International

Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman called the Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei “the new Hitler of the Middle East” in an interview with the New York Times' Thomas Friedman published on Thursday, in yet another escalation of the relationship between the rival gulf nations.The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Shi‘ite theocracy Iran back rival sides in wars and political crises throughout the region.
    
     Bin Salman, who is also Saudi defense minister in the US-allied oil giant kingdom, suggested the Islamic Republic’s alleged expansion under Khamenei needed to be confronted.“But we learned from Europe that appeasement doesn’t work. We don’t want the new Hitler in Iran to repeat what happened in Europe in the Middle East,” the paper quoted him as saying.
     Israel considers Iran to be its utmost threat, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeatedly warning of the Islamic Republic's aim to establish itself in Syria, right on the border with Israel.