Saudi Regime Deserves Harsh Punishment

(FNA)- Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Seyed Hassan Firouzabadi said the Saudi dynasty deserves to receive a strong and harsh punishment for its crimes in Yemen and massacring the oppressed nation.

"The crimes committed by the Al-Saud against the Muslim, revolutionary and oppressed Yemeni people, who are demanding independence and Islamic populism, are very heavy and deserve harsh punishment," Maj. Gen. Firouzabadi said, addressing a meeting of Army, IRGC and Law Enforcement commanders as well as senior officials of the Defense Ministry and General Staff of the Armed Forces here in Tehran on Tuesday.

He further blasted the UN Security Council, specially the US and Britain, for violating the legal rights of the Yemeni people and issuing a resolution that even disrupted dispatch of aid to the wounded, displaced and refugees, and said the Saudi siege of the defenseless Yemenis and closing Yemen's airspace to Iranian aid cargo planes needs to receive a decisive response from Tehran.

"The arrogance of the Al-Saud who similar to the Zionists blocked supply of humanitarian aid on a defenseless cargo plane by means of warplanes needs to receive a proper response," the Iranian top commander said, adding that Riyadh is committing the wildest crimes in Bahrain and East Saudi Arabia.

The chief of staff further dismissed the US allegations that the Iranian warships intended to supply weapons to the Houthis and were forced to leave the region after receiving an alarm from an American fleet, saying, "Iran has never entered Yemen's territorial waters, but conducts routine patrolling in the international waters in the Gulf of Aden and the Sea of Oman, providing service and rescuing even foreign trade vessels, whose countries have appreciated the Iranian navy for rescuing their ships."

Saudi Arabia has strained relations with Iran in the last few years, but its tone has grown increasingly hostile after the new unelected king rose to power. Riyadh is showing an increasingly hostile approach to Tehran and its regional allies and friends and the attitude is now receiving growing response from Iran.

Only earlier today, Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani Saudi politicians are suffering from a too old mindset. His remarks came in reaction to the leaflets that were dropped in Yemen's central Taizz province last week in an effort to demonize Iran.

The Iranian top security official on Tuesday mocked at the Saudi war tactics, saying the move was done by the western states in the Cold War era to intimidate their citizens from communism and prevent any kind of freedom-seeking move under the same pretext.

"But this tactic is used fool-heartedly; handing out such campaign fliers does not correspond to the reality and facts on the ground and they would not intimidate the Yemeni people. Rather, they would say that our Iranian brothers have been the only ones who have rushed to our aid and Iran is the only country that has treated our wounded," Shamkhani said.

"Hence, this would not make the Yemeni people distance themselves" from Iran, he added.

Shamkhani further said the Saudis' "upside-down and wrong use of the already failed lesson of the West signifies the worn-out mindset and thinking of the Saudi politicians".

Yesterday, Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari called on Iranian officials to stop being conservative in their stances and remarks on Saudi Arabia and show tougher stance on the country for its growingly hostile approach towards Iran.

"Today, the traitor Saudi Arabia has exactly followed in the footsteps of Israel and the Zionists. At present, the opponents of the Islamic Revolution came to be better known every day and they can no more hide themselves behind the mask of hypocrisy," Jafari said, addressing a science festival in Tehran on Monday.

"Today, Saudi Arabia is indecently and shamelessly bombing and massacring a nation that is seeking to deny a hegemonic system," he added.

He said Islamic Republic officials showed a conservative attitude towards Saudi Arabia due to certain considerations in the past, "but now that these attacks have been waged, these considerations and reservations should be ruptured."

"Today the Al-Saud is exposed to collapse and demise," the IRGC top commander underscored.