Iran warns Saudi Arabia after prince's 'battle' comments
Iran will leave no part of Saudi Arabia untouched except holy Muslim sites if Riyadh "does anything ignorant", Iran's defence minister was quoted as saying after a Saudi prince threatened to move the "battle" to Iran.
"If the Saudis do anything ignorant, we will leave no area untouched except Mecca and Medina," Hossein Dehghan was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying.
Dehghan, speaking to Arabic-language al-Manar TV, was commenting on remarks by the Saudi deputy crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who said on Tuesday any struggle for influence between the Sunni Muslim kingdom and Shia Iran ought to take place "inside Iran, not in Saudi Arabia".
The Iranian foreign minister's spokesman, Bahram Qassemi, had earlier said that the Saudi comments "are clear evidence that the Saudis promote terrorism and pursue provocative and destructive policies regarding the region and Iran affairs”.
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