Saudi Arabia Attacks Iranian Regime as Retarded, Terrorist

Saudi Arabian newspapers fiercely attacked the Iranian leadership over the weekend, calling it intellectually retarded and a symbol of terrorism.

“Eleven years have passed since the Iranian regime came to power led by (the Ayatollah Ruhollah) Khomeini, and the regime is still as bloody as when it first started. . . . This regime has become a symbol of intellectual retardation and terrorism,” the paper Al Jazira said.

“The Iranian regime has cut off all links with the times it is living in, especially as far as its internal situation is concerned,” the paper said in an editorial quoted by the Saudi Press Agency.

The newspaper Al Yom said: “While it was thought that the wave of terrorism exported by Iran would die down with Khomeini’s death . . . we see that it has increased in the world because Iran considers using terrorism in its foreign policy legal.”

Riyadh broke diplomatic ties with Tehran in 1988, accusing it of hostile policies. During the 1987 Muslim pilgrimage, 402 people, including 275 Iranians, were killed in clashes between anti-Western demonstrators and Saudi security forces in Mecca.

Saudi Arabia last year publicly beheaded 16 Kuwaiti Shiite Muslims, 10 of Iranian origin. They were accused of planting bombs in Mecca during the 1989 pilgrimage.

There have been a series of attacks on Saudi diplomats in recent years, blamed in many cases on Islamic fundamentalists.