Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said Tehran is willing to cooperate with Saudi Arabia in order to build a strong Middle East after US President Donald Trump stated the Saudi king wouldn’t stay in power for two weeks without US support.
Zarif called Trump’s remarks about the importance of US support for Saudi Arabia “humiliating” in a Thursday Twitter post and said that national security cannot be outsourced.
“President Trump repeatedly humiliates the Saudis by saying they can’t last 2 weeks without his support. This is the recompense for the delusion that one’s security can be outsourced,” Zarif tweeted.
“We again extend our hand to our neighbors: let’s build a ‘strong region’, and stop this conceit,” Zarif said further in his tweet.
Zarif’s comment came after the US president said during a rally in Southaven, Mississippi, that Saudi Arabia’s King Salman wouldn’t last “for two weeks” without the US and that the kingdom needs to shell out more for US protection.
“We protect Saudi Arabia … And I love the king, King Salman. But I said, ‘King, we’re protecting you. You might not be there for two weeks without us; you have to pay for your military,’” Trump said to his supporters, reported Reuters. The US president didn’t specify when exactly he had said this to the Saudi king.
Source: Agencies
