By Theodore Shoebat
Saudi Arabia is backing up Trump’s decision to pull out of the Iran deal. As we read in one report from MEMRI:
The Saudi government daily Al-Riyadh’s May 9, 2018 editorial, titled “Washington Has Had Its Say,” stated: “The announcement by the American president Donald Trump of his country’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal is an important historic event on the international level. Following this announcement, the agreement… became in effect a thing of the past, with the most important country’s and largest superpower’s withdrawal from it.
“Trump’s statements will go down in history. They have many assertive messages to Iran and its supporters, and even to the U.S.’s European allies, [clarifying that] the U.S. will in no way agree to ambiguous positions and will act forcefully to prevent the Iranian regime from taking advantage of this agreement in order to realize its dream of obtaining nuclear weapons that will threaten the region and the entire world…
“Washington has had its say, and this means the reinstatement of the sanctions connected to Iran’s nuclear program, that were lifted by the previous U.S. president, Barack Obama, following the international community’s catastrophic mistake of trusting the regime of the ayatollahs.
“Although Iran and other elements that benefit from the P5+1 group’s mistake [i.e. the JCPOA] are downplaying the value of Trump’s announcement, this battle is over, and if Iran is really interested in returning to the international community, it must change its behavior and give up its aggressive path, which is manifested in striving to obtain weapons of mass destruction…”
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A short time after President Trump’s announcement, Saudi Arabia released an official announcement welcoming it, that stated: “Saudi Arabia supports and welcomes the steps announced by President Donald Trump regarding the U.S.’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal, and supports the announcement of the reinstatement of the economic sanctions on Iran, that had been lifted in accordance with the nuclear agreement. Saudi Arabia’s previous support for the nuclear agreement was based on full belief in the need to act in any way possible to limit the spread of weapons of mass destruction in the Middle East and in the world. But Iran took advantage of the economic benefit [it gained] from the lifting of the sanctions in order to continue its activity to destabilize the region, particularly by developing ballistic missiles and by supporting terror organizations in the region – including Hizbullah [in Lebanon] and the Houthi militias [in Yemen] that use capabilities provided by Iran to harm the citizens of Saudi Arabia and Yemen and to repeatedly block international seaways, thus grossly violating [UN] Security Council resolutions…
“Saudi Arabia hopes that the international community will take a firm and uniform stand vis-à-vis Iran and its hostile activities, which destabilize the region; vis-à-vis its support for terror organizations, particularly Hizbullah and the Houthi militia; and vis-à-vis its support for the regime of [Syrian President Bashar Al-]Assad, that has committed the most loathsome crimes against its own people, leading to the deaths of over half a million civilians, including by means of chemical weapons.
“Based on all this, Saudi Arabia stresses that it will continue to act together with its partners in the U.S. and the international community to achieve the longed-for goals, as declared by the U.S. president. The Iranian policy’s threat to the peace and security of the world must be tackled with a comprehensive outlook that is not limited to its nuclear program, but includes all its aggressive activity, particularly its interference in the affairs of the countries in the region and its support for terrorism. [This must be dealt with in a way that] will completely prevent Iran from being able to possess weapons of mass destruction.