Kingdom could turn page ‘if Iran regime changes policies’

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries could turn a page and build strong relations with Iran if it respects them and stops “meddling” in their affairs, Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said Wednesday.
“If Iran changes its way and its policies, nothing would prevent turning a page and building the best relationship based on good neighborliness, with no meddling in the affairs of others,” he told reporters in Riyadh.
“There is no need for mediation” in such a case, said Al-Jubeir. Riyadh severed all links with Tehran in January after crowds attacked the Kingdom’s diplomatic missions in Iran.
Al-Jubeir said relations with Tehran had deteriorated “due to the sectarian policies” followed by Iran and “its support for terrorism and implanting of terrorist cells in the countries of the region.”
“Iran is a neighboring Muslim country that has a great civilization and a friendly people, but the policies that followed the revolution by Khomeini have been aggressive,” he said.
Al-Jubeir was speaking after a meeting for Gulf foreign ministers and their counterparts from Jordan and Morocco.
Al-Jubeir said Lebanon is now run by Hezbollah. “What is disturbing in the Lebanon question is that a militia that is classified as terrorist controls decision-making in Lebanon,” he said.
Al-Jubeir said a recent decision by a Lebanese court to release Michel Samaha, a Syria-linked ex-minister who is facing charges of having planned “terrorist” acts “does not positively indicate that the army is independent of Hezbollah’s influence.”
Al-Jubeir said the GCC ministers had decided to look into measures that “would prevent Hezbollah from benefitting from GCC states.”
Saudi Arabia is committed to a political solution to Yemen’s war under UN-backed peace efforts and sees as positive a call by a Houthi official for Iran to stay out of Yemen, Al-Jubeir said.
He reiterated that Syrian President Bashar Assad could choose to leave power either through a political process “or the Syrian people will continue to fight until militarily they oust him.”