Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Thursday that the Saudi king’s accusations were aimed at covering up the crimes being committed by Saudi Arabia in Yemen.
“Saudi Arabia, as the base and birthplace of Takfiri ideologies and main financial and logistical supporter of terrorism in the region, has long been seeking to avoid the reality and cover up its crimes through blame game and distortion of truth,” Khatibzadeh said.
“Successive defeats on the ground and in politics in Yemen have forced Saudi Arabia to rave at Iran,” he said, adding that Riyadh is accusing Iran in order not to shoulder responsibility for its war crimes against Yemeni women and children.
King Salman, the 85-year-old monarch who ascended the throne of his oil-rich kingdom in 2015 but has left the day-to-day running of affairs to his 35-year-old son, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, made his General Assembly speech debut. He used it to assail Iran.
Hunched, bespectacled and grasping the speech text with both hands at an ornate desk, the king extolled Saudi Arabia’s donations to “humanitarian causes”, which he said had totaled more than $86 billion to 81 countries over the past three decades.
Salman accused Iran of “expansionism” and called for a “comprehensive solution to contain” Iran.
The Saudi-led coalition invaded Yemen in 2015. Since then, over 100,000 people have been killed, according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED).