A senior Saudi official dismissed accusations Tuesday (December 1) by Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif suggesting that the kingdom played a role in the assassination of a prominent Iranian nuclear scientist last week.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was assassinated on Friday in an attack near Tehran, attributed by the Islamic Republic of Iran to Israel, its sworn enemy.
Israel has not officially reacted to these accusations.
Read also: Touched to the heart, Iran weighs its response after the assassination of a nuclear program official
On Monday, Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke of a “
conspiracy
”
on his Instagram account
, mentioning a secret meeting in Saudi Arabia between Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
This meeting took place November 22, according to Israeli sources but Riyadh denied it.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Saudi Arabia at the time.
"
Pompeo's hasty visits to the region, a tripartite meeting in Saudi Arabia and Netanyahu's statements all illustrate this conspiracy, which unfortunately revealed itself in a cowardly terrorist act on Friday that resulted in the martyrdom of one of the prestigious officials of the country
”, wrote the Iranian minister.
“
Zarif wants at all costs to blame the kingdom for anything negative that happens in Iran.
Will he also blame us for the next earthquakes or floods?
Saudi Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir wrote on Twitter.
"
It is not Saudi Arabia's policy to launch into assassinations (...)
", he said.
Read also: Iran: Hollywood scenarios of the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh
Unlike other Arab Gulf monarchies, the Saudi kingdom has not officially condemned the assassination of the Iranian scientist.
Saudi Arabia, a great ally of the United States, and Iran, Washington's enemy, have very tense relations.
Riyadh supports the pressure of Donald Trump's administration on Iran, accused despite his denials of seeking to acquire nuclear weapons and subject to US sanctions.
The rivalry between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran dates back to 1979, when the Iranian Islamic revolution triumphed.
The two countries, whose diplomatic relations have been broken off since 2016, have fought several proxy wars, whether in Lebanon, Yemen, Iraq or Syria.