Saudi Foreign Minister's Critical Response to Zarif's Note

Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi Foreign Minister, responded on September 19 in a note published in the Wall Street Journal to a critical note by Mohammad Javad Zarif against Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism, which appeared in the New York Times. Al-Jubeir pointed to attacks and bombings at the US embassy in Beirut, US Marines at the international airport in the Lebanese capital, and explosions in Saudi towers, as well as what he described as attacks on 'dozens of embassies on Iranian soil', directing blame towards senior officials in Tehran. According to the Saudi Foreign Minister, all these examples and 'the fact that Iran uses terrorism to advance its violent political goals' cannot be concealed. Al-Jubeir stated, 'Iran cannot speak of combating terrorism while its leaders, the Quds Force and the Revolutionary Guards, are equipping, arming, and sending money for terrorist activities.' Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iran's Foreign Minister, in his note in the New York Times, sharply criticized Saudi leaders and also 'Wahhabism', stating that although 'Wahhabism is a very small part of Muslims', 'almost all terrorist groups' influenced by this ideology exist. The tense relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia have recently entered a new crisis phase. Following the execution of a Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia and the attack and burning of the Saudi embassy in Tehran, relations between the two countries were severed. Tehran and Riyadh, which are considered major rivals in the region, support opposing parties or engage against each other in several countries in West Asia, from Lebanon and Syria to Yemen. In his note in the Wall Street Journal, Al-Jubeir accused Iran of being complicit in the deaths of 'half a million Syrian people at the hands of Bashar al-Assad's regime', allowing some 'al-Qaeda leaders to take refuge on its soil', issuing the 'order' for the 2003 attack in Riyadh by al-Qaeda via a 'phone call from Iran', and 'supporting terrorist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon'. According to the Saudi Foreign Minister, countries in the region and the world lived in peace with Iran until Ayatollah Khomeini 'revolutionized Iran with the slogan of death to America'. In Zarif's note on September 14, it was stated that since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Wahhabism - according to the Iranian Foreign Minister - has 'war-like' changed its face several times, but its core ideology 'has not changed'. Al-Jubeir stated in his note that Saudi Arabia is at the forefront of the fight against terrorism, has spent $100 million to establish a counter-terrorism center at the UN, has an alliance with the participation of 40 Islamic countries against terrorism, and has prevented several attacks on the US and its leaders. In the final section of Zarif's note, he stated that he 'in no way' suggests excluding Saudi Arabia from the 'solution' to combat terrorism; rather, he calls for that country to stop creating fear and propaganda and to cooperate with 'the international community against terrorism'. In the final section of the Saudi Foreign Minister's note, he stated that Riyadh welcomes improving relations with Tehran, relations based on good neighborliness and non-interference in each other's countries; 'although Iran's current record is not very encouraging'. Writing notes by the foreign ministers of the two countries in Western publications and presenting severe criticisms against each other is not new. Last January, Zarif described Saudi Arabia as the main factor in the threat posed by 'violent extremists' in a note in the New York Times. In response, Al-Jubeir stated that it is the Iranian government that is recognized as a 'state sponsor of terrorism' and covers several extremist groups like Hezbollah in Lebanon, Houthis in Yemen, or extremist militias in Iraq.