Foreign Ministry slams Trump’s counter-terrorism claims

Tehran, May 29, IRNA – US President Donald Trump should elaborate on the contradiction between his claims on fighting terrorism and recent visit to Saudi Arabia as a terrorist safe haven and a source and promoter of violence, spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said on Monday. Trump’s recent visit to Riyadh did annul his counter terrorism claims, Bahram Qasemi said at his weekly press briefing. Qasemi, referring to Trump’s anti-Iranian stance adopted during his visit to Riyadh last week, said that how Iran can be a promoter of terrorism while it held the May 19 landmark elections on the same day and concurrent with the US President trip to the region. The US president travelled to a country (Saudi Arabia) which has a quite clear stance on terrorism and extremism and a country which faces charges in the US courts for its involvement in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said. In the 9/11 attacks in the US soil, for which al-Qaeda claimed responsibility, terrorists hijacked two US passenger planes and led them to crash into the World Trade Center's twin towers in New York. The attacks left at least 3,000 dead. According to a missing 28-page document that was revealed by the Wikileaks website, from a total of 19 people involved in the hijacking operation, 15 were Saudi nationals who were either studying or living in the United States while affiliated to al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups outside the United States. 1378/IRNA