TEHRAN – Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri said in a televised program on Monday night that Tehran-Riyadh relations would not get any worse than that of today, urging the other side to do away with its anti-Iran stance.

Jahangiri’s comments came after Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir delivered a harsh speech against Iran in the recent Munich Security Conference in Germany, where he labeled Iran “the single main sponsor of terrorism in the world”.

The vice president said Iran is willing to have friendly relations with its neighbors, adding, “Unfortunately, our relations with the Persian Gulf countries have become somewhat cold and worrying.”

He added that this was not how Iran had planned its relations with neighboring countries to be.

As Tehran and Riyadh support opposing sides in the Syria, tensions have built up between the two countries in recent years.

Iran has been supporting the Syrian government, while the Saudis have provided arms and money for the militants fighting against the government of Bashar al-Assad.

Bahrain, which is another area of contention between the two neighbors, has seen Saudi troops helping the government put down a popular uprising, with Iran supporting the pro-democracy movement in the tiny Arab nation.

Iran has also been a vocal critic of Saudi military attack against Yemen. Riyadh has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in a bid to reinstall the country’s former president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi, a Saudi ally who had resigned and fled to Saudi Arabia when the Houthi Ansarullah movement became powerful.

Jahangiri slammed Saudi officials’ anti-Iran rhetoric made by some “rookie groups” who have come to power in the Arab kingdom.

“Saudi Arabia and other regional countries are not in a position to seek tension with Iran,” he said, adding that the Islamic Republic is not interested in tensions with neighboring countries either.

In a bid to revive ties with neighboring Arab states, President Hassan Rouhani recently made a visit to Oman and Kuwait on February 15. 

“The trip shows our determination to establish relations with our southern neighbors and the necessity of interaction and dialogue in the current international system,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi said.

MH/PA