as telling journalists his message to the
Iranian leadership was "I pray to God Almighty to guide them and to
deter them from their transgression and their wrong attitudes toward
their fellow Muslim among the Arabs in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and around the
world".
"But if they are preparing an army to invade us, we are not easily taken
by someone who would make war on us."
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Aug/26/images/ads/current/best_friends_sda_120215.png)
"When we desire, and with the help of God Almighty, we will deter every
aggressor and will never relent in protecting this holy land and our
dear country. No one can defile any part from our country if any one of
us remains on the face of the earth."
No top Iranian leader has called for war with Saudi Arabia, something
neither country wants.
But last year's haj disaster, and the execution in January of dissident
Saudi Shi'ite cleric Nimr al-Nimr, triggered months of scathing Iranian
criticism of the kingdom.
[to top of second column] |
![](../images/091516pics/news_q31.jpg)
Mecca Governor Prince Khaled al-Faisal speaks during an annual news
conference briefing reporters on the conclusion of the main rites of
the haj pilgrimage in Mina, near the holy city of Mecca in this file
photo dated October 28, 2012. REUTERS/Amr Abdallah Dalsh
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Sep/15/images/ads/current/pacesetter_lda_041116.png)
Riyadh broke off relations with Tehran after its embassy there was
attacked by Iranians protesting against Nimr's death. Iran's
powerful Revolutionary Guards promised "harsh revenge" for Nimr's
death.
Iran blamed the 2015 haj disaster on Saudi incompetence, and Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sept. 5 said some of the Iranians
who died had been "murdered" by Saudi Arabia. He said Muslims should
not let Saudi rulers escape responsibility for "crimes" he said they
had committed in Arab conflicts.
(Reporting by Mostafa Hashem, Noah Browning; Editing by William
Maclean, Robert Birsel)
[© 2016 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]
Copyright 2016 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Sep/15/images/ads/current/st_clara_sda_daily_fallfest_2015.png)
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2016/Sep/15/images/ads/current/ldn_business_directory_small_2016.png) |