Iraqi-born Shi’ite Imam Hassan Qazwini praised the Sept. 14 attack against Saudi oil installations during a Friday sermon last week at the Islamic Institute of America in Dearborn Heights, Mich., saying that if Iran was responsible, U.S. President Donald Trump was to blame.

Qazwini praised Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the drone and missile attacks on Saudi Aramco’s Abqaiq and Khurais oil installations, and said the Saudis only understand the language of force. Nobody could blame Iran for launching the attacks, he said, if the claims that it did so are true. (While the Houthis claimed responsibility for the attack, the United States, Britain, France, Germany and Israel have claimed it was carried out by Iran.)

Any Iranian involvement in the attack, said Qazwini, would be U.S. President Donald Trump’s fault because he unilaterally withdrew from the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic.

If war breaks out in the Middle East, said the imam, that would also be Trump’s fault.

Qazwini also said that the Saudis need to “man up” because they were the ones, along with Israel, who pressured the United States into leaving the JCPOA.

He said that Allah is punishing the Saudis for wanting to “choke up” 80 million Muslims in Iran, and that the Saudis are facing the consequences of having schemed against people in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Iran and Bahrain.

He expressed hope that Saudi rulers would wake up “before it is too late.” The sermon was streamed live on the Islamic Institute of America’s YouTube channel.

The full article is available at the MEMRI website.