Iranian president Hassan Rouhani has vowed to forge ahead with the Islamic republic’s missile programme as he defiantly mocked the US’s rekindled alliance with regional rival Saudi Arabia.
Speaking a day after President Donald Trump accused Tehran of fuelling “the fires of sectarian conflict and terror” during a trip to the Saudi capital Riyadh, Mr Rouhani described a $110bn US-Saudi arms deal as a “show without political value”.
“We make weapons ourselves and need not buy [from foreign countries],” Mr Rouhani said in his first extended remarks since winning re-election at the weekend. “The Saudis cannot [even] use these weapons and need to hire American specialists.”