Saudi Arabia’s crown prince likens Iran’s supreme leader to Hitler

Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince has compared the supreme leader of Iran to Adolf Hitler and said that his country would acquire a nuclear bomb "as soon as possible" if Iran developed nuclear weapons.

The comments by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ratcheted up the rhetoric in the increasingly volatile rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, which has fuelled sectarianism and war across the Middle East.

His statements were in an excerpt, released on Thursday, of a prerecorded interview with 60 Minutes, the CBS News programme in the US. Iran's foreign ministry responded by calling the prince a delusional and devious novice who "has no idea of politics".

Saudi Arabia, a Sunni monarchy, blames Iran for funding militias to undermine Arab states, while Shia Iran accuses Saudi Arabia of backing Sunni extremist groups. Their struggle for regional dominance has put the two nations on opposite sides of conflicts in Yemen, Syria and Iraq that have killed hundreds of thousands of people and displaced millions.

Russia says it will expel British diplomats in spy crisis retaliation

---

Slovak PM steps down amid protests in wake of murder of journalist

---

Myanmar willing to take fewer than 400 of 8,000 Rohingya listed

---

US hits Russia with sanctions over election meddling

---

Extended trip

Crown Prince Mohammed, who jailed hundreds of the kingdom's most potent figures while swiftly consolidating his own power, is scheduled to arrive in the United States on Monday for an extended trip. His plans include meeting with President Donald Trump in the White House and with business, entertainment and technology leaders in a number of US cities.

One of his primary goals is to persuade Americans to invest in his reform plans, which aim to diversify the Saudi economy away from oil, increase the kingdom’s military self-sufficiency and raise its citizens’ quality of life.

His comments on Iran also suggested that he would seek further US co-operation in combating Iranian influence in the Middle East, a goal he shares with the Trump administration.

In the interview, Crown Prince Mohammed (32) played down Iran’s power, saying its army was not well ranked in the Muslim world and that Saudi Arabia had a larger economy. “Iran is far from being equal to Saudi Arabia,” he said, speaking through a translator.

Previous comments

When asked about his previous comments comparing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, to Hitler, he replied, "Absolutely."

“He wants to create his own project in the Middle East very much like Hitler, who wanted to expand at the time,” the crown prince said. “Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realise how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don’t want to see the same events happening in the Middle East.”

He was then asked whether Saudi Arabia sought nuclear weapons to counter Iran. “Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible,” he said.

Limits

Saudi officials grew furious with the Obama administration for its push with other world powers to reach an agreement placing limits on Iran’s nuclear capabilities. Like Israeli leaders and many Republicans in the United States, they claimed that the agreement would merely delay Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons, while ignoring Iran’s other activities, such as supporting Shia militias.

Iran has insisted that its nuclear programme was peaceful and intended to produce only energy and research, not weapons.

Saudi Arabia has not been known to seek nuclear weapons, but its cabinet this week approved a policy for a new atomic energy programme. The new policy stated that “all nuclear activities will be restricted to peaceful purposes, within the framework defined by international legislations, treaties and conventions”, according to a statement released by the government Wednesday.

It remained unclear when work on the new programme would begin.

– New York Times