Riyadh, April 29, 2018 (Wire News) -- Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir, in a joint press conference with his American counterpart in Riyadh on Sunday, stressed on the need to impose further sanctions on Iran. He pointed out Iran's successive violations and support of Houthi missiles fired from Yemen towards Saudi Arabia. "We support Trump's policy towards Iran, especially with regard to the nuclear agreement," he said. For his part, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Iran was the largest state sponsor of terrorism. He stressed that Washington is ready to stand with Saudi Arabia to confront terrorism. He also said that Iran was destabilizing the region by providing Houthis with weapons in Yemen. He pointed out that the nuclear agreement failed to modify Iran's behavior that supports violence in Yemen by training and arming militias. Pompeo is using the Middle East leg of his first trip abroad as America's top diplomat to call for concerted international action to punish Iran for its missile programmes. He's also urging Saudi Arabia and its neighbours to resolve a long-festering dispute with Qatar that US officials say Iran is exploiting to boost its influence in the region, including in Yemen and Syria. Pompeo was meeting on Sunday with Saudi King Salman. The ex-CIA chief had arrived in Riyadh a day earlier, shortly after Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen fired missiles at Saudi Arabia's southern city of Jizan, killing one person and underscoring what US officials said is a growing threat emanating from Iran. Senior US officials travelling with Pompeo blamed Iran for smuggling the missiles into Yemen. They said the incident highlighted the importance of the Trump administration's push to counter Iranian supported-aggression in the region. The officials said Iran's long- and medium-range missile programmes had to be countered as part of efforts to strengthen the Iran nuclear deal, from which President Donald Trump has threatened to withdraw by mid-May. The officials said Pompeo would call on other nations to impose tougher sanctions against Iranian people, businesses and government agencies involved in missile development. They said he'd also stress the US commitment to the defense of Saudi Arabia, Israel and other friends and partners in the region. Pompeo will also press the Saudis on contributing more to stabilisation efforts in territory in Syria recently liberated from the Islamic State group, the officials said. Pompeo's meetings in Saudi Arabia, which will be followed by discussions in Israel and Jordan, come just weeks ahead of several key dates that have potential to further roil the volatile region. Trump has set a May 12 deadline to decide whether to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal, something he appears likely to do despite heavy pressure to stay in from European and other parties.
