While accusing the nation of fuelling ‘sectarian conflict and terror’, US President Donald Trump on Sunday called for international isolation of Iran.
Speaking at the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, Trump said:
“From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds, arms and trains terrorists, militias, and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region.”
He added that the government of Iran ‘speaks openly of mass murder, vowing the destruction of Israel, death to America’.
In his address to dozens of Muslim leaders from about 50 Muslim-majority countries, Trump said he brings ‘a message of friendship and hope and love’.
At the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh, US and Gulf Arab countries announced an agreement to coordinate efforts against the financing of terrorist groups.
Trump’s ‘isolation’ remark on Iran comes after the nation re-elected a moderate President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday.
Rouhani beat his main challenger, hardline judge Ebrahim Raisi, with more than 57 percent of the vote.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Sunday criticised Trump for sealing an arms deal and other investments worth hundreds of billions of dollars with Saudi Arabia, Tehran’s arch-rival in the Middle East.
Zarif's comments came after Trump urged Arab and Islamic leaders to unite and defeat Islamist extremists. Trump singled out Iran as a key sponsor of militant groups.
(With inputs from Reuters)
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