Saudi Arabia on Monday barred an Iranian delegation from an Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) meeting in Jeddah to discuss the recently revealed U.S. Middle East peace plan, according to an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman.
“The government of Saudi Arabia has prevented the participation of the Iranian delegation in the meeting to examine the ‘deal of the century’ plan at the headquarters of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation,” said ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi, according to Reuters.
Saudi authorities had not issued visas for the Iranian delegation, said Mousavi.
Mousavi added that Iran has filed a complaint with the OIC. There was no immediate comment from Saudi officials.
Also on Monday, Mousavi announced during a press conference in Tehran that Iran will not participate in bilateral talks with the United States, reported Reuters.
“Iran does not have and will not have any kind of bilateral negotiation with [the] American[s] and this is our policy,” said Mousavi, according to the report.
“What [the Iranian authorities] have emphasized is that the Americans should return to the situation before 2017 and remove the unilateral sanctions they have imposed and return to the negotiation table within the framework of [the] 5+1 [nations],” said Mousavi.
Separately, a leaked recording of an exchange between an Iranian air-traffic controller and an Iranian pilot aired by a Ukrainian television channel on Sunday purports to demonstrate that despite days of denials, Iranian authorities knew immediately that Ukrainian Airlines Flight 752 was downed by Iranian missiles, the AP reported. The passenger airliner was shot down on Jan. 8, killing all 176 people aboard.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the recording’s authenticity, according to the report.
