Trump’s Saudi summit was ‘show with no value’, says Iran’s Rouhani

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a press conference in Tehran on May 22, 2017. President Hassan Rouhani said that Iran does not need the permission of the United States to conduct missile tests, which would continue “if technically necessary”. / AFP PHOTO / ATTA KENARE

Iran’s newly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani on Monday dismissed his US counterpart Donald Trump’s summit with Arab leaders in Saudi Arabia this weekend as “just a show”.
“The gathering in Saudi Arabia was just a show with no practical or political value of any kind,” Rouhani said at a press conference.
In a jibe at the billion-dollar deals signed between Trump and the Saudi government, Rouhani said: “You can’t solve terrorism just by giving your people’s money to a superpower.”

He said Friday’s election in Iran that saw Rouhani convincingly defeat hardline challenger Ebrahim Raisi had been a message to the world that Tehran was ready for engagement. “We wanted to tell the world that on the basis of mutual respect and shared interests, we are to ready to have interaction,” he said.