Iran’s Parliament's General Director for International Affairs, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, made the remark here on Saturday during a meeting with Lebanon’s media persons.
He stressed that Lebanese leaders are highly competent to make decisions for their own country, and no foreign country, be it Saudi Arabia, France, the US or even Iran, has the right to interfere in their domestic affairs.
“Iran has made a lot of efforts for the completion of a political process in Lebanon,” he said.
Amir-Abdollahian went on to criticize Saud Al Faisal and Adel Al-Jubeir, Saudi’s former and current foreign ministers, for their unconstructive approaches toward the political process in Lebanon, and stressed that the president of Lebanon should be selected from the country’s Christian party.
“Once prominent Christian figures in Lebanon decide on one person who is approved by other political parties, the Islamic Republic of Iran will support that decision,” he said.
Amir-Abdollahian then referred to the meeting between Russian President Putin with then director general of the Saudi Intelligence Agency Bandar bin Sultan in Moscow, where the Saudi official talked about his country’s plan to use armed forces to overthrow the political system in Syria.
“During the meeting, Putin asked Bandar bin Sultan if he was aware that once Damascus fell, the armed forces would come after you in Riyadh, to which the Saudi official said, ‘yes we are, but immediately after the overthrow of Assad, we will bomb and kill all armed forces in Syria’.”
“We have many documents that prove the terrorist attack near our embassy in Beirut had been coordinated by Bandar bin Sultan, and the target of the attack had been Iranian ambassador Ghazanfar Roknabadi,” he said.
Amir-Abdollahian went on to add, “what I mean by talking about these events is that we have been in talks with Saudi Arabia and will continue to do so because we are neighbors and situated in the same region.”
“Saudi Arabia has many capacities that could be utilized in service of the Islamic world and the region, but unfortunately, their approach is not constructive,” he said, adding “in turn we have tried to show self-restraint and give them another chance because their domestic issues have impaired their ability to make right decisions.”
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