World

Saudi king urges 'firm stance' against Iran

Firm stance must guarantee Iranian regime is prevented from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, says King Salman

AFP November 12, 2020

US President Donald Trump cultivated close ties with Saudi leaders who now worry they will find a less sympathetic ear in Washington after President-elect Joe Biden takes over in January. PHOTO: AFP/File

RIYADH:

Saudi Arabia's King Salman urged world powers Thursday to take a "firm stance" against its arch-rival Iran, as expectations mount that US President-elect Joe Biden will seek to revive a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.

Riyadh appears wary of Biden's pledge to revisit the nuclear pact between major powers and Iran, a landmark deal that was negotiated when he served as vice president under Barack Obama.

The king's remarks come a day after the UN nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, warned that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium has risen to more than 12 times the limit permitted under the 2015 deal since President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it.

"The kingdom calls on the international community to take a firm stance towards the Iranian regime," the king said in his annual address to the Shura Council, the top government advisory body.

"This firm stance must guarantee that the Iranian regime is prevented from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, the development of its ballistic missile programme and threatening peace and security," he added in a speech delivered in the early hours.

The king did not directly address Biden in his speech.

Trump quit the deal in 2018, launching a "maximum pressure" campaign against Iran -- including crippling unilateral sanctions -- that was welcomed by the kingdom.

Saudi Arabia and Iran are locked in a decades-old tussle for supremacy in the Middle East, and are on opposing sides in regional conflicts from Syria to Yemen.

The International Atomic Energy Agency warned on Wednesday that Iran's explanations over the presence of nuclear material at an undeclared site in the country were "not credible."

While the IAEA has not identified the site in question, diplomatic sources have indicated to AFP that it is in the Turquzabad district of Tehran, previously identified by Israel as an alleged site of secret nuclear activity.