TEHRAN – Iran has canceled its decision to invite Saudi King Abdullah to the XVI Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement, which is scheduled to be held in Tehran from August 26 to 31. 

 

The decision has been made in response to the execution of a number of Iranian prisoners in Saudi Arabia for their alleged involvement in drug trafficking. 

 

“I was scheduled to hold a meeting with Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, in Jeddah this week to deliver the letter inviting Saudi King Abdullah to attend the Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement… to him, but the trip was not made,” Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said at a press briefing in the city of Qom on Wednesday. 

 

Amir-Abdollahian stated that there was a hidden agenda behind the move and that the Arab kingdom will pay the price for the ill-intentioned action. 

 

He added, “In recent weeks, 18 Iranian nationals imprisoned in Saudi Arabia were executed in groups of 8 and 10. 

 

“The first group were executed on the day of the negotiations between Iran and the 5+1 group (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) (on April 14) and the second group were executed on the (first) day of Iran’s negotiations with the 5+1 in Baghdad (on May 23). And we regard this as a political move.”  

 

“Over the past four decades, there has been no precedent of Iranian nationals being executed by Persian Gulf states. But today, we are witnessing that Iranian nationals had been imprisoned for five years without being granted consular access and were executed afterward,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry official added. 

 

He also said, “The Foreign Ministry will use its full legal and diplomatic potential to defend the rights of Iranian nationals in (foreign) countries.”  

Saudi FM lied about Iranian prisoners 

 

Elsewhere in his remarks, Amir-Abdollahian said that the Saudi Foreign Minister had lied to Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi about the Iranian prisoners. 

 

Al-Faisal, in a meeting with the Iranian foreign minister, had promised that the execution of the sentences would be put on hold so that negotiations could be held to discuss the issue, Amir-Abdollahian stated, adding, “Saud al-Faisal had lied to Dr. Salehi, and it later became clear that one group had been executed on the same day that he made the promise.” 

 

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MNA