Iran Says Saudi Crown Prince Is 'Weak-minded' After He Calls Khamenei 'The Mideast's Hitler'
Tehran suggests the Saudi crown prince may end up like 'famous regional dictators'
Iran said on Thursday that Saudi Arabia's crown prince was discredited internationally by his "immature" behavior, state television reported, after Mohammed bin Salman called Iran's Supreme Leader "the new Hitler of the Middle East."
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"No one in the world and in the international arena gives credit to him because of his immature and weak-minded behavior and remarks," Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying.
"Now that he has decided to follow the path of famous regional dictators ... he should think about their fate as well."
Escalating the war of words between the Middle East rivals, Salman described Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as the region's "new Hitler" in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday.
Salman, who is also defense minister in the U.S.-allied kingdom, suggested the Islamic Republic’s alleged expansion under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei needed to be confronted.
“But we learned from Europe that appeasement doesn’t work. We don’t want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East,” the paper quoted him as saying.
The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shi‘ite Iran back rival sides in wars and political crises throughout the region.