Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman on Friday, advised Saudi Arabia’s, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to learn from the “assured fate of notorious dictators of the Middle East.”
Bahram Ghasemi described recent comments made by Salman as “Immature, inconsiderate and garish”.
A day earlier, in an interview with New York Times, the Crown Prince had branded the Supreme Leader and Commander-in-Chief of the Islamic Republic’s military forces, ayatollah Ali Khamenei as “a new Hitler…in the Middle East”.
Retaliating, Ghasemi labelled Bin Salman an “adventurist” who has even made Saudi Arabia’s traditional allies uncomfortable.
“Now that he has decided to copycat the notorious regional dictators---he should contemplate about their fate as well,” Ghasemi reiterated.
Referring to Khamenei, Bin Salman told Thomas L. Friedman, a New York Times op-ed columnist, “We learned from Europe that appeasement doesn’t work. We don’t want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East”.
The young Crown Prince who is Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Defense, as well, insisted that the Islamic Republic, under Khamenei’s leadership has been expanding its territory and, therefore, it should be confronted.
Currently, he is practically in charge of managing Saudi Arabia’s internal and foreign affairs.
Iran and Saudi Arabia are mainly populated by Shi’ites and Wahhabi Sunnis, respectively and have been confronting each other in most military and political crisis in the region.
War of words and proxy battles between the two significantly intensified in recent days following the resignation of Lebanon’s Prime Minister, Sa’ad Hariri.
Hariri declared his resignation while he was visiting Saudi Arabia and, in the meantime, lambasted the Islamic Republic and Lebanese Hezbollah for their “meddling” and “intervention in Arab countries internal affairs”.
Nevertheless, Tehran, as well as a number of prominent figures close to Hariri, blamed Riyadh for his resignation.
Saudi Arabia has categorically dismissed the allegation as unfounded.
Hariri, now back to Lebanon, has shelved his resignation, at least for the moment.
Tehran and Riyadh are currently at loggerheads over Iraq and Syria, accusing each other of meddling in the internal affairs of these countries.
Yemen is another bone of contention between the two regional powers. Riyadh has repeatedly accused Tehran of supporting Houthi rebels who control Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
Recently referring to downfall of IS, Khamenei gloated that the Islamic Republic is ready to assist wherever necessary to confront “blasphemy and arrogance” which usually are terms used by the Islamic Republic’s officials exclusively for U.S.