Iranian response to Soleimani killing a ‘show’: Saudi official

CAIRO: The Iranian response to the killing of top commander Qassem Soleimani was a ‘show’, according to ex-chief of the Saudi intelligence service Prince Turki Al Faisal. “They claimed to have made the appropriate response to the US. But the world saw missiles, some of them landed inside Iran and some others in the desert inside Iraq. Some reached the camp where the US troops were,” Prince Turki told foreign media. “The Iranians had informed the Iraqi government beforehand about the attack so that they [Iraqis] would inform the American side. This actually happened and there were no casualties am­ong the Americans.”

“Despite Iranian fanfare and talk about the killing of 80 Americans and the destruction of installations, they came back and admitted that this did not happen. It’s a show without doubt,” Al Turki said. However, he is not sure that the spectre of a US-Iranian war has receded, noting that Tehran relies on proxies. “Iran has become a paper tiger with iron paws. These iron paws used by Iran are its proxies in Hezbollahs wether in Lebanon, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Pakistan or Afghanistan. They are the ones who are tasked by the Iranian leadership to carry out a proxy war,” he added.