Pressure Iran to avoid war

New York : Saudi Arabia’s crown prince has called on the international community to squeeze Iran economically and politically to avoid a direct military confrontation in the region.

Sanctions “will create more pressure on the regime,” Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman told The Wall Street Journal this week.

“We have to succeed so as to avoid military conflict,” said the Crown Prince. “If we don’t succeed in what we are trying to do, we will likely have war with Iran in 10-15 years.”

Criticising Qatar for its support of the Muslim Brotherhood, he said: “The Muslim Brotherhood is an incubator for terrorists. We have to get rid of extremism. Without extremism no one can become a terrorist.”

Referring to Yemen, the Crown Prince said failure to intervene in Yemen would have caused a bigger crisis. 

“If we didn’t act in 2015 we would have had Yemen divided in half between the Houthis and al Qaeda,” he said.

The Crown Prince dismissed the recent missile attacks by the Houthi militia as a sign of weakness. “They want to do whatever they can do before they collapse,” he said.

The Crown Prince is in the U.S. partly aimed at projecting the country as an investment destination.

The Crown Prince who has taken the initiative to liberalize the the society said more change will follow in Saudi Arabia. 

“We can’t drag people to live in Saudi Arabia in an environment that is not competitive,” said the Crown Prince. “The environment in Saudi Arabia is pushing even Saudis outside Saudi Arabia. That is one reason we want social reforms.”