TEHRAN - Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari said on Monday that Saudi Arabia has been using terrorism as a tool to achieve its objectives.

Saudi Arabia’s policy is providing the terrorist groups with “logistical, financial, spiritual and ideological” support, he said in a press conference.

However, he said the spread of terrorism will pose threats against Saudis and all other countries that support terrorism.

Saudi Arabia is using terrorism instrumentally and problems in the Middle East region is result of this “wrong policy”, he noted.

Jaberi Ansari also said that Iran and Saudi Arabia have held no official talks.

He also said that the Saudi government prevented the Iranians to participate in Hajj which will be held during the last month of the Islamic year, called "Dhul-Hijjah" (i.e. "The Month of Hajj").

On why Iran does not take the issue of Hajj to the Organization of the Islamic Cooperation, Jaberi Ansari said unfortunately the OIC has somehow become part of the Saudi foreign ministry and filing a complaint at the body will bear no result.

After several rounds of negotiations between Iranian and Saudis officials to hash out discrepancies over the hajj issue, Hajj and Pilgrimage Organization of Iran (HPOI) announced on May 29 that it won’t dispatch pilgrims this year to Hajj because of inconsistency at decision-making level by Saudis.

Iran and Saudi Arabia severed diplomatic ties as Riyadh’s diplomatic posts in Tehran and Mashhad were attacked in public mobs, following the Saudi execution of Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr in January.

U.S. annual report is ‘invalid’ and ‘politicized’

Elsewhere, he said that the U.S. report which put Iran on list of terrorism is “invalid” and “politicized”.

“The U.S. report is highly politicized and invalid, because the most evident realities are not included in it,” he noted.

The world is aware of the fact that Iran is the forerunner in the fight against terrorism and Takfiri movements, he added.

On Thursday, the U.S. State Department published annual report on global terrorist activity in which it claimed Iran has provided “a range of support, including financial, training, and equipment, to groups around the world.”

He said that the international community, regardless of political differences, must put the campaign against terrorism on its top agenda.

‘Direct link between success in war on terror and national unity’

Jaberi Ansari also said the main factor in campaign against terrorism in Iraq is “national unity”.

“There is a direct link between countering terrorism and national unity,” he said, adding the “more unity among the groups and factions the more success wil be achieved in war on terrorism.

NA/PA