Top Security Official Reveals S. Arabia's Support for Recent Protests in Iran

TEHRAN (defapress)- Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani lambasted the Saudi government for supporting the recent economic protests in the country, warning that the Saudis will receive a proper response in due time.

News ID: 67873

Date: 02 January 2018 - 15:10

Shamkhani underlined that the Saudi government has hired people to provoke the Iranians to participate in street protests, by using the social media and making different hash tags (#) against the government in Iran.

He made the remarks in an interview with the Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel on Monday.

"Based on studies, around 27% of the hash tags which have been made belong to the Saudis. Of course, they don’t belong to the Saudi people but the Saudi government, meaning the government of Mohammed bin Salman (the crown prince), launches these hash tags, and those who do this are the Israeli and westerners. The hash tags about the situation in Iran have been launched from the US, Britain and Saudi Arabia," he said.

"They have set up an organization and hired people outside Saudi Arabia to manage it because the Saudis don’t have such a power. Also, the Monafeqin (hypocrites as members of Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization - MKO, also known as the MEK, PMOI and NCRI - terrorist group are called in Iran) are also tools and infantry units of this organization," Shamkhani added.

"Certainly, the Saudis will receive a proper response from Iran and they will not understand the origin of this response. The ruling Saudi family is well aware of the danger of our response," he said.

Shamkhani underscored that Saudi Arabia cannot cover the damages it has sustained in the war against Yemen through interfering in Iran's internal affairs and provoking the vigilant Iranian nation.

In relevant remarks on Monday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at certain countries, specially Saudi Arabia, for their attempts to foment unrests in Iran, and promised the nation to accelerate efforts to resolve the economic problems.

Addressing chairpersons of the Iranian parliament's different commissions in Tehran, President Rouhani said that the enemies are angry with Iran's different successes and achievements, including the 2015 nuclear deal, effective fight against terrorist groups and expansion of ties with different world states.

"These have angered our enemy. Our unity was a bullet (arrow) in their eyes and our progress and success in the world of politics and against the US and the Zionist regime was not bearable to them. Our success in the region was not bearable to them," he said.

"They (the Saudis) have blatantly said that we will create problems in Tehran," Rouhani said.

He also vowed that his government will double efforts to resolve the country's economic problems, unemployment, air pollution and inflation.

His remarks alluded to Saudi Arabia’s then deputy crown prince who said in an interview last year that dialogue between his nation and Iran is impossible because of what he called as the latter’s “extremist ideology".

Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi Crown prince, who served as Riyadh’s defense minister and second in line to the throne at the time, claimed that his country is a primary target for Iran and charged that Iran sought to control of the Islamic world. “We won’t wait for the battle to be in Saudi Arabia,” Prince Mohammed said, “instead, we’ll work so that the battle is for them in Iran.”

The mainstream media in the West has given a wide coverage to the economic protests in a few Iranian towns in the past few days that each comprised of a few hundred protesters, but none has covered the massive pro-government rallies held in more than 1,200 cities and towns on Saturday.