Saudi Arabia slams Iran for blaming it for attack

Islamabad: Iran was criticised by Saudi Arabia's minister of state for foreign affairs Adel al-Jubeir on Monday for blaming the kingdom for last week's attack that had killed 27 members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

Initially Iran had accused Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates for being behind the attack but later said that the attack was planned from "inside Pakistan."

Later the Iranian officials accused Pakistan for the attack as the militant Sunni group Jaish al-Adl, which claimed responsibility for the attack, is believed to operate from Pakistan.

Attacking Iran Adel al-Jubeir said, "I find it strange that the foreign minister of the country (referring to Iran) that is chief sponsor of terrorism - not by my definition, but by the world's definition - would try to assign blame to others for problems in their own country."

Al-Jubeir spoke on Monday in Islamabad as part of Saudi Crown Prince Salman's entourage, where the Prince is on a two-day visit to Pakistan.