Iran's Rouhani rules out apology for Saudi embassy attack

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President Hassan Rouhani is in Europe to drum up business for Iran, including an Italy deal worth up to US$17 billion -- but in Paris the pragmatic cleric also has to deal with Teheran's human rights record as he tries to revive economic ties with France.
Iran President Hassan Rouhani attends a news conference in Rome on Jan 27, 2016. PHOTO: REUTERS

ROME (AFP) - Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday (Jan 27) he hoped his country could reconcile with fellow Middle Eastern powerhouse Saudi Arabia, but refused to apologise for an attack on a Saudi embassy.

"We did everything we had to, we condemned" the attack, Rouhani said of the torching of the embassy earlier this month by demonstrators protesting the execution of a prominent cleric from Saudi Arabia's Shi'ite minority.

"We arrested the culprits, it was right to do so and we did," he said, insisting the ball was now in Saudi Arabia's court.

"Why should we apologise? Because (Shi'ite cleric) Nimr al-Nimr was executed? We are the ones to apologise because they are killing the people of Yemen? Apologise to them because they are helping terrorists?" he asked.

"We do not want tensions with Saudi Arabia to continue," he said, but insisted there was "no justification" for what he described as Riyadh's "aggressive" policies in the region.

"They are the ones who should apologise to Muslim people, hundreds of times," he said.

The Gulf kingdom and some of its allies severed diplomatic relations with Iran over the Jan 2 embassy attack.

Iran previously said it had arrested 40 people over the incident in Teheran, and another four after Riyadh's consulate in Mashhad was set alight.

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