TEHRAN — Iran’s Foreign Ministry has categorically rejected Saudi King Salman’s charges against the Islamic Republic as unfounded, saying Riyadh rulers have become “delirious” due to repeated failures in Yemen.

“As the base and birthplace of the ideologies of Takifiri terrorist groups and the main financial and logistical supporter of terrorism in the region, Saudi Arabia has, for years, been pursuing a blame-game policy and seeking to distort realities in order to escape the realities and not to be held accountable for its crimes,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said in a statement on Thursday.

“The Saudi regime’s support for, and alignment with the U.S. in its failed policy of ‘maximum pressure’ on Iran, its attempts to expand relations with the usurper Zionist regime of Israel, and paying billions of dollars of Saudi people’s money in ransom have not only failed to produce any results for Saudi Arabia, but also turned it into a humiliated creature among Arab countries,” he said.

On Wednesday, King Salman of Saudi Arabia used his UN General Assembly speech to attack Iran for what he called “the forces of extremism and chaos” in West Asia.

Khatibzadeh said Riyadh has become “delirious” due to back-to-back defeats it has suffered both on the ground and on the political front in Yemen

Riyadh wants to shirk responsibility for the war crimes it has committed against Yemeni women and children, Khatibzadeh remarked.

The war on Yemen by Saudi Arabia and its allies was launched in March 2015. The goal of the war was to return to power the Riyadh-backed former regime of Abdrabbu Mansour Hadi and defeat the Houthi Ansarullah movement that took control after the resignation of the previous government.

MH/PA