In an interview with France24 on YouTube, Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister Adel Al-Jubeir discussed the ongoing Yemen peace talks in Geneva, the situation in Yemen, the newly created Islamic Military Alliance and also responded to a question about Donald Trump’s recent remarks regarding Muslims in America.
On the conflict in Yemen, Al-Jubeir said that he hoped the political factions in Yemen will be able to take advantage of the talks arranged by the United Nations, but noted that it was unfortunate to see the new cease fire violated three times.
The France24 interviewer asked if Iran would be willing to talk about Yemen, to which the foreign minister quickly responded, “Iran has nothing to do with Yemen.”
“Last time I checked, Iran has no border with Yemen. Iran had no role to play in Yemen for thousands of years. The situation in Yemen in between Yemenis and the situation in Yemen has a direct impact on Saudi Arabia and our allies in the Gulf,” Al-Jubeir said.
When asked about the 32-member Islamic Military Alliance recently announced to confront terrorism, the Ambassador called it “a way for us to mobilize the resources in the Islamic world in order to confront terrorism and extremism in the Islamic world and elsewhere.”
“Saudi Arabia was one of the first countries in the world to be struck by terrorism, and is one of the first countries in the world to robustly counter terrorism, terror financing, and violent extremism,” Al-Jubeir said.
The last question that was asked of he former Ambassador to the United States was on Donald Trump’s recent comments regarding Muslims.
“It is the political funny season in the United States… I believe the comments of Mr. Trump have been repudiated by American officials, both on the Democratic side as well as the Republican side. The have been repudiated on the opinion pages of American newspapers, and they have been repudiated by thought leaders and by political leaders and by religious leaders all across the world. So the message of the world Mr. Trump is very clear that such statements are not useful, and do not contribute to the building of bridges” among the different people of the world.
[Click here to watch the full interview on YouTube]
