Iran FM tells Saudis ‘security cannot be bought’

TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign minister has urged arch-rival Saudi Arabia to accept that “security cannot be bought”, saying an end to the war in Yemen would quell regional tensions. In an interview with Tehran’s official IRNA news agency on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Mohammad Javad Zarif accused the Saudi leadership of stirring up strife.

“They think that, in the same way that they have so far bought everything with money and have managed to buy weapons, friendship and support, they can buy security with money as well,” he said, urging Riyadh to “put aside this illusion”

Zarif told IRNA that Riyadh was stirring tensions in order to “open (the way) for foreigners to enter the region”. The US has several major military bases in the Gulf and has threatened strikes in retaliation for attacks it has blamed on the Islamic republic. Zarif said the solution “is absolutely clear and that is an end to the Yemen war”. “Tension in the region will end and it will stop Saudi Arabia’s prestige being further damaged,” he said. Tens of thousands of people, most of them civilians, have been killed since Saudi Arabia and its allies intervened in March 2015.