Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister: ‘We will continue talks with Iran’
In an interview with FRANCE 24, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud said that talks with Iran would continue and that an additional round of negotiations between regional rivals was expected soon.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister said the previous four rounds of talks were simply “exploratory” rather than substantial, but said both sides were committed to the compromise.
However, Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud expressed strong reservations about Iran’s nuclear negotiations, which will resume in a few weeks, citing Tehran’s past deception about its nuclear activities.
Regarding a recent diplomatic dispute with Lebanon, the Foreign Minister rejected Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s criticism that Saudi Arabia had deliberately sparked the crisis by withdrawing its ambassador after a Lebanese minister called the war a Yemen for “useless.” “There is no crisis with Lebanon, there is a crisis in Lebanon,” he said, citing Hezbollah’s dominance.
The prince urged Lebanon’s political leaders to, once and for all, address the role of Hezbollah. “The endemic political and economic corruption that continues in Lebanon is the reason why we do not see any use for our ambassador to be present in Lebanon at this time,” he said.
He said Hezbollah appeared to be doing everything possible to block the investigation into the deadly Beirut port explosion. “We call for a transparent and independent investigation into this terrible tragedy,” he said.
The foreign minister also denied reports that Saudi Arabia was withdrawing troops from Yemen. The situation was stalled both militarily and diplomatically, he said, and regretted that the Houthis had not accepted a Saudi proposal for a ceasefire earlier this year.
