Speaker welcomes Saudi desire for talks
October 01, 2019 - Iran’s Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani said on Tuesday he welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s willingness to resolve issues with Iran through talks.
The Saudi crown prince had said he preferred a political resolution rather than a military one to the issues with Iran in an interview with the CBS program “60 Minutes” broadcast on Sunday.
“We welcome Mohammed bin Salman being quoted as saying he wants to resolve issues through talks with Tehran,” Al Jazeera quoted Larijani as saying.
Any dialogue between Iran and Saudi Arabia could help solve many security and political issues in the region, Larijani added.
Saudi Arabia’s crown prince warned in an interview broadcast on Sunday that war with Iran would devastate the global economy and he prefers a non-military solution to tensions with his regional rival.
Saudi Arabia and the US blame Iran for an attack on two Saudi oil facilities on Sept. 14, a charge the Islamic Republic denies.
“If the world does not take a strong and firm action to deter Iran, we will see further escalations that will threaten world interests," Salman added.
The prince said a war between Saudi Arabia and Iran would be catastrophic for the world economy.
“The region represents about 30 percent of the world’s energy supplies, about 20 percent of global trade passages, about four percent of the world GDP. Imagine all of these three things stop,” he said.
“This means a total collapse of the global economy, and not just Saudi Arabia or the Middle East countries.”
Iran’s government spokesman Ali Rabiei said on Monday that Saudi Arabia had contacted President Hassan Rouhani through mediating countries.
Rabiei made the remarks during his weekly press briefing in Tehran on Monday, when he was asked about reports denoting that the Saudi leadership has been sending messages to Iran's chief executive, Press TV reported.
“Yes, this is true that they have sent messages to Mr. Rouhani through a head of state,” Rabiei noted, adding, “We must see signs of it [Saudi’s goodwill] without any ambiguity, and the first sign of it is to stop the aggression against Yemen and put an end to the massacre of Yemenis.”
The Iranian official said Yemen’s retaliatory attacks on Saudi Arabia proved the “military might” of Yemeni forces, adding that Riyadh had earlier denied their power to do this, but Yemen’s attacks on Saudi oil giant Aramco's refining facilities proved their might.
Reiterating that Iran would welcome a “genuine” change in Saudis’ behavior, Rabiei noted, “If they genuinely sought to change their behavior, we would welcome that.”
Asked about the prospect of Tehran-Riyadh ties, Rabiei said, “Iran’s message was clear from the very beginning; we were after an end to the Saudi aggression and massacre in Yemen and considered cease-fire the solution to the conflict.”
Iran still endorses the cease-fire as the solution to the Yemeni conflict and will do its utmost to contribute to this end, he stressed.