Likening Iran’s leader to Hitler, Saudi Arabia’s crown prince warned in a United States television interview that if Tehran gets a nuclear weapon, his country will follow suit.
“Saudi Arabia does not want to acquire any nuclear bomb, but without a doubt, if Iran developed a nuclear bomb, we will follow suit as soon as possible,” Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in an excerpt of the interview that aired on Thursday on “CBS This Morning”.
The 32-year-old Prince Mohammed said he referred to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as “the new Hitler” because “he wants to expand”.
“He wants to create his own project in the Middle East very much like Hitler who wanted to expand at the time,” he said.
“Many countries around the world and in Europe did not realise how dangerous Hitler was until what happened, happened. I don’t want to see the same events happening in the Middle East.”
The interview is scheduled to run on CBS’s “60 Minutes” show on Sunday, two days before the crown prince’s scheduled White House meeting with United States President Donald Trump.
If Iran gets nuclear bomb, Saudi Arabia will follow suit, says crown prince
Saudi Arabia's Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman chairs a meeting for the Council of Economic and Development Affairs, in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia June 5, 2016. Saudi Press Agency/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS PICTURE WAS PROVIDED BY A THIRD PARTY. EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE.