Saudi FM Adel Al-Jubeir: The International Community Must Stand Firmly against Iran; Loans, Money Transfers, Normalization Only Encourage Iranian Hostility

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir said in a September 22, 2019 interview on Al-Arabiya Network (Saudi Arabia) that the international community's procrastination and lack of determination regarding Iran will only encourage Iran to carry out further acts of sabotage in the region. He said that the attempts to loan money to Iran and to create a system of financial transfers that will serve as an alternative to the SWIFT system will also make Iran more stubborn in its hostile positions. Addressing Saudi Arabia's allies, Al-Jubeir said that normalizing relations with Iran will not be successful because Iran has proven that it responds to offers of peace and friendship with killing and destruction. In addition, he urged the international community to adopt a firm stance against Iran, saying that avoiding a firm stance only leads to more Iranian aggression like was manifest in the September 14 attack on the Abqaiq and Khurais oil fields.

Adel Al-Jubeir: The international community's procrastination and lack of determination with regard to Iran will encourage Iran to carry out additional acts of sabotage. I believe that the attempt to create a mechanism for [financial] transfers – parallel to SWIFT – will not serve Iran. Rather, it will encourage it to become more stubborn in its positions. Trying to provide loans to Iran will not help deter it. On the contrary, it will encourage Iran to adopt more negative and hostile positions. We are telling our friends that making contact with Iran and attempting to normalize relations with it will not succeed, because Iran has proven in the last 40 years that anyone who extends a hand in peace and friendship is met with a gun, killing, and destruction. If the international community does not adopt a firm stance in the face of Iran's acts of sabotage, then Iran will stay on its erroneous path, and the international community will pay the price. When a firm stance is avoided, it leads Iran to greater aggression. Look at what happened in the last two or three years. [Iran] started something, the reaction was weak, and so they did something worse, and then something even worse, and now we see what they have done in Abqaiq and Khurais.