Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to the United States Adel al-Jubeir gave an interview to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer yesterday to talk Iran, Yemen, and even the plot by an Iranian agent to kill him at an upscale Washington, D.C. restaurant in 2011.
The eloquent and soft-spoken al-Jubeir, who has served as Saudi ambassador to the United States since January 2007, said that Saudi Arabia had received assurances from the Obama administration regarding a potential deal with Iran over that country’s nuclear program. Blitzer asked if Saudi Arabia liked the deal.
“I can’t say that we like it because we don’t know the details, but the assurances we have received from the Obama Administration have been positive – but we want to see the details” of the deal with Iran, al-Jubeir said.
His Excellency Adel al-Jubeir.
There are two things over which Saudi Arabia does not negotiate, “our faith, and our security,” the Ambassador told the CNN host in response to a question about whether Saudi Arabia would pursue nuclear weapons in the event that Iran acquires that capability.
Al-Jubeir’s predecessor, former Saudi Ambassador to the United States Prince Turki al-Faisal, said earlier this month that Saudi Arabia would likely pursue nuclear weapons if Iran was successful in obtaining them.
Blitzer then asked about the 2011 plot to kill al-Jubeir at an upscale restaurant in Washington, D.C. by an Iranian agent, Mansour Arbabsiar, and whether Saudi Arabia’s counterbalancing of Iran in the region was “personal” for the Ambassador because of it.
“No, this is not about me,” al-Jubeir said. “This is about the security of my nation, my people, and the region. This is about making sure that bad guys do not capture a country as strategically important as Yemen, from which they can launch operations that can harm all of us – whether we are in Saudi Arabia or the United States.”
Blitzer pressed al-Jubeir about the plot to assassinate him.
“I would not like to comment on something that involves me personally,” the Ambassador said, “but I think the evidence is compelling and overwhelming…but like you said this is not about a person, this is about the welfare of a nation.”
[Click here for the video interview on CNN.com]
