TEHRAN: Iran intends to pursue a policy of “good neighbourliness”, its foreign ministry said on Thursday, rejecting as “baseless” reports it is planning to attack Saudi Arabia to divert attention from protests at home.

Citing Saudi and US officials, The Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday that Riyadh had shared intelligence with Washington warning of an imminent attack from Iran on targets in Saudi Arabia.

In response, Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said his country’s “policy is based on mutual respect and international principles” and that it “continues its policy of good neighbourliness”.

Iran “believes that the promotion of stability and security in the region requires increasing interaction with its neighbours and it intends to continue seriously in this direction”, he told reporters on Wednesday.

In its report, The Wall Street Journal cited officials as saying Saudi Arabia, the US and several other neighbouring states had raised the level of alert for their armed forces in response to the intelligence warning.

Saudi officials told the US newspaper Iran was poised to attack the kingdom and Arbil in Iraq’s northern Kurdish region in a bid to distract from protests that flared in the Islamic republic over the death of Mahsa Amini in September.

Kanani dismissed the report as “biased and baseless” and said it came from Iran’s arch enemies, the United States and Israel.

Their aim, he said, was to create “a negative atmosphere against Iran and destroy the positive process underway with the countries in the region.”

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2022