The director general for political and international security affairs at Iran's Foreign Ministry, Gholamhossein Dehghani, made the remarks in an address to the forty-fourth session of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) hosted by the capital of Cte d'Ivoire, Abidjan, on 10 and 11 July 2017.
Dehghani noted certain reports by European countries acknowledging that the main culprit of the spread of takfiri ideologies and violent extremism is Saudi Arabia, adding in the past 50 years, the Saudi regime has directly sponsored the generation and re-generation of Takfirism by spending $87 billion on the project.
This is while major countries are reluctant to leak further information and publish more of such reports due to their highly beneficial military contracts with Saudi Arabia, he added.
Dehghani maintained that while Saudi Arabia is the main sponsor of takfiri ideologies, it is quite absurd to allege Iran of sponsoring terrorism; the Riyadh statement is in complete conflict with the spirit and principles of the OIC Charter, he stressed.
Any OIC support to Saudi rulers will only bolster Saudis misplaced self-confidence in further advancing their extremist, violent, terror-nurturing and sectarian policies among Muslin countries, Dehghani said, warning that this trend will eventually undermine and weaken Muslim unity.
Dehghani further stressed that the credibility and efficiency of the OIC have come under serious harm in recent years due to Saudi Arabias unilateral measures.
He maintained that the OIC's credibility needs to be rebuilt, adding for this, all OIC member states first need to seriously comply with the regulations governing interactions in international institutions; second, they need to avoid non-democratic practices, such as bulk approval of documents and taking decisions without complying with legal and democratic procedures; and third, they need to avoid resorting to illegal methods of silencing others.
Dehghani further voiced Irans readiness to work with Islamic countries to promote moderation, curb unbridled extremism, and to end clashes and conflicts in OIC member states.
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