Qaeda expansion trends and whether it is time to form a unified Arab force extending from the Ocean to the Gulf, Al-Jubeir rejected that Arab or Islamic countries have fallen a prey of Iran. This is incorrect, he said, adding that, on the contrary, reality indicates something else. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia supports the formation of the joint Arab force and tried and worked to see the establishment of an Islamic military Alliance to combat terrorism and extremism to which more than 35 countries announced memberships. The alliance will have an operation room in Riyadh and will work on two paths: a military/security path and an intellectual path, he said. The purpose of this alliance is to assemble all the abilities of the Islamic world to confront terror and extremism from the security and military points of view through practical training as well as intellectual confrontation. He said the Arab world is aware of the danger of Iran's interference in the affairs of the region. There are a number of blocs in the Arab world region, he said, adding that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is keen enough to secure the security and stability of all the Arab countries and is very keen to confront the Iranian aggressive movements in the region. He went on to say that he believes that Iran's interference would not serve the interests of Iran or the security and stability of the region. I think there are good achievements done to curb Iran's attempts to spread its leverage over the region, he said, citing Iran's defeat in Yemen, in Syria where Russia intervened after the failure of Iran to salvage Bashar Al-Assad, in Iraq where a fierce popular resistance from all sects of Iraq against Iranian interference in the region is witnessed, an Iranian retreat in Africa is also noted, as well as in Asia and we see several responses in Islamic countries against Iran. Asked to respond to the U.S. State Department's comment on the execution of Nimr Al-Nimr, Al-Jubeir said that we have already explained to the U.S. side that the Kingdom enjoys independent and just judiciary and it is not ready to accept any criticism to the independence of its judiciary system. What happened is that some people were convicted of having staged terrorist actions leading to the killing of innocents. The suspects appeared before courts in an apparent and fair way with the courts convicting them after giving them all chances of defense at all litigation levels, he said, citing the outcome of the joint press conference between the Ministry of Justice and Ministry of Interior. Al-Jubeir said the matter is very simple. Some terrorists were convicted of having committed terror operations targeting the innocents. We don't accept any interference in the judiciary system of the Kingdom as we respect the judiciary systems of other countries and never interfere in them, he said, adding that any country who would like to clarify any point, will be given explanation. --More 03:17 LOCAL TIME 00:17 GMT تغريد
