WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Iran was not invited to participate in the Arab Islamic American Summit in Riyadh due to Tehran's destabilizing activities in the Middle East, US State Secretary Rex Tillerson said during a press briefing.
"Iran continues its hegemonic activities in this region in Yemen, in Iraq, in Syria, and its support of Hizballah in Lebanon. And until Iran shows its willingness to be a good neighbor, I think is the words that were used by many, that shows its willingness to cease its enablement of the kind of destabilizing activities that go on, their payment of foreign fighters, their payment of militias to go into other countries and destabilize those countries, then Iran will not have a place around this table that was set today," the statement distributed by the White House on Sunday quoted Tillerson as saying.
The US secretary of state expressed hope that under Iranian President Hassah Rouhani, recently reelected for the second term, the Mideast country will "find their way back to a place that Iran historically enjoyed: good relations with its neighbors."
On Sunday, US President Donald Trump speaking at the summit in the Saudi capital of Riyadh alleged Iran for fueling "the fires of sectarian conflict and terror."
Trump's stance on Iran differs from the position of his predecessor Barack Obama who had concluded the landmark Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) of 2015 aimed at suspending the development of nuclear weapons by Iran.
The Arab Islamic American Summit, which took place on May 20-21, is one of the key events in the relations between the United States and the countries of the Middle East as it marks the first Trump's foreign trip as the US president during which a number of significant military contracts have been concluded between Washington and Riyadh.
