THE GUARDIAN: Abbas Araghchi demands clarification on reports Saudi crown prince had urged Donald Trump to ‘hit the Iranians hard’
Some Gulf states hosting US forces may be covertly encouraging the slaughter of Iranians, Iran’s foreign minister has claimed in a thinly-veiled attack on Saudi Arabia.
Abbas Araghchi demanded clarification on reports that Mohammed bin Salman was in regular private conversations with Donald Trump urging the US president “to continue hitting the Iranians hard”.
Araghchi was responding to the second US media report in a week claiming the Saudi crown prince’s public opposition to the US attacks on Iran did not reflect his private position. “Stances should be promptly clarified,” he said in a post on X.
Iran’s foreign minister said hundreds of civilians had been killed in US-Israeli attacks, including more than 200 children.
Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s supreme national security council, issued an appeal directed at Muslim populations in the Gulf states urging them to ask themselves which side were they on in the war and why no Islamic country had stood by the Iranian people.
Defending Iran’s attacks on Gulf states, he said: “Are we being asked to stand idly by while US bases in your countries are being used to attack us? The confrontation today is between America and Israel on the one hand, and the Muslim Iran and the forces of resistance on the other.” » | Patrick Wintour | Monday, March 16, 2026
