Manama: India’s Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj has become the latest victim of online plots targeting Saudi Arabia after she appeared to be belittling the visit of the Saudi Deputy Crown Prince to China and Japan and cautioning the Chinese against his mission in China.
A report posted on the website of Iran’s Arabic language Al Alam news site referred to an alleged interview published on the website of the Hindustan Times under the headline ‘India’s External Affairs Minister: China should take precautions against Saudi prince’s US-backed mission’, quoting Swaraj.
“Indian Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj, who was responding to a question of Hindustan Times reporter about the visit of Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman to China and Japan and the important economic agreements planned to be signed between Saudi Arabia and some East Asian countries, said that India is not concerned about the Saudi Prince’s visit to Pakistan, China, and Japan,” the bogus article said.
“We don’t have any strategic concern about Saudi Deputy Crown Prince visiting Pakistan, China, and Japan. He has had his major strategic agreements in his last month travel to the United States and no big strategic deal is likely to be clinched in this trip. I advise the Chinese officials to be cautious of Saudi prince’s US-backed mission in China,” the minister was quoted as saying.
However, the Ministry of External Affairs on Thursday dismissed the interview and report as false and said the minister did not give the interview.
“The report is completely false and baseless. EAM has given no such interview, nor has she made any such comment,” Vikas Swarup, the official spokesperson for the ministry, posted on Twitter.
Hindustan Times rejected the report as bogus.
“Hindustantimes.com clarifies that it has not published any article headlined ‘India’s External Affairs Minister: China should take precautions against Saudi prince’s US-backed mission’.
“The external affairs ministry on Thursday, too, described as ‘totally false’ a report carried by an Iranian news website which quoted external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj as telling Hindustan Times that China should be cautious of a visit by Saudi deputy crown prince Mohammad Bin Salman. Hindustan Times wishes to make it clear it neither sought an interview with Swaraj nor carried any comments from her of this nature.”
