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AFP, LONDON: Britain\u2019s foreign minister Boris Johnson has accused Saudi Arabia and Iran of \u201cpuppeteering\u201d and engaging in \u201cproxy wars\u201d in the Middle East, a video reported on Thursday shows.<\/p>\nAFP, LONDON: Britain\u2019s foreign minister Boris Johnson has accused Saudi Arabia and Iran of \u201cpuppeteering\u201d and engaging in \u201cproxy wars\u201d in the Middle East, a video reported on Thursday shows.<\/p>\n
In the clip, Johnson tells a conference in Rome last week it was a \u201ctragedy\u201d that politicians in the region were \u201ctwisting and abusing religion\u201d to advance their political objectives.<\/p>\n
Such public criticism of British ally Saudi Arabia was seen by some commentators as a diplomatic blunder by Johnson, who has been in the job less than six months.<\/p>\n
His comments, filmed and posted on the Guardian\u2019s website, came as British Prime Minister Theresa May returned from a summit in Bahrain where she pledged to strengthen ties with Gulf states including Saudi Arabia.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are politicians who are twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives,\u201d Johnson told the Med 2 conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s one of the biggest political problems in the whole region. And the tragedy for me\u2014and that\u2019s why you have these proxy wars being fought the whole time in that area\u2014is that there\u2019s not strong enough leadership in the countries themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson said there were \u201cnot enough big characters\u201d willing to \u201creach out beyond their Sunni or Shia\u201d group.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why you\u2019ve got the Saudis, Iran, everybody, moving in and puppeteering and playing proxy wars,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Britain\u2019s foreign ministry stressed that Johnson had voiced support for Saudi Arabia on the BBC\u2019s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs the Foreign Secretary made very clear on Sunday, we are allies with Saudi Arabia and support them in their efforts to secure their borders and protect their people,\u201d a spokesman said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny suggestion to the contrary is wrong and misinterpreting the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing a summit of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Bahrain on Wednesday, May reaffirmed British support for traditional allies in the region and said Britain would help \u201cpush back against Iran\u2019s aggressive regional actions.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a joint statement, GCC states and Britain agreed to a \u201cstrategic partnership\u201d and said they \u201coppose and will work together to counter Iran\u2019s destabilising activities\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
AFP, LONDON: Britain\u2019s foreign minister Boris Johnson has accused Saudi Arabia and Iran of \u201cpuppeteering\u201d and engaging in \u201cproxy wars\u201d in the Middle East, a video reported on Thursday shows. In the clip, Johnson tells a conference in Rome last week it was a \u201ctragedy\u201d that politicians in the region were \u201ctwisting and abusing religion\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":28627,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\t\n