Adel al-Jubeir: Iran's New Accusations Against Saudi Arabia Are a Diversion

Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, rejected Iranian officials' accusations regarding his country's involvement in the recent attack on a bus carrying members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). According to the Associated Press, al-Jubeir, who is traveling with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Pakistan, labeled the Islamic Republic of Iran as the "largest supporter of terrorism" and stated that the claims made by this government are aimed at "diverting the attention of the Iranian people." Following the suicide attack on the bus on the Khash-Zahedan route last Wednesday, which resulted in 27 deaths, Iranian officials pointed the finger directly at Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, also warning Pakistan. Recently, Mohammad Baqeri, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, reiterated this accusation. According to IRNA, Baqeri stated on Tuesday in Qom, without providing evidence or documentation, that "terrorist groups in Pakistan are equipped and organized with money from Saudi Arabia and the UAE to create insecurity inside Iran." Just a day earlier, Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the IRGC, explicitly accused Saudi Arabia and the UAE of conspiring against the Islamic Republic "at the behest of the Israelis and Americans." Al-Jubeir's latest remarks come less than a week after a video of him and several other Arab officials surfaced in public media from a session of the Warsaw Conference. In that video, initially published on the YouTube channel of the Israeli Prime Minister, al-Jubeir stated: "Wherever Iran steps, it brings destruction... its support for Hamas and Islamic Jihad has harmed the Palestinian government; it has devastated Syria; it smuggles weapons to Kuwait and Bahrain; it establishes arms factories in Sudan and seeks to plunge Africa, Indonesia, and Thailand into chaos." Al-Jubeir served as Saudi Foreign Minister for over three years and was recently downgraded to Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, with Ibrahim al-Assaf introduced as the new Foreign Minister. The Associated Press, which covered al-Jubeir's statements in Islamabad, noted that the Saudi Crown Prince's visit and his large accompanying delegation to Pakistan is seen as a continuation of the close relationship between the two countries, with Pakistan having repeatedly balanced relations between Riyadh and Tehran. On the other hand, Iranian officials, continuing their reactions to the recent attack in Sistan and Baluchestan province, have also called for a "serious response" from Pakistan against "terrorist groups." Tasnim News Agency reported that the National Security and Foreign Policy Commission of the Parliament held a special meeting about this attack on Saturday, attended by Abbas Araghchi, Deputy Foreign Minister, as well as officials from the Ministry of Intelligence, Ministry of Interior, and the IRGC. Mohammad Ibrahim Rezaei, a member of the commission's board, told Tasnim that according to the reports presented, this attack was "carried out with the intelligence support of Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and the explosives used in this incident were brought into the country from Pakistani territory." According to the same report, Abbas Araghchi also stated in this meeting that during the summoning of the Pakistani ambassador to the Foreign Ministry, Pakistani officials were asked to deal with "groups that have been sent to Pakistan with the support of Saudi Arabia and the UAE and enter our country from there." Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic, attributed the attack to "the intelligence organizations of some regional and extra-regional countries" without referring to evidence or findings and called for serious follow-up by the authorities. The IRGC announced on Tuesday that "by following leads," they were able to arrest three individuals involved in the Khash-Zahedan attack. The statement added: "In this successful operation, three terrorists were arrested, and 150 kilograms of ready-to-explode materials and 600 kilograms of explosives under construction, as well as quantities of weapons and ammunition, were discovered."