Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister has warned Iran that its regional neighbors have “significant” capabilities to counter Tehran’s aggression.
Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud has warned Iran that its tolerance for attacks on the country and its neighboring Gulf states is limited, and called on Iran to immediately “recalculate” its strategy.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states have “very significant capabilities and capabilities” that they can leverage if they “choose to do so,” the foreign minister said at a press conference early Thursday, warning that despite Iranian diplomats’ denials, Iran had carefully planned a strategy to attack its regional neighbors.
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“The level of precision on some of this targeting, which we can see not only in the Kingdom but also in neighboring countries, shows that this was pre-planned, pre-planned, pre-organized and well thought out,” Prince Faisal said.
“I’m not going to explain what will or won’t trigger defensive action by the (Saudi) Kingdom, because I don’t think that’s a wise approach to send a signal to the Iranians,” the foreign minister continued.
“But I think it’s important for the Iranian people to understand that not only the Saudis, but also the partner countries and other countries that were attacked, have very important capabilities and capabilities that they can deliver if they choose to do so,” he said.
“The patience shown is not unlimited. Is the time given to them (Iranians) one day, two days or a week? I’m not going to telegraph that,” he added.
“We hope that they will understand the message of today’s meeting and will soon recalculate and stop attacking their neighbors. But I doubt whether they have such wisdom.”
Prince Faisal’s warning came after a meeting earlier in the day in the Saudi capital of foreign ministers from Arab-Islamic countries to discuss the growing war in the region, which saw Iranian attacks on Gulf energy facilities, including the Ras Laffan gas facility in Qatar and the Habshan gas facility in the United Arab Emirates, where significant damage was reported on Wednesday.
Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed “strong condemnation and condemnation of Iran’s blatant attack” targeting Ras Laffan Industrial City, the world’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) production facility, located 80 kilometers (50 miles) northeast of Qatar’s capital Doha and producing about 20 percent of the world’s LNG supplies.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) had earlier warned that oil and gas facilities in Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE would face retaliation over Israel’s attack on Iran’s South Pars gas field.
Iranian state media reported that facilities associated with the country’s giant offshore South Pars oil field, located off the coast of Bushehr province in southern Iran, were attacked.
The Saudi Ministry of Defense also announced on Wednesday that its air defense forces intercepted four Iranian ballistic missiles targeting Riyadh and two ballistic missiles fired into the country’s eastern region.
UAE air defense forces responded to 13 ballistic missiles and 27 unmanned aerial vehicles, the country’s defense ministry said, but the operation was suspended as authorities responded to an incident at a gas facility in Habshan caused by falling debris after a successful missile interception.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister also told a press conference on Thursday that the war will end someday, but restoring relations with Iran will take longer because trust has been “completely shattered” by Iran’s tactics of targeting its neighbors.
“We know for a fact that Iran has been building this strategy over the past 10 years,” Prince Faisal said.
“This is not an improvised reaction by Iran to a changing situation. This is part of their war plan: targeting their neighbors and using that to put pressure on the international community,” he said.
“So even when this war is ultimately over, it’s going to take a long time to rebuild that trust. And I have to say, if Iran doesn’t stop…I don’t think there’s much that can immediately rebuild that trust,” he added.
