Zarif called Trump’s remarks about the importance of US support for Saudi Arabia “humiliating” in a Thursday Twitter post and said that national security cannot be outsourced. “We again extend our hand to our neighbors: let's build a ‘strong region’, and stop this conceit,” Zarif tweeted.
READ MORE: Iran's Zarif Shrugs Off Netanyahu's Secret Nuke Storage Claims as 'Smokescreen'
President Trump repeatedly humiliates the Saudis by saying they can't last 2 weeks without his support. This is the recompense for the delusion that one's security can be outsourced.
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) 4 октября 2018 г.
We again extend our hand to our neighbors: let's build a "strong region", and stop this conceit. pic.twitter.com/pKEreBBbNN
Zarif’s comment came after the US president said during a rally in Southaven, Mississippi, that Saudi Arabia’s King Salman wouldn’t last “for two weeks” without the US and that the kingdom needs to shell out more for US protection.
“We protect Saudi Arabia … And I love the king, King Salman. But I said, ‘King, we’re protecting you. You might not be there for two weeks without us; you have to pay for your military,’” Trump said to his supporters, reported Reuters. The US president didn’t specify when exactly he had said this to the Saudi king.
“I said, king, you have got trillions of dollars. Without us, who knows what’s going to happen? […] With us they are totally safe. But we don’t get what we should be getting,” he added, cited by PressTV.
"We defend many of these nations for nothing, and then they take advantage of us by giving us high oil prices. Not good. We want them to stop raising prices; we want them to start lowering prices," Trump said.
