Dubai: In an interview with the New York times published on Thursday, the Saudi Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman referred to Supreme leader of Iran as the new ‘Hitler’ of Middle East.
The Crown prince of Saudi Arabia, which is a US ally, has said that the aggressiveness and expansion under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has to be confronted.
Saudi Arabia has been on war front with the help of US which helped in providing intelligence information and refuelling to its war planes. The war has been going on since two and half years in Yemen to defeat Iran backed Houthi rebels. The prince has said that 85% of territory is under control, but the main population centres are still occupied by the Houthi rebels.Nearly 10,000 people have died in this conflict.
Added to this, relations became more strained when Lebanese Prime minister Saad Hariri resigned in a television broadcast from Riyadh, citing the influence of Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and risks to his life.
This move was seen by Hezbollah as an act of war engineered by Saudi authorities. Saudi authorities have denied this allegation.
On November 4, the Hezbollah group has launched ballistic missile on Riyadh’s main airport. This was seen as an act of war by Tehran.
In may, the Crown Prince has said that the Kingdom would make sure any future struggle between the two countries “is waged in Iran”.
Reacting to the statement of the Prince, Khamenei has called the House of Saud as an “accursed tree”, and accused the kingdom of spreading terrorism. Saudi Arabia denies this accusation.