of the falsity of charges that Iran sought to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said Moslehi wanted to convince Saudi Arabia that the United States and Israel are seeking to sow discord between Saudis and Iranians.
He said the assassination charge “targeted the security and interests of both Iran and Saudi Arabia.”
But some in Iran were appalled by the Moslehi trip. Hossain Shariatmadari, the editor of the hardline Kayhan, said the trip was a “gift” to a regime on the verge of collapse. “Unfortunately, it must be said that our diplomatic apparatus unintentionally has given he collapsing Saud family a gift it badly needed,” Shariatmadari wrote in a Kayhan editorial.
The argument was almost identical to that made in the Bush Administration by those opposed talks with Iran, saying anytime the United States sat down with the Islamic it would just confer legitimacy on that regime.