TEHRAN – The commander of Iran’s Passive Defense Organization says the threats against Iran by Saudi Arabia are finding new forms, suggesting that Iran has to work out new plans to counter security challenges by the Saudi kingdom.

Brigadier General Qolamreza Jalali said Saudis’ tensions with Iran are of ideological, security, economic, cyber, and military nature.

He said traces of Saudi interference in Iran’s domestic conflicts have been found.

For example, he said, during a recent unrest in the western city of Mahabad, 80 percent of online posts on social media meant to agitate the local people originated from Saudi Arabia.

Jalali also highlighted the U.S. role in the standoff between Iran and Saudi Arabia, saying, “They have bases in the Persian Gulf and the bilateral threat has turned Iran and Saudi Arabia into two hostile neighbors.”

Jalali quoted a military magazine which says Saudi Arabia has bought and stored as much weapons as China. “This turns regional rival Saudi Arabia to a proxy threat against which we must prepare new defensive models.”

MD/P